(Ribes nigrum)

Prairietech Propagation is pleased to offer black currants as a hardy fruit crop for the Prairies. Their production was banned for many years in the US because they were believed to be an alternate host for white pine blister rust.  With the development of new resistant cultivars, however, there is renewed interest in black currant production, and for good reason.

Black currants are nutritional powerhouses!  They have vitamin C concentrations four times higher than citrus fruit; double or triple the amount of potassium found in most fruit and 30-40 types of bioflavonoids.  Most commercially available black currant cultivars contain 130-200 mg vitamin C/100 ml juice but some breeding lines contain up to 350 mg/100 ml juice.

We grow the ‘Ben’ series of black currants from the Mylnefield Research Station in Scotland, where early breeding programmes sought to introduce early spring cold hardiness into new cultivars, and maintain heavy commercial production.  Ben Lomond was introduced in 1972 to good commercial success.  Current breeding programs aim to introduce late flowering characteristics into cultivars so flowers are not damaged by late spring frosts.  Disease resistance and fruit quality, flavour and nutritional aspects are also evaluated.  Many black currant cultivars are used for processing into juices and jams but for fresh eating,  Ben Connan and Ben Sarek are good choices with large, flavourful berries. 

Ben Hope

Ben Hope is widely planted commercially in Britain for several reasons.  It is a tall, vigorous and upright plant with genetic resistance to black currant gall mite.  Fruit is easiy to mechanically harvest since the plant is taller and the fruit is at the right height on the plant.  Yields are consistently high with medium sized currants that are good for juicing.  It has good resistance to both mildew and leaf spot.  Ben Hope is also suited for the fresh market, due to its larger berries and good flavour.

Ben Tirran

This is a high yielding (15,100 lb/ac), late cultivar with pleasant tasting medium sized berries.  It flowers a little later than other Ben series black currants so it has reasonable tolerance to spring frosts.  Growth habit is upright and vigourous.   Fruit is suitable for both juice and jams, for commercial and u-pick operations, and home gardens.

Ben Connan

This is an early variety of black currant with large berries that was released by Mylnefield specifically for the fresh market.  It is high yielding and shows even and uniform ripening.  It has large, deep black berries (187 Connan berries vs. 206 Lomond berries in 250 grams fruit) with a pleasant acid/sweet flavour.  Its compact growth habit makes it suitable for both mechanical fruit harvesting, u-pick farms and the home garden market.  Great for fresh eating, jams, preserves, canning but needs to be harvested good and ripe for best sweetness.  Not recommended for juice.

Ben Sarek

Another good cultivar for the fresh market with high yield and large berries.  It forms a small, compact bush of medium vigour and would be suitable for the grower looking for high yield per unit area.  Easy to manage and harvest.  Not recommended for juice.