Gooseberries, Elders, or Currants?

I would like to plant one or more of these in a partial shade area about 16ft by 4 feet long.
Which would you chose, and why?

Gooseberries: they are most flexible for either fresh eating or cooking, and very tasty. Poorman is a good American variety which is not as disease-prone as the European kinds. Currants are not very useful fresh. I would consider putting in one black currant bush, they are a truly unique taste and I wouldn't miss them for the world. Minaj Smyrnou is my favorite there. I don't know much about elderberries.

The spot sounds good, they don't like heat so partial shade is good.

Scott

You've got the climate for gooseberries and currants. If the soil is really damp, elderberries will tolerate that better than the others will, but for most people elderberries aren't as useful as the others and their greater tolerance for heat doesn't matter in your case. I've heard some great things about Minaj Smyrnou and I've even ordered one despite being in a climate that will probably kill it.

Mark., trying elderberries down here this year, hoping I won't kill them all

Hi, gooley! I'm drawing up landscpe plans now, so my nursery catalog is handy. It says Minaj Smyrnou grows in USDA Zones 4-9. I'm 8b, like you, and summers here are hot (90's and 100's) and humid during the day, cool (50's) at night.

Is there some reference I could consult that would tell me how hot certain plants can stand it? According to the USDA Zones and catalog descriptions, I can grow almost anything, but those zones don't take into account growing season length or max. temperatures. (It is very confusing to this lady who has recently moved to the country and wants to grow some fruits and berries!)

Let us know how your current experiment goes, maybe I'll try one on my back acre which seems several degrees cooler, because of the trees.

For PatriciaS:

It's more a question of chilling hours than heat tolerance, is one problem. You probably get enough chill hours: filberts (to bring up another plant I want to grow) and currants are supposed to need at least 800 hours of low-ish temperatures in winter to bloom and bear reliably, and hot temperatures in winter can also kill the catkins (male blossoms) of filbert: no catkins, no pollination, no filberts. I think I've seen chilling-hours charts for the whole US and for individual states on-line. The Pacific Northwest has 8b areas that get well over a thousand chilling hours; I get maybe 300 in a cold winter, and there is some evidence that warm days in winter cancel out some of the chill hours. I'm fairly far north in Florida and I often get a few 80F days in every month of winter -- and 20F freezes too.

Parts of Mendocino County get around 800 chilling hours, others get 1200. Here is one website I found with a quick search on Google http://fruitsandnuts.ucdavis.edu/chillcalc/index.cfm There are probably others, perhaps with better information. So you have a shot at growing currants: some varieties may need even more chill, but at least you're in the ballpark. Various websites have chill-requirement information for various fruits and nuts. Too much winter chill seems to be not much of a problem, given reasonable minimum temperatures.

Apart from chilling hours, some plants like cool nights in summer, which I don't get here reliably but you probably do where you are. So pistachios and fuzzy kiwis need only a couple hundred hours of chill, but sulk where the nights are hot: might do fine for you, probably won't for me.

In your situation I'd have no qualms about trying currants.

Mark., ,here's luck!

gooley, thanks! We're in one of the "cooler" regions of Mendocino, although on a summer's afternoon you might disagree. But according to the county ag. guy, chilling hours are not a problem for us. I was pretty sure the heat might be, as far as currants go, but now you've given me hope.

Thanks again.

scott- do u have an on-line source for Minaj Smyrnou

Burnt Ridge Nursery has Minaj Smyrnou unless they have run out. Uh, seems that they have -- I don't see it in their on-line catalog now, and it was there a few months ago...

Mark., very annoyed when he cannot help

i cant even find a single online reference to it, never mind a nursery source

If I get the one I've ordered from Burnt Ridge (they are great, but they sometimes run out and can't ship everything one orders), I can try taking a cutting. If it survives it's all yours.

Mark., I will definitely take cuttings if it's big enough. It's probably too warm here for them anyway, so I'll want backup copies

Raintree is where I got mine from:

http://www.raintreenursery.com/catalog/productdetails.cfm?ProductID=E725

I think I spelled it wrong, thus foiling Google et al.

Scott

I have a HUGE red currant bush on the edge of my woods. It's quite damp and gets lots of shade. I would love to plant a gooseberry...personally, I don't like red currants. The only reason I don't mow it down is because I'm not a plant killer :) and because my Mom LOVES red currant jelly. I wish they were good eaten out of hand..but holy smokes! Talk about tart!

On a side note...do currant bushes need to be pruned??

Whitman farms has it, though they mess with the spelling a little.

~Chills (who also wants one now)

We love red currants. In addition to making jelly, they are great to bake with and good in muffins, scones and pancakes.

Around here, elders are used for pies and jelly. For fresh eating of a fruit/berry, then you are talking gooseberry. Currants (which I love as well) are tart and not as satisfying. A currant is about 1/4" , but a gooseberry fruit is much larger, frequently about 1 inch. For fresh eating, I would recommend Hinnomaki red, which is productive and easy to grow. If you go with currants, I prefer pink or white (white=Primus or white imperial) to the red.

BTW, I discovered that freezing gooseberries works best for us. Pop 'm out of the bag frozen for a treat all winter long. They don't refrigerate well.