Jeanne is a dark red, late-ripening dessert gooseberry that has been observed for the past 24 years at a station of the Agricultural Research Service of the US department of agriculture in Oregon.
The plant is of unknown European origin and was donated to the ARS germplasm repository in the state in 1981.
It blooms in mid-to-late April, some seven to 14 days after other red gooseberries and its fruit ripens in mid-to-late July. Although fruit size is only medium at 5g, yields are higher than those of many other gooseberry plants. Fruit ripens to a deep-red skin colour and eating quality is “full and sweet”.
According to Dr Kim Hummer, curator of the national collection of ribes for the USDA who has been observing the fruit with her team, it can achieve 16.6 degrees brix. But Dr Hummer is most excited by the fruit’s disease-resistant characteristics.
“In contrast to most other gooseberries, this plump newcomer is resistant to white pine blister rust, a disease that is a cosmetic problem to gooseberry leaves but can be devastating to pines,” he said.
“The gooseberry also fends off the microbe that causes powdery mildew, the berry’s worst disease enemy, nor does the plant succumb to attacks by aphids and sawflies.”
Susceptibility to foliar diseases and insect pests has hampered gooseberry popularity among growers in the past but Jeanne could be a hit with the organic industry.
The fruit is suited to Med climates “It has not been planted in the UK yet, but we do have someone who has been looking at it in Belgium,” said Hummer.
There are now three nurseries in the Pacific north-west of the US propagating stocks.
Jeanne, pronounced Jean in English, is named after the late Cheryl Jeanne Gunning who worked at the Oregon laboratory,
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