Has anyone of your readers any experience in growing Jostaberry?
I have a three year old Jostaberry bush. It flowered this year and last, fruit set but none survived to maturity last year – fruit-fall or birds?
It is a big bush, at least twice as big as a gooseberry or blackcurrant bush, but, with no fruit to assess, I am reluctant to use so much space for it. Can anyone tell me how good (or bad) the fruit is to aid my decision on whether or not to keep it?
Valerie Clapham
Jostaberries from RHS Gardens Wisley
Jostaberry friut are almost indistinguishable from blackcurrants. However the bushes are much more vigorous and take longer to come into fruit.
I suggest you plant blackcurrants instead.
I agree with Julian Brandram I used to grow a Jostaberry, but it was very vigorous, birds devoured the fruit and what we rescued was poorly tasting beside the blackcurrant.
There is always the question of choice of a variety. I personally prefer the best of the oldies, Boskoop Giant, Wellington XXX, which are extremely tasty raw but nowadays the trend is for the new ‘Ben’ varieties, bred in Scotland. There is a warning that some of these, having Northern genes bred into them, find winters in the South too warm and they fruit poorly. If you live in the North, try one of the many ‘Bens’ available, they are not, in my view so well flavoured raw, but they make good jam.
The Jostaberry is of complex parentage, a cross between the blackcurrant and the gooseberry and of German origin. It is a classic example of hybrid vigour.
Extremely vigorous and thornless, it bears a moderate crop of dull brownish red berries in small clusters; berries about the size of large blackcurrants. As you might expect trhe taste is intermediate between the currant and the gooseberry and it makes a pleasant jam.
The Jostaberry is resistant to gooseberry mildew, leaf spot and gall mite, but the flowers are frost prone. It crops on both the old wood and the young. It can be grown and pruned as
a stooled bush like a black currant or as a half standard like a gooseberry.
Frankly because of its excessive vigour, unless you have plenty of room and like curiosities, it is not worth growing. Cold and frost in the spring can result in poor cropping.
My wife and I grow Jostaberries in Mullingar, Ireland. This year we have an abundance of fruit on the bushes.
We planted several bushes about 10 years ago and from the start have had reasonable crops. Now the plants are older and larger (about 6 feet) they seem to produce more.
The fruit has the advantage of being larger than blackcurrants and a very similar taste. They freeze well and as Harry Baker says, they make a good jam.
I train them as a standard as I use a ’sit-on’ mower and need to get round them easily. They prefer a wind-protected area and plenty of sunshine (which we DO get in Ireland!).
There was a splendid plate of Jostaberries from the Royal Horticultural Society’s Wisley gardens at the Hampton Court Flower Show last weekend – 7-8 July. As you can see the RHS put the Jostaberry firmly in the blackcurrant camp. I have uploaded a picture onto the main post.
On my allotment I have had a Jostaberry bush for about 10 years – now almost a small tree over 2 metres high. Cropping has consistently been poor and I think this is because of the birds. A friend nearby has an excellent crop this year. His bush (also vigorous) is completely caged and I would estimate his crop at more than 7 kg (15 lb). I have made jelly with a mixture of 2 parts of (his) berries and one part of (my) red currants.
i also have a Jostaberry plant. I have owned mine for two springs now and have not had any success with fruit either. Although I do own both red and black currant bushes and they seem to fruit just fine. i was wondering if it had something to do with the age of the plant or maybe something to do with the variety. I was also wondering about pruning or should I just let it grow freely, as I have lots of room. Will it tolerate snow – I live in the snowy mountains in Australia.?
I have some growing in Gippsland, Victoria, Australia (500m above sea level) that I’ve had for three years and they are doing well. The big test will be this weekend when the fruit ripens, but so far they have outperformed other berries in our patch. I don’t think snow is an issue at all as long as it’s not after they flower.
I brought a stick of my Dad’s Jostaberry bush back to England about 10 years ago. The early results were poor in volume but fantastic in taste. No comparison to blackcurrant, which I don’t find delicious to eat straight from the bush!
A couple of years ago, I practically cut my large bush down, and the next year my yield was great. I used the cuttings to strike more bushes. Because of the vigorous growth, it is easy to turn them into standard bushes. I now have two of them, yield even better than on the original bush, and does not take up so much space. I am also growing a row of cordons, and again, much better yield than from the bush.
I garden on London clay, well enriched with years of home made compost, and they are doing great.
I live on an island near Seattle, USA and am very happy with my jostaberries. They have been effortless to grow, and yield lots of fruit. Mine are three years old, started from canes from a neighbour’s plant. They are now about 8 feet tall and could best be described as a hedge. I use the berries to make a rich, intensely flavored jam, which is heavenly on a buttery scone.
I find that the Jostaberry is well worth growing on my Glasgow allotment. Mine is now about 10 years old, covered in fruit and is much better tasting than blackcurrants. So useful in pies, jams, ice creams, puddings.
I have to net all my soft fruits against the birds. It took about 3 years to fruit well. Disease free as well!
My husband and I were given a jostaberry plant for our wedding in March (our friends likened the combination of blackcurrant and gooseberry to myself and my husband, I hope I’m not the gooseberry!), we only have a small yard and currently have it planted in a pot. We have a small raised bed – full of rhubarb- but apart from that, only more space for pots. Is it possible for us to grow it in a suitably large pot or should we seek out a ‘foster home’ for it? We are loathe to get rid of it, regardless of whether it yields a large crop – but are happy to hang on to it and wait for it to crop two/three years hence as some contributors have suggested is likely for a healthy plant. It is about a foot tall at the moment.
There is an excellent account of the history of the Jostaberry on The Fruit Blog:
http://thefruitblog.blogspot.com/2008/05/fruit-genetics-friday-5-jostaberry.html
I was offered a jostaberry by a fellow allotment owner who said… ‘if you are willing to move it you can have it’ so I planted out three twigs that have grown very successfully, one is abundant the other two have a few fruit. I’m looking forward to a ‘hedge like bush’ to separate my fruit and herb section from the artichokes and asparagus that get as tall but not as attractive!
I’m looking for a good mix for jam and wondering if it would mix well with rhubarb and perhaps ginger too.
Spent most of today picking at the jostaberries, the big dark ones are very much like black currants and the smaller dark berries have a definite ‘gooseberry taste’.
I have to say it is very reassuring to have world wide advice that my Jostaberry will or should crop in my lifetime.
My Josta started life as one of three cuttings given to me by the late Jeremy Slane along with a Portuguese grape and an Algarve fig. The tree cuttings were placed in a pot as other jobs were more pressing at the time.
By autumn the Josta had won the race for dominance and was a four feet high bush; the grape and the fig were still little more than cuttings. This was the first indication of a Josta’s vigour – a brute in a pot, like a cuckoo!
The beast was planted against a chicken wire fence surrounding my soft fruit cage and trained as a fan.
Several years on I am still waiting for my first crop. Meanwhile the grubbing pick axe looms.
I have just picked three pounds from the big jostaberry bush on my allotment – there are at least five pounds more to come: I net it, after the disappointment of the first year.
Could someone tell me about the much-praised jam, please. What fruit/sugar/water quantities should I use? And is it a pectin-rich fruit, or do I need to use the sugar with pectin?
I make jostaberry jelly using this recipe: 3lb jostaberries with 2lb redcurrants and one or two slices of unripe cooking apple with about 1.5 pints of water, which should give 3.5 pints of liquor when strained (possibly a second extraction is needed). This is then given 3.5 lb sugar (50% jam sugar and 50% granulated) plus a tablespoon of lemon juice. Setting after about 12 or 15 minutes.
For 2007 and 2008 the above has worked quite well although setting times seem to vary with the amount of water applied.
For 2008, I made jam when I had no redcurrants and to 1 lb of berries I added 0.5 pint of juice from unripe cooking apples. With 11 oz jam sugar and 11 oz of granulated I have had about 2 lb of jam following a setting time of 3 (three) minutes! Not tasted yet but the spoon was delicious. On reflection, I think I should have taken the tops and tails off the berries – I only took the stalks off.
I live in County Sligo, Ireland, and had never heard of Jostaberries until four weeks ago. When I saw the birds attacking them I asked if I could come along and pick some, and was told yes, as they hadn’t time. I made 4 lb into jam and 5 lb into jelly which both taste wonderful. I will really have to get some of these bushes and find a supplier here in Ireland.
Several years ago I purchased one Jostaberry plant. The first year I took five cuttings from it, stuck them in the ground where I wanted them to grow and they all took. They fruited in the second year and they have been very prolific. No trouble with birds or disease.
I live in Tasmanian and we have hard frosts during winter and early spring but it does not seem to worry the Jostaberry. In fact I think they like this cooler climate.
We use them for jam and sometimes use combine them with other berries to make a three or four berry jam.
Raspberries do well here as well.
I planted a friend’s seedling one and a half years ago. Just had my first crop – in Gloucestershire. Must be netted very securely or birds will strip the bush. Fruit bigger than blackcurrant, therefore less time needed for picking. Seems very similar – bit less tart than a blackcurrant, and made some very nice jam using blackcurrant recipe – bit less water. Lost my blackcurrant to ‘big bud’. Jostaberry is very vigorous seems very healthy and cropped brilliantly.
I have a jostaberry bush and it has a lot of berries on it. I put the bush in a 1gall pot, it is about 5ft. tall. My grandson and I picked a big bowl of berries. I am looking for a jam recipe for them?
This berry does not need much care but it does like water the more the better. It is a nice bush, I have a trumpet vine that is planted with it and both are doing well together.
I have three jostaberry bushes in my garden, along with blueberries and red currants. I have had very good luck with my bushes. I prune them back every other year in the late fall. I have made pies and several jars of jam. I have considered planting more bushes.
I think you should keep the bush, if you have enough room. I have been growing jostaberries for two years, and they’ve only just produced some berries, so they do take a long time to flower. However, it sounds like you can do a lot with them, such as pies, jams, jellies, ice-cream etc. So definitely worth keeping, if you have the space.
I have one large Jostaberry, it is 16 years old and is 6 feet high and produces many berries nearly as large as gooseberries but very dark like black currants.
It outproduces my black currants 10 to 1, more like gooseberries. It has no thorns and tastes better than black currants but more bitter than gooseberries. I have it in a sheltered location in Massachusetts, western side of a white house which reflects plenty of light. it took several years for it to produce but shoots propagated by staking a branch into the ground produced right away.
I took some cuttings from my mother-in-law’s enormous Jostaberry bush and stuck them in the ground. They all rooted. I planted them out and I’m growing them as oblique cordons about a foot apart. They quickly reached 6 feet high and I summer pruned them. No fruit the first year, but in this, their second year, we’ve had a small but worthwhile crop. I’ve continued to summer prune them, cutting back the main shoot to keep the plants at about 6 foot and cutting back side shoots to about 6 inches in July and August. Anything I have missed and any regrowth I intend dealing with in the winter. So far so good!
It sounds like climate and possibly pruning are the key to this, interesting that layerings seem to have fruited earlier than cuttings? I shall watch with interest since I purchased a container grown plant this spring (09) and planted it in the allotment. Perhaps ill prune half of it and leave a branch unpruned, to see what does best! If anything significant results I’ll report on it.
I’m encouraged enough to purchase a Jostaberry bush to plant in my fruit orchard in central British Columbia, Canada (Zone 5b). It’s my understanding that it may take up to three years to produce fruit. Perhaps a little patience will pay off. I was fortunate to taste some jam made by a local producer in B.C. recently, and I was very impressed with the taste.
This fruit is not easy to find locally, but after some research I did find someone in Alberta who sells them. My fingers are crossed but I think it’s worth a try.
I’d also be appreciative if anyone has a Jostaberry jam or jelly recipe they would like to share.
Jostaberry grows well here in Purley, Surrey. If you have wood pigeons you must net early as they strip all fruit even when green!
We have four very large bushes on the allotment that I believe to be around 7-10 years old. They are vigorous to say the least and the amount of fruit we have is insane! So far this year I have over 7kg and the bushes don’t actually look like I have even touched them. By comparison the blackcurrants are pathetic!
For jam I make it exactly as I would blackcurrant jam: cover with water and boil until mushy; add equal weight, or less, of sugar (no need for pectin).
I find mine sets fairly quickly and I do not ‘test’ for setting I just know it is ready when I stir and the spoon leaves a clear pan behind it. If I don’t get it off the heat then I end up with a jam I can’t even get a knife in!
I have made a sorbet this year and it was lovely – see Blackcurrant Foundation for recipe.
If in doubt I usually just follow a blackcurrant recipe.
We have had three jostaberry bushes in our garden in Nova Scotia for four years, but this is the first year we have had an abundant crop. I used to call them my ‘funnyberry’ bushes because I had forgotten what they were. After doing some research, however, I came across “‘ostaberry’ and that rang a bell!
Does anyone have any recipes other than for wine or jam/jelly? I’d like to use them for pies but am wondering whether I should mix them with, say, apples or rhubarb or if they’d be fine on their own.
Jostaberry Jam
8 Cups Jostaberries
1/2 Cup Water
6 Cups Sugar
1 Tablespoon Butter
1. Place jostaberries and water in a large, heavy pan. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer for 30 minutes.
2. Add the sugar to the pan and stir over low heat until the sugar has dissolved. Add butter if desired to prevent foaming.
3. Bring the mixture to a boil and cook for about 8 minutes, or until the jam reaches the setting point (220 degrees F).
4. Remove the pan from the heat. Leave to cool for 5 minutes.
5. Pour the jam into warmed clean jars and seal. Heat treat sealed jars in a water bath at 200 degrees F for 10 minutes. Cool completely, then label and store the jam in a dark, cool place.