I have 5 ben sarek and they are absolutely laden with fruit, all green and looking hard. My husband picked them last year and they were all sour from the freezer, This year I am in charge and I want sweeter fruit. Should I net them?
Last years weather wasn't brilliant so the sugars in berries propably wasn't the most that they could have been, thus being very tart.
How ever..they tend to look ripe before they've reached the sweetest point = colour develop before the sugars. There is only few ways detecting the ripeness...1. tasting...If you your hubby pulls his face after putting some 'ripe' berries in his mouth..they are not ready :evil6: ..that will teach him a lesson..
2. they are starting to be 'there'...when you can see that odd ones are starting to drop down..or even go mushy between fingers
3. definitely ready...when birds are making serious eating attempt of eating them....
Oddly birds on our area don't seem be too bothered with black currants. Black birds may have few but that's about it and I never net mine..I have enough to share with my feathered friends :icon_cheers:
I agree about tasting them. I am starting to pick a few Ebony at the moment. They seem to ripen a few at a time. But I like things sour.
Hopefully the sun this week will start to sweeten them up nicely.
Also, blackcurrants ripen from the plant out, so if you're willing to make the picking more complicated to get riper berries, pick the ones near the plant first, wait a week or two and then pick the others.
thank you
I cut 10 branches and the fruits had become jam now! four jars and they taste good
Before the birds get them... I've lost at least half my crop this year, anything that wasn't netted got stripped, and it was a big crop... I harvested mine yesterday (nearly all of them) adn the nets are now over the raspberries...
I have netted them, I don`t think they will be fully ripe for a week or two yet. The branches were very heavy and bent over so we put string between canes with empty plastic bottles on the top and a nice drapey big piece of bird netting over the lot