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Alabama Gardening

Currants

14 years ago

Anyone have or know where I can get a definitive answer on the legality of growing currants in Alabama? Also, where to buy plants.

I am wanting to plant some gooseberries, black and red currents along with my blackberries. Have yet to find anyone in AL growing any ribes.

Thanks!

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Comments (9)

terramadre
13 years ago
You may want to read about that

Here is a link that might be useful: currants and gooseberries in the south
heathcates
Original Author
13 years ago
I had already read extensively including that basic google search before posting here but there is little info regarding the South and nothing I could find in AL. Looking for someone with experience and contacting the extension about legality.
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I'll second Scott's comments about Poorman. I've had no disease problems with it and the plant is vigorous. Mine is in full sun. The fruit is excellent, though as Scott says it is not as productive as other varieties. Many gooseberry varieties will sweeten up if you leave them on the plant long enough, but many people use them before they are sweet for pies etc., where they taste somewhat like rhubarb. Whitman farms should tell which varieties are best for fresh eating ('desert' varieties). Gooseberries are prone to mildew, and if you are in a humid climate you would be advised to get mildew-resistant varieties. They also suffer other diseases. Invicta is prone to a leaf spot disease. My gooseberries suffer some sort of insect damage, maybe gooseberry sawfly. I have found that it is imperative to net gooseberries if I am to get fruit. Given their thorns, this is easier said than done. It might make sense to make a cage around them over which you can place netting or shade cloth once the fruit start to develop. I have found black currants somewhat easier to grow here in humid Maryland than red currants, though red currants make a sublime jam or jelly. As with gooseberries, it is wise to select varieties resistant to mildew if you live in a humid climate. Although currants and gooseberries do not grow well from seed, they do grow extremely well -- especially currants -- from cuttings. If you buy a currant plant with well developed stems, you will want to cut these down before planting, but don't throw away the cuttings. Simply put them in the ground with a few buds above ground, keep them moist, and you will very quickly have new plants. Most varieties of gooseberries are very thorny. If planted as bushes they have a tendency to have branches that brush against the ground. If I were planting more gooseberries, I would probably try growing them as standards -- that is, as plants with a single stem of a couple of feet above which are the branches. You can look up information about this on the web.
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I snooped around the internet and never did find a definitive site that listed if Ribes or Rubrus were legal in SC. I guess if your state is listed at the end of the plant description on any bush web catalog that would tell you. When I first heard about the restrictions I thought they sounded kinda harsh but I went along with them. Now I have read and re-read various articles online about the history of the problem and it all makes me mad enough to plant a million of them in my yard. I understand the importance of the lumber industry to North Carolina. I respect all that it involves. I can comprehend the danger that a disease can cause when it spreads. But this problem was NOT caused by backyard berry growers - it was caused by shortsighted lumber industry people importing infected pine seedlings from Europe. And then, to top things off, they formed teams that went throughout the pine forest across the US and destroyed the NATIVE gooseberries and currants!!!!!!!!!!!!! all in the name of covering up their mistake. A whole lot of wildlife depends on those berries but wildlife isn't as important as furniture making or two by fours. This is as bad as the Canada Goose problem - which also has a non-natural cause (just thank the US Wildlife Dept the next time you step in goose poop at the lake). Shortsided government. Now, over time, both pine trees and gooseberries and currants have developed various degrees of resistance to White Pine Blister or whatever the disease is now called. This resistance came from nature, not a government lab. Some states recognize this fact and have lifted the ban on Ribes & Rubrus (Gooseberries and Currants). Some states lifted the ban because all the efforts to eradicate the disease didn't work. North Carolina stills bans them. Shortsighted government.
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heathcates
Original Author
13 years ago
I have seen conflicting info... ie. currents ok to 7, goose to 8 and others say they can't be grown this far south. There is actually a nursery about 1.5 hrs east of me in GA that grows them and grapes and sells them online but I wanted a non-bias opinion.

Here is a link that might be useful: Ison's
terramadre
13 years ago
I finally received an answer from a Regional Extension Agent/Commercial Horticulture in Athens, AL (Limestone County) through ACES/"Ask an Expert".

"According to the Alabama Department of Agriculture and Industries, there are no restrictions on growing black currants or gooseberries in Alabama. However, it is very likely they will not thrive in our heat and humidity."
heathcates
Original Author
13 years ago
I actually got a very similar answer from my Lee Co. extension recently. Though I am stubborn and decided to give them a try anyhow. I'll add a link to a blog post I did about the planting and try to keep updating as they (hopefully) grow. I am not going to be hurt if they don't and I know there are several things going against me but with no concrete examples in my area I decided to take on the challenge. Thanks for the info and if anyone has any other info please let me know.

Here is a link that might be useful: Growing Currants in Alabama
alabamanicole
13 years ago
Please keep us posted. I have some semi-shady morning sun/afternoon shade spots that I had considered trying ribes in. The afternoon shade might help protect them from the worst of the heat. (In theory.)
tedposey
13 years ago
Many,many years ago, when I was a teenager, I came upon an abandond house place in the woods while squirrel hunting in DeKalb Co, NW of Fort Payne. There were a couple of large bushes there with grenish berries on them, I broke off a limb and took it home.
Both my parents recognized it immediately as gooseberry, so they had obviously seen them before. So Goose berries do thrive in North Al. Don't know about currants. I've read that they don't do well.
lucky_p
13 years ago
heathcates,
I took a small, native(?) gooseberry plant(tiny little green gooseberries) back home to my parents in Lee Co. one time, from the farm where I was living in mid-MO, while I was in grad school there. It lived a couple of years, and turned toes-up.
You *might* be able to grow them there, but they probably won't be really happy, and I'd certainly want to put them in a spot where they'd at least be in shade from the broiling summer afternoon sun.
Glenndale and Pixwell would be the first gooseberries I'd try there - they've gained a reputation for doing better in hot climates than many of the 'dessert' quality gooseberries; fruit quality on those two might not satisfy real Ribes connoisseurs, but they make a decent pie.
If you have success with Glenndale/Pixwell, then you might consider trying some other varieties.
Preston Estes
7 months ago
I live in Lee County and my family has some huge goose berry bushes that grow wild in their back yard in the woody area

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