Black Currant Problem

Crush a leaf and smell it.

Heavenly scent? Congrats, you actually have a real black currant, Ribes nigrum, which can carry a disease.

No scent? You have a Ribes aureum with large black berries, of no consequence to any vegetation around them.

Henriette

Ribes aureum is carrier for white pine blister rust. Virtually all Ribes species can carry the disease.

Yes, but aren't the black varieties more susceptible than the red? I am excluding the few variations of cultured currants where they have been bred to be resistant to this disease.

Sherw> > sherw> >

SImply don't plant them near white pines (or any other five-needle pine). According to most of what I've heard, you want them at least 30 feet away from pines.

A couple cultivars, most notably Titania, are immune to it.

Resistance may help the currant, but resistant currants can still spread the disease to pines.

theoneflasehaddock

The currant isn't susceptible to the disease at all. It is strictly a carrier.

Planting 30 feet away is a poor solution. You can't control where the leaves blow, where the squirrels and butterflies go, and so on.

Ben Sharvy wrote: .............................

Well that certainly isn't true. Currants do get the disease and are damaged by it. It may not kill the currant as it often does the white pine, but it does get the disease. I just did a search and the first site to come up happened to be from the place where I spent the last 4 years of my college career:

Steve

If the currant is resistant to the disease, how can they spread it to the white pine???

Sherwin D.

the> >Subject: Re: Black Currant Problem