Jostaberry

[mothhawk]

How do I prune a jostaberry? It's in its third year and all the growth it's made this year has been from the ends of last years growth. No new growth from the base. So how to I reduce its five foot height a bit and encourage fresh growth from the base?

Advice please.

[Mysterious Gardener]

Remove unwanted canes (like the ones that are drooping) as close to the ground as possible. After that I'd cut about a third of the old canes back to 1 inch. (Normally you'd also cut about half of the young shoots back to 6 inches, but from reading your text I take it your plant doesn't have any?)

[Feral007]

'So how to I reduce its five foot height a bit'

Well I wouldn't know! Mine is about 6 years old, and about a foot tall, and that's on a good day!

[Thelma Sanders]

I can understand that - mine's a bit slow as well

[veggiechicken]

Don't like to brag but mine are huge I use a very technical pruning method - I cut out all the bits that are in my way. Then I jab the cut off bits into the soil - and next year I have a load more of the blessed things to hack my way through. Lost all the fruit to the birds this year

[mothhawk]

^^^^ that sounds like an easy way of pruning VC, I may do it that way!

MG - it does have new young shoots, but they are growing from the ends of old wood, that's why it's getting so tall. Since jostaberries fruit on last years wood, they will be the fruit bearers and I didn't know if I would lose all next years fruit if I cut them back, or whether they would sprout side shoots that will have fruit.

[FB.]

My experience of Jostaberry:

It's not particularly fussy about soil fertility, but is very thirsty and will not grow unless the soil never dries out (but no waterlogging!) contrary to marketing spin which says it is vigorous and drought-tolerant (which is why I tried one). Gooseberries are currants cope better with drier soil than Jostaberries, and they all seem to be about the same vigour, perhaps with currants being the slightly more vigorous plants.
That's probably why VC has been successful with Josta in "Wet Wales" while those of us in drier Eastern areas have difficulty getting it to grow.

It's a light-cropper with birds stealing what few fruit it produces.

It's very reluctant to form branches, which, I believe is a common problem with hybrids and polyploids.
The best way to try to get it to branch is to cut shoots back by about half their length.

Mine now sits in a dull, damp corner, mostly abandoned.

[mothhawk]

Mine is in a damp corner, with a tub either side so that it gets the run-off when the tubs are watered, but it didn't have as much fruit on as I expected. I had to pick off gooseberry sawfly caterpillars in spring, too.

What is everyone's opinion of Worcesterberries? I may try them instead as I have memories of lots of delicious fruit from a self-pick soft fruit farm that used to be near me. I thought Jostaberries would be the same but without spines, but I have to admit to being a little disappointed.

[Sylvan]

We had a Worcesterberry in a large tub for about 10 years. We just neglected it and it gave a great deal of fruit. Trouble is the 3 families of blackbirds nesting in our garden absolutely adored it