Black Currant 'Ben Connan'

The federal ban on importing Ribes plants into the US may have been lifted, but fourteen (14!) states (mostly in the northeast and upper ...Read Moremidwest) still have varying restrictions on planting various Ribes.

This species is an alternate host to white pine blister rust, a serious problem for a major timber crop in the east. Some Ribes species and some Ribes cultivars of susceptible species are resistant to the disease.

Before planting this in the east and upper midwest, consult your state's Department of Natural Resources to find out whether planting this species is legal.

This is a hybrid between Ben Sarek and Ben Lomond, from the Scottish Crop Research Institute. It produces a heavy crop of large, delicio...Read Moreus fruit. It continues the trend towards breeding to avoid the use of chemicals in being resistant to Leaf Curling Midge, American Gooseberry Mildew and Leaf Spot, all common ailments of Blackcurrants. Shows good frost resistance, and has been awarded the RHS Award of Garden Merit. Information from Dobies catalogue.

My own personal experiences are good, I have had it since 1998 as a pot grown young plant. It produces fruits on the previous years wood, and the general rule when the plant is established after approx. 4 years is to remove some of the older wood from the base to encourage strong new growths, although with this variety even the older wood makes short new 'stubs' which produce fruit.

The fruits are large, in heavy clusters all along the stems, and hang close to the ground with the weight, or sometimes on the ground! A forked stick can hold them up. Beware of birds, blackbirds love them, and I have lost half of my crop to them this last year. I was left with 4lb of fruit, the previous year I had 7.5 lbs from one plant. A net curtain draped over will help protect them. A good mulch around the roots will help keep in moisture, the roots do tend to run near the surface. They prefer well drained, moist soil. A general fertilizer in spring as coming into growth helps to keep a productive plant. For a start I had problems of heavy infestation of greenfly, leaving black sticky mould on the fruit. They are found under the new lush leaves which will curl. Since I have built up a good eco system, no chemicals sprays, the ladybirds eat them and I have no trouble. If you have trouble, do what I did, stand and squash them, until you find ladybird lavae under the leaves, then be careful not to squash them, let them do the job!
In a warm summer the fruit is pleasant to eat as it ripens more sweetly, it is excellent for jam, using half a pint of water and 1.25 lb of sugar to every pound of fruit.