Jostaberry

Discussion in 'Crops & Gardens' started by Yvonne Smith, Apr 24, 2020.

  1. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
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    I have ordered a new (to me) kind of berry bush from eBay. It is called a jostaberry, and seems to be predominately a German bush originally, and is a combination of a black current and a gooseberry.
    The size appears to be about the same size as a blueberry, so much larger than a currant berry, and it doesn’t grow in the chains like currants do.
    I am not sure how long before we actually get berries from it, but it is supposed to be a fast growing plant, and spreads as it grows, so it will also be a privacy plant wherever we plant it.

     
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  2. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
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    My ebay order of Jostaberries and some new irises came today, along with a start of German chocolate mint. It is raining today, but tomorrow should be a perfect day for me to go out and get them planted .
    They are about 1-2 feet tall berry plants, and I read that they can bear fruit the year after planting, so we could have berried by next spring. The jostaberry does not have thorns like a gooseberry, but it does have kind of scratchy stems.
    it shouldn’t be a problem for picking the berries anyway. I have picked lots of blackberries when I lived out in western Washington, and those blackberry canes have nasty thorns, just like a rose bush.
     
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  3. Ed Wilson

    Ed Wilson Veteran Member
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    What will they taste like?
     
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  4. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
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    According to what I have read, and what people in the YouTube videos said, it is a sweet enough berry to just pick and eat from the vine, and is larger than black currants.
    They said that it is more the size of a gooseberry. I remember tasing a gooseberry years ago, and it must not have been ripe, because it was extremely sour.
    I had never even heard of them before , but I was looking on ebay for prices for currants, and came across the jostaberry, and decided to investigate it.
    I don’t think that I have ever seen one at a store , so I probably have to wait until we get berries to try some.
     
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  5. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
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    I didn’t take any pictures of the Jostaberry starts when I first got them, but they have really been growing and looking good. They were pretty scraggly little things at first, but seem to be doing well in the large planter where i put them to grow until we get them into the long planter box that Bobby built in front of the fence.
    We will probably wait until fall to move them, since they seem like they are doing good where they are, and the hot part of summer is coming up.

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  6. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
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    So, it is the next spring, and today, I moved the jostaberry starts.
    We just left them in the planter to winter over, and I noticed that they have tiny green leaves coming out; so I figured that I had better get them moved to the planter box that Bobby made for them last summer.
    There were about 7 starts once I had divided them, so I think that they have already started to spread. I am thinking that there was about 3-4 last summer when they first arrived and I planted them in the planter for the summer.
    There are 3 good sized ones, which were probably the original ones, and the rest are little starts.

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  7. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
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    I went out to check on the Jostaberries this morning, and there are tiny little blossoms on there, so I am hoping that we will actually have a few berries and can see what they taste like.
    They are leafing out really fast, so I think that they must like the area where we planted them.

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  8. Don Alaska

    Don Alaska Supreme Member
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    Ours are still under snow if the moose haven't found them....
     
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  9. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
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    You have Josta berries , @Don Alaska ?
    How did I miss knowing this ! What do they taste like ?
    I had never even heard of them until I accidentally ran across an eBay advertisement last spring. They looked like they would taste good, and be easy to grow, plus (big Whoopy !) they are supposed to spread, so I will have a larger patch each year.

    Speaking of moose, last night I was dreaming that a moose came walking into my house. I think maybe there were two of them, and I have no idea how they got the door open.
    We have moose in north Idaho, but none down here in Alabama.
     
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  10. Don Alaska

    Don Alaska Supreme Member
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    We have the berry bushes, but have a hard time getting berries, as it appears to be one of the moose's favorite foods. My son grows them and finds them most useful for syrups and wine. If you can grow black currants or gooseberries, I believe jostaberries are a cross between the two. Hopefully, the moose won't find them. We are going to move them into a fenced area this spring. The bushes are very hardy, but that is not a problem in Alabama.
     
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