New Release: Jahns Prairie
by Arden Delidais
The United States
Department of Agriculture and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada announces the
release of a new gooseberry cultivar - Jahns Prairie. It is rated as a disease resistant, high quality, dessert
gooseberry. The fruit is large, globose, dark red and weighs in at 3.8 grams per berry. The plant grows upright to a height of 1.5
meters with some sprawling branches.
The young plants are prickly and the prickles remain on the stem as the
plant ages. There are 1 to 3 nodal
spines, less than 1 cm long.
This plant was
selected from a native population in the Red Deer River valley of Alberta in
July, 1984. Dr. Otto Jahn collected
cuttings which were evaluated by the US National Clonal Germplasm Repository in
Corvallis, Oregon from 1991 to 1995. The gooseberry was named in memory of Dr.
Jahn, who was the first curator of this station.
Jahns Prairie is
reported by Corvallis researchers to have high resistance to insects and
diseases. Spring frost damage complexed
with gray mold, Botrytis, did not cause stem injury. Even the high disease pressure of a cool, wet summer, didn’t
infect stems or fruits with powdery mildew while other near by cultivars were
severely affected. Leaves were green
all summer and free of leaf spot. So
far, white pine blister rust has not been observed on the leaves of this
plant. Aphids and saw-flies did not infest
Jahns Prairie while other cultivars were bothered.
Jahns Prairie has
now come full circle and is being tested under prairie conditions close to
where it was originally selected. DNA
Gardens, a tissue culture lab in central Alberta worked diligently this past
winter to acquire plant material and received in-vitro plants to work
with. Material was bulked up and sent
to the Alberta Fruit Crop Specialist,
Lloyd Hausher of CDC South.
Plants will be trialed in Brooks, Edmonton and Elnora. Now, we can sit back and see what these
gooseberries do when they come home.
Updates will continue.
The fresh fruit
quality of Jahns Prairie is equivalent to European gooseberries. They are productive with yields comparable
to Invicta. Jahns Prairie is an exciting
one to watch especially if you are familiar with the incredible fruit from the
Hinomakki and Invicta gooseberries.
Hinomakki and Invicta gooseberries are selections of European native
gooseberries, Ribes uva-crispa while Jahns Prairie is a selection of the North
American Northern Gooseberry, Ribes oxyacanthoides L. When comparing Jahns Prairie with European selections, we are
hoping for equivalent fruit quality, preferred growth habit such as being more
upright and additional hardiness. As
you can see, we are very excited about the potential of Jahns Prairie. The trialing and waiting continues so keep