Stark Bro's Plant Manual for Captivator Gooseberry

Cross-Pollination

Is a pollinator variety present? Cross-pollination by a different variety, of the same type of plant, is key to the success of many plants. In most cases, its absence is why the plant doesn’t bear fruit or produces poorly. Most berry plants are self-pollinating, but for a larger fruit and crop plant more than one variety.

Sun and Good Soil

Your plant would love a sunny place with well-drained, fertile soil. But it will be quite satisfied with six to eight hours of sunlight. Good drainage is required to keep your plant “happy.” If your soil has high clay content, use our Coco-Fiber Potting Medium or add one-third peat to the soil at planting time. We do not recommend planting in heavy, pure clay soils.

Even if your yard isn’t the most ideal location, take heart. Most berry plants are very adaptable and respond well to fertilizers, so they can get along well even where the soil is nutritionally poor. Just steer clear of sites with extremely heavy soils or very poor drainage.

Space for Future Plantings

Once you’ve found out about fruit growing goodness firsthand, you’ll want to expand your home orchard. It’s important to plan so that the future growth areas will be ready when you are.

Before Planting

Before you plant, check your soil pH. Contact your local County Extension Office for information about soil testing in your area, or purchase one of our digital meters for quick and accurate results. Currants prefer a soil pH of 6.2-6.5, and gooseberries prefer a pH of 6.0-6.8. Steer clear of soils that are extremely heavy or poorly drained.

Planting Site

• Pick a site with partial shade to full sun.
• Because plants bloom very early in spring, they are susceptible to late season freezes. Choose a site that warms up slowly in the spring, to minimize this possibility.
• Most soil will benefit from the addition of organic material such as shredded peat or compost.
• Space the plants 3-6 feet apart in rows that are 6-8 feet apart.

Planting

• After you receive your currants and gooseberries, prune off any damaged roots and cut the top back to 10 inches.
• Dig the hole deeper and wider than the root system.
• Set the plants with the lower branches a little below the soil level to encourage a bush form to develop.
• Fill hole with remaining soil.
• Fertilize and water your new plants. (If planting in the fall, wait to fertilize until spring for best results.)

Additional Notes

• DO NOT plant currants within 300-900 feet of white pine trees, susceptible to white pine blister.
• Pinch off the flowers of black currant plants the first year to establish a strong root and cane.
• The lifespan of currant and gooseberry plants is 12-15 years with proper maintenance.
• Suggested number of plants for a family of 5: 4-6 plants (1 plant per person).

When To Prepare Your Soil

Soil preparation can be done at any time that the ground is not too wet or frozen. Your trees may be planted even when temperatures are quite cool. If a hard frost is expected, it is advisable to delay planting for a while until temperatures become more moderate. Generally, as long as your soil is workable, it is fine to plant.

How To Prepare Your Soil

• Roots grow faster when they’re spread out. Dig the hole deep and wide enough so the root system has plenty of room to easily expand. Keep the topsoil in a separate pile so you can put it in the bottom of the hole, where it’ll do the most good.

• To loosen the soil, mix dehydrated cow manure, garden compost or peat moss (up to 1/3 concentration) into your pile of topsoil. Make sure the peat moss you get is either baled sphagnum or granular peat. You can also add our Coco-Fiber Potting Medium or 2 or more inches of organic material and work in evenly with the existing soil.

Your lawn can provide you with ideal organic materials such as grass clippings and shredded leaves. Not only will the grass and leaves break down to provide soil nutrients, but they will help loosen the soil as well. You can gather these in the fall with spring planting in mind.

Common soil amendments:

• compost
• sand
• manure
• lime
• peat moss
• sawdust

Adding organic materials, such as our Coco-Fiber Potting Medium and compost will improve most every soil type. Organic materials bind sandy soil particles so they retain moisture and nutrients better. They also break apart clay and silt particles, so that water can infiltrate and roots can spread.

Soil Types

• Clay and silt soils are made of very small particles. They feel slick and sticky when wet. Clay and silt hold moisture well, but resist water infiltration, especially when they are dry. Often puddles form on clay or silt soils, and they easily become compacted.

• Loam soil is a mix of sand, silt or clay, and organic matter. Loam soils are loose and look rich. When squeezed in your fist, moist loam will form a ball, which crumbles when poked with a finger. Loam soils normally absorb water and store moisture well. Loam soils can be sandy or clay based, and will vary in moisture absorption and retention accordingly.

• Sandy soils contain large particles that are visible to the unaided eye, and are usually light in color. Sand feels coarse when wet or dry, and will not form a ball when squeezed in your fist. Sandy soils stay loose and allow moisture to penetrate easily, but do not retain it for long-term use.

Scale

Tan to gray 1/16” hard, scaly shell covers developing young. Usually on bark of young twigs and branches. Sap feeding weakens plant.

Natural Control

• Bonide® Citrus, Fruit & Nut Orchard Spray
• Rub off with burlap.

Cane Borer

Wilted tip on plants indicates a possibility of a little borer. If it breaks of readily, and is hollow, prune back branch until no longer hollow. Burn all pruning. Note: Follow all directions as indicated.

Natural Control

• Cut infected canes at ground level and burn.

Other Control Options

• Consult County Extension Agent

Anthracnose

Very small, round, brown spots appear first on lower, older leaves. Plants gradually lose leaves from bottom upwards. Other symptoms may include black, sunken spots on leaf stalks, light brown to pale yellow lesions on cane, black fly speck-like spots on green berries.

Natural Control

• Serenade® Garden Disease Control

Chemical Control

• Hi-Yield® Lime Sulfur Spray

Botrytis Blight

Will appears as gray, hairy mold. Decays blossoms, green and ripening fruit as well as harvested fruit.

Natural Control

• Raking and burning old leaves every fall.
• Keep planting area free of weeds.
• Good air circulation helps by allowing foliage to dry quickly after rain.
• Serenade® Garden Disease Control

White Pine

Like cedar apple rust, double host disease. On leaves of Currants and Gooseberries, clusters of pinhead-size blisters on yellowed leaves. May be many new re-infections each summer. Alternate host is Eastern White Pine. Fatal to the pine, kills it limb by limb.

Control

• Consult County Extension Agent
• May be too many pines in customers area to try to grow. Minimum distance from berries to pines is 300-900 feet, according to state regulations.

Powdery Mildew

Whitish gray powdery mold or felt-like patches on leaves and green twigs. Leaves may be crinkly and cup inward. Over winters in fallen leaves. Fall clean up is essential.

Natural Control

• Serenade® Garden Disease Control
• Bonide® Citrus, Fruit & Nut Orchard Spray

Cane Blight

As berries are maturing, nearing harvest, cane begins to die back. Leaves wilt and fruit shrivels. Disease can go downward thru bark and wood to main stem, girdling and killing it. Check for this several times each season.

Natural Control

• Prune out infected canes and destroy.
• Bonide® Citrus, Fruit & Nut Orchard Spray

Other Control Options

• Consult County Extension Agent

Mites

Pinpoint size, many different colors. Found on undersides of leaves. Severe infestations have some silken webbing. Sap feeding causes bronzing of leaves.

Natural Control

• Bonide® Citrus, Fruit & Nut Orchard Spray

Aphids

They are the size of a pinhead and usually green or black in color. Cluster on stems and under leaves, sucking plant juices. Causes bright red, cupped condition or wrinkled areas on leaves.

Natural Control

• Bonide® Citrus, Fruit & Nut Orchard Spray

Thrips

Small insects, less than 1/2” long, with feathery wings, yellow to brown in color. Cause damage if they lay eggs in fruit soon after bloom, scarring the fruit. In summer they feed on new vegetative growth, and damage summer fruit (not usually considered a problem).

Natural Control

• Bonide® Citrus, Fruit & Nut Orchard Spray
• Bonide® Captain Jack’s™ Deadbug Brew

Rose Chafer

Beetles have 1/2” long, tan wings with reddish-brown edges and long thin hairy legs. Skeletonizes leaves and flowers. Present in large quantities in June and July. Worst on sandy sites near grassy areas.

Control

• Consult County Extension Agent

Japanese Beetle

Adult is metallic green beetle. Skeletonizes leaves. Larva are grub which feeds on turf roots. This is more of a problem east of the Mississippi River.

Natural Control

• Traps

Other Control Options

• Consult County Extension Agent

Fruitworm

Adult is yellow to brown sawfly beetle, 1/4” long. Larvae are brown and white, 1/8” long. Adults make slits in flower buds and larvae feed on berries.

Natural Control

• Bonide® Captain Jack’s™ Deadbug Brew

Omnivorous Leafroller

Adult is bell shaped, blackish gray snout-like mouthparts, forewings dark rusty brown with tan tips. Over winters in larval stage in mummified berries, in weeds and other trash. Moths emerge in spring and lay egg masses on leaves. Eggs hatch in 5 days and larvae tie two young leaves together to form nest in which they feed. Does not roll leaves. Later nests can be found in flower clusters and in bunches. Damage is not only from feeding on leaves, flowers and berries, but feeding sites allows rot organisms to enter fruit.

Natural Control

• Bonide® Thuricide® Bacillus Thuringiensis (BT)

Pruning Tips

• Each spring, prune away weak and crowding branches, leaving only several shoots from each year’s growth.
• Prune off all 3-year-old branches to make room for more fruitful, younger branches.
• Black currants produce best on 1-year wood. Branches that produced the preceding year should be removed.

Before you begin, read and follow all instructions on labels.

When To Spray

At the First Sign of:

• Serenade® Garden Disease Control for anthracnose, botrytis blight and powdery mildew.

• Bonide® Captain Jack’s™ Deadbug Brew for thrips and fruitworm.

• Bonide® Citrus, Fruit & Nut Orchard Spray for scale, powdery mildew, mites, aphids, blight and thrips.

After Bud Break

• Hi-Yield® Lime Sulfur Spray for anthracnose.

By Plant

Currants

At the First Sign of:

• Bonide® Thuricide® Bacillus Thuringiensis (BT) for omnivorus leafroller.

When to Harvest

You can expect your first harvest in the third season. Currants and gooseberries are ready to harvest in late June to mid July when the fruit is full size and soft. One-way to test if the berries are ripe is to squeeze gently between your fingers, they will be soft when they are ripe.

Depending on the variety, the color of the ripe fruit will vary:

• Currants can be red, black, white or pink
• Gooseberries are usually red or green.

Currants form on clusters for easy harvest, but gooseberries have needle like thorns that slow harvest down. When harvesting currants make sure to cut the entire fruit cluster. When using the berries for jam, harvest before they are fully ripe that way the natural pectin levels of the fruit are higher.

Annual average yield:

• Per currant plant, 3-4 quarts
• Per gooseberry plant, 4-5 quarts

Storage

Refrigerate berries immediately in a covered container or closed bag and they will keep for several weeks.