Vorig jaar verscheen een bijdrage
van mij in THE FRUIT NEWS van de FRIENDS
OF BROGDALE.
In Wisley had ik de Worcester
(spreek uit woester) berry verschillende keren gezien. De Royal Horticultural Society schrijft in
haar boek ‘Fruit’ dat de Worcester slechts weinig draagt.
Geen wonder als je de plant
totaal ‘mismeestert’!
WORCESTER BERRY
The Worcester berry is often described as a cross between a
gooseberry and a currant, but it is now believed to be a form of the North
American species, Ribes divaricatum. The
fruit is black, smaller than a gooseberry, but larger than a currant and fairly
sharp. The bush is thorny and has the appearance of a gooseberry, but is much
more vigorous.
My Worcester
berry and the related Black Velvet are big shrubs. A single
Black Velvet is almost 2 meters high, even when
shortened, and 8 meters in circumference, although I cut out lots of wood.
Every year I have a large crop of fruit. I like the strong taste of the ripe
berries and Black Velvet is not quite as acid as Worcester berry. In contrast to gooseberries, they last for a
long time, but this does depend on the weather. Last year, 2003, with the very
hot July they were finished by the end of the month, although screening from
the sun's heat will prolong their season. Usually, they are still good at the
beginning of August and I remember that in a cool summer, I picked ripe berries
in September.
Most gardening books recommend that you treat the Worcester berry like a gooseberry, but I am not sure that this
is correct. One winter some years ago I saw a Worcester berry that had been hard pruned back to wrist thick
sticks, with very short side branches. When I came back in summer, I saw only
new wood and no fruit. Radical pruning like this is not the correct approach
for such a vigorous plant. I merely thin out the branches and keep the bush to
a manageable size. The fruit has to be protected against birds. I used normal
netting, but now I favor old insect enviromesh which is mainly used for
protecting crops such as carrots and leeks, against insects. The mesh is very
small so that there is less hassle, but even so, with sharp prickles, you have
to work carefully. For protecting strawberries, for example, is it far superior
to normal netting, with the added bonus of no more need to cut out the
hedgehogs caught up in the nets!
Both
the Worcester berry and Black Velvet are totally disease free. Only
the sawfly caterpillars (Nematus ribesii) can be a problem, but they
cannot eat the whole bush, as they might do with gooseberries!
Fruit News Summer 2004
Daniël Willaeys
Daniël Willaeys gardens in Halle-Zoersel, nr Antwerp, Belgium. The garden has been totally organic for 41 years.
