Hello All!
I've just ordered some currants from Burnt Ridge Nursery and would like to know if there are any hints to successfully growing them. I ordered red (Cherry Red), Black (Consort) and white (Imperial White). I have a lot of space and just about every lighting option (full sun etc) so I'd like to know what they like best here in Portland.
Any help would be great!
They like rich soil, can tolerate some shade, and need annual pruning. Specific, eh? 
In Victorian kitchen gardens, which were often walled on four sides, currants and gooseberries were often planted along all the walls. The shade on the north side delayed ripening, the sun on south walls advanced ripening, etc. That extended the season by at least a couple of weeks or more. Seriously, plant good varieties with resistance to things like mildew and just keep the plants mulched with organic matter. They'll do well in NW climate and soils.
Barbara Bowling's "Berry Grower's Companion" is a good start for basic culture.
http://www.amazon.com/Berry-Growers-Com ... 0881927260
I agree with Lon. I wouldn't waste your full-sun space on them, because they prefer partial shade here. They are a northern plant, and they do well at the coast. I would plant morning sun or part shade. They like moist soil. There is a fly that can denude the plant here. You can see the worms in the Spring. I know people who have had theirs destroyed in days. I have a very diverse garden and the little birds just love eating those yummy worms, so it hasn't been much of a problem for me. They grow really easily from cuttings, so if you have a friend or are a member of the Home Orchard Society, you should get cuttings easily.
John S
PDX OR
They are very shallow rooted so a good mulch is very helpful. No deep cultivation around the crown. Watch out for currant cane borer, the larvae of a clear winged wasp. They tunnel into the pith of the shoots. Best not to let the wood grow on a black currant for more than two years. The older wood harbors more of these pests. They like lighter soils but cannot tolerate moisture stress. Remove about 1/3 of the canes each season and any wood more than two years old.
Gooseberries can be left for a couple more years and do not get the cane borer.
I think the Ben Mor is a very good black currant.........."one that I grow.
[quote="John S":ua139t4z]There is a fly that can denude the plant here. You can see the worms in the Spring. I know people who have had theirs destroyed in days. I have a very diverse garden and the little birds just love eating those yummy worms, so it hasn't been much of a problem for me. They grow really easily from cuttings, so if you have a friend or are a member of the Home Orchard Society, you should get cuttings easily.
John S
PDX OR[/quote:ua139t4z]
That would be the imported currant fly/worm. I have found that when I do a good job of mulching with cardboard, I have next to zero problems with this worm. Miss a year, and they are back in force. I think it has something to do with them coming out of the ground in springtime. Block that and I guess they die out. Can't find any sunlight to follow?
Oh, the currant worm affects mainly my gooseberries, never seen it do any damage to currants. I usually pick any worms off and feed them to my hungry goldfish that keep mosquitos down. They love the fresh meat!
As far as cuttings go, I have Swedish Black currants that we think are pretty tasty and productive. You have to give this bush 4 feet on all sides, and it grows nearly 6 feet tall. It's a biggy! You may have cuttings of this.
Edit: I originally wrote "8 feet on all sides" thinking of the total diameter. That was a mistake, as the bush is not 16 feet across!
Please explain how you mulch with cardboard to keep the current flies away from your gooseberries.
I cut open brown cardboard boxes with a boxknife and lay the cardboard all over bare ground till it cannot see any sun, overlapping the joints here and there. It helps to weigh it down with fenceposts, bricks, rocks, logs, whathaveyou until the rain settles it all to the ground snugly. If you don't weigh it down at first, a good wind will have all that cardboard at random locations around your property. hehe, learnt that one first hand!
Last summer I even layed a goodly layer of cardboard over some weedy grass in a strip pattern where I wanted to grow a row of thornless blackberries. It worked, with a little help from my Roundup sprayer at the edges where grass still tried to push the cardboard up. So far it has been in place less than one full year, and it is stuck tight to the ground, no more grass growing under it, and rotting. Almost time to put another layer on. Likely I will do that when the lawn grass starts to grow in earnest. I don't expect any grass where the cardboard has been. Keeps the weeds down wonderfully.
Appliance stores generally have loads of cardboard to dispose of. Mine does not mind if I mine it out of their cardboard recyling container. They realize it is better for me to get some use out of it.
I stick with plain brown cardboard. I think the various colored inks are heavy-metal based, and do not want to add them to my soil. Black ink is probably OK tho.
That is no exaggeration about that foliar fly. I've seen a goosberry "jostaberry" stripped of its leaves in less than a week. They do work fast, but are easy to kill with a spray of malathion and oil. Unlike the cane borer, they prefer the gooseberry over black currant. The cane borer is much harder to kill, since it is feeding in the pith of the stems and sprays won't touch it.
Some of the older Chlorinated hydrocarbon pesticides would get it, but that created even worse problems...... for human health.
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