Some plants take the strengths of their parents and quietly leave the weaknesses behind. The jostaberry is one of those happy accidents. It came out of a cross between blackcurrant and gooseberry, and the name gives the game away: JOhannisbeere (currant) plus STAchelbeere (gooseberry) makes Josta. What you get is one of the most low-maintenance berries there is, and yet it still turns up far too rarely in the garden.
The Best of Two Berries
Botanically, the jostaberry goes by Ribes × nidigrolaria. From the currant it inherited the hanging clusters and the dark, spicy flavour; from the gooseberry it took the size of the fruit and the strong, vigorous growth.
The berries are bigger than a currant and smaller than a gooseberry, ripening from green through red to a deep, almost-black blue. The taste lands right in between: gentler than a full-on blackcurrant, with a fine gooseberry note behind it. Ripe, they are packed with vitamin C and taste just as good fresh as they do in jam, juice, or a cake.
Thornless and Hardy to the Core
This is where the jostaberry really plays its trump card. If you have ever picked gooseberries out of a thorny tangle, or stood by helplessly while mildew crept over the whole crop, you will love the Josta.
Frost barely bothers it either, and pests stay within bounds. For a natural, low-fuss garden, that makes it just about ideal.
One Plant Is Enough, But It Needs Room
Self-Fertile and Fuss-Free
One big advantage over some other berries: the jostaberry is self-fertile. Unlike the honeyberry, which absolutely needs a second variety as a partner, here a single plant already crops reliably and generously.
In return it grows vigorously and, over time, becomes a stately bush up to 1.8 to 2 m tall and wide. So give it enough room from the start, around 1.5 to 2 m of space to its neighbours.
Site and Care
When it comes to soil, the Josta is as easygoing as it is about everything else. A normal, humus-rich, evenly moist garden soil suits it fine; it needs no acidic special mix like the blueberry does. It likes a spot in sun to part shade, and the sunnier it stands, the sweeter the berries. A mulch layer of compost or leaves keeps the soil moist and feeds it a little on the side. Plant it in autumn or in early spring.
Pruning It Like a Currant
Like its currant mother, the jostaberry fruits on one- to three-year-old wood. So pruning follows the same principle: keep the bush young and open. For the first two or three years, just let it grow. After that, in late winter (roughly CW 6 to 9) or straight after harvest, cut the oldest, darkest shoots right down to the ground and keep eight to twelve strong, younger ones. Because it grows so vigorously, this thinning is worth doing every year.
Harvesting and Dead-Easy Propagation
Harvest runs from late June into August (CW 26 to 32). The berries ripen bit by bit, so pick in several passes as soon as they turn dark and soft. They taste best fully ripe, when they are almost black.
And once you have one Josta, you will soon have as many as you like, because it could hardly be easier to propagate.
Cut a hardwood cutting
In autumn (roughly CW 42 to 46), cut a well-ripened, pencil-thick one-year-old shoot into pieces about 20 cm long.
Push them into the soil
Push the hardwood cuttings two-thirds of the way, upright, into loose, moist soil, along the edge of a bed or into a pot.
Keep them moist
Keep them evenly moist through winter and spring. Most of them will reliably shoot and root in spring.
Transplant
The following autumn, set the well-rooted young plants in their final spot, or pass them on to gardening friends.
Thornless, tough, and self-sufficient: if any berry makes it easy for a beginner to start out, it is the Josta.
The jostaberry at a glance
- Two parentsA cross of blackcurrant and gooseberry, with the best of both.
- ThornlessComfortable picking with no prickles, quite unlike the gooseberry.
- Very toughResistant to mildew, rust, and gall mite, usually with no sprays.
- One is enoughSelf-fertile; a single bush crops reliably.
- Plan for spaceGrows up to 2 m tall and wide, so give it at least 1.5 m of room.
- Easy to propagateHardwood cuttings taken in autumn root almost by themselves.
Häufige Fragen
What exactly is a jostaberry?
A cross between blackcurrant and gooseberry, botanically Ribes × nidigrolaria. The name is built from JOhannisbeere (currant) and STAchelbeere (gooseberry). Both the fruit and the flavour sit between the two parents.
Does the jostaberry need a second bush for pollination?
No. It is self-fertile, and a single plant crops reliably. That is a clear advantage over the honeyberry, which absolutely needs two different varieties.
Does the jostaberry have thorns like the gooseberry?
No, it is completely thornless. That makes harvesting far more comfortable than it is with a gooseberry.
How big does the jostaberry get, and how much space does it need?
It grows vigorously and, over the years, reaches up to 1.8 to 2 m tall and wide. Give it at least 1.5 to 2 m of space from neighbouring plants, so it stands airy and stays healthy.
At a Glance
The jostaberry is one of the most rewarding berries for the home garden: thornless, extremely tough, self-fertile, and dead easy to propagate on top of all that. Give it a sunny spot with enough room, thin it out once a year, and it will keep you supplied for many years, almost without you having to lift a finger.
In Gartenkern you can set up the yearly thinning cut and the harvest window as recurring tasks, and note down how much your bush produced. Come next summer, you will know exactly when the Josta was ripe and which cutting gave you the strongest young plant.
