Red Tart Ecos Gooseberry Seeds+Cuttings

currently unavailable This Ribes populations are from both naturally seeded gooseberries at my farm as well as intentional hybrid seedlings of "Red Tart" gooseberry and other wild selections of the native gooseberries. Since the first crosses of gooseberries and the cultivated varieties I purchased and planted at my farm, the genus as a whole was weakly represented at my farm. The plants seemed to be prone of everything and the way they grew was often slow and unproductive. After quite a few trials,  "Red Tart" was named because of its clean bill of health in the foliage department and they consistently produced a ton of fruit. Despite the large thorns, and spikey fruit, the flavor is very good and worth preserving to create further vigorous hybrid plants with heavy fruit production. 

The complete immunity to rust as well as their clean foliage and incredibly durable nature suggest they may have hybridized with the common gooseberry called Green gooseberry, Ribes cynobasti which is found in many Michigan forests. Birds seem love this fruit as well.  Most of the berries grown from seed are red in color from this cross. They are delicious and probably are useful for developing a leaf retaining, rust immune cultivars for commercial production as well. The seedlings are naturally very productive and fruit in 2 years from seedling. 

"Red Tart" A selected seedling with large spikes and thorns that produces a very delicious wild type gooseberry. The small shrub grows along the ground self rooting as it goes. The plants berries are very much consumed by birds and animals as they ripen. Here at my farm, it appears the turkeys have taken a liking to them. The plant is easy to self root using dormant cuttings. (Which comes with the seeds.) "Red Tart" is a good wild form of gooseberry but not a commercial selection. The issue with gooseberry growing is finding vigorous seedlings. This one makes very good seedlings for future selections.  This selection itself is a good one for its volume of berries and clean foliage.