Anyone growing less-common but hardy fruits?

I'm looking at Nanking Cherry, Che, PawPaw, Medlar, Lingonberry, Jostaberry, Hardy Kiwi, Lingonberry and others but also open to suggestions. I have black currants, gooseberries and elderberry on order and my goal is fruit that's tasty fresh and also makes good jams and jellies.

I have grown elderberries, pomegranates and medlar. My medlar which produces very large flowers, had two small crops. At the time, I couldn't find much information on how to bleet the mature fruit. Not being familiar with it, I couldn't tell when the fruit matured in the southern part of San Francisco Bay. Basically, the fruit have to sit and bleet, a nice way of saying rot, to the consistency of jelly. The few fruit that made it that far just didn't look that appetizing. I would have been willing to experiment a bit with it, but , unfortunately, medlar is very susceptible to fire blight. It was dead in a few months.

Darius,
I have been growing pawpaws from seed and I bought 4, 3ft. trees (yet to fruit) that were 75% off.... basically because no-one knew what they were. I also have hardy orange;yet to fruit, but growing well. What I see growing in France and would love to grow is quince the trees look like standard apples but the fruit is beautiful. I will have to seek out a Canadian source. Robb.

Last year I recieved some tomatoe seeds and I think I was accidentally given (Garden Huckleberries) because I planted them thinking they were tomatoes. I did not know what they were, until Carolyn identified them.

To me they did not taste good fresh off the vine, but when I added sugar to them to make jam, they had a totally different flavor that was excellent. It had a blueberry flavor. My children loved the jam. When I ran out of jam, my children kept asking for more and asked me to plant more berries this year for more jam.

They were the easiest plants to grow. I basically neglected them. I watered them, that is about it. I ordered a pack of seeds this season from Sandhill Preservation. I already have seedlings under lights in the basement.

darius,

I am growing everything that you mentioned except pawpaw and medlar. We are in approximately the same zone.

So, if you'll forgive me, I'll give a brief rundown on my experiences and hope it will be helpful.

Nanking Cherry (red fruit) - A beautiful bush with red tart cherries. Very hardy - blooms survived last years Easter freeze into the low 20's here and still fruited.
Nanking Cherry (white fruit) - hasn't fruited yet
Hardy kiwi - have 6 or 7 vars of A. arguta - only one to fruit is Issai, which is self fertile - recommend starting with that one.
Actic kiwi (A. kolomikta) just getting started with this one - cats attacked the plants last week
Lingonberry - Ida, Balsgard, Red Pearl, Susi, dwarf, Royal and a couple other vars. Balsgard grows best, Ida and Balsgard have best fruit so far (size+quantity) - dwarf does a fast ground cover but not too many berries so far.
Gooseberries - Hinnomaki red, Hinnomaki yellow, Black Velvet are the best in my opinion of the 17 varieties I've tried.
Che - have had a few fruits and would like to have more. Lost my plants last year and had to start over (they started to leaf out before the hard freeze)
Jostaberry - absolutely!
Crandall - don't miss this one
Currants - can't handle the taste of the black ones. Like the red and white - think the white is best.
Korean Cherry - plant and fruit similar to Nanking, but mid-late summer
Bush Cherries var Joel - slightly later than Korean Cherry - similar fruit - Korean, Nanking and Bush start producing fruit quickly.
Cornelian Cherry (C. mas) Nice small tree - late summer cherry like fruit - tastes horrible unless completely ripe then one of the best
Chinese Dogwood - fruits have tough skin and mealy interior - gel around hard seeds is wonderful but very limited
Arctic raspberries - cotton candy flavored fruits midsummer - easy but you have to fight the birds
Autumn olive - the better varieties are quite good and once established are very productive
Goumi - keep losing the plant to winter freezes - it leafs out too soon, then can't recover when it freezes - wonderful fruit cherry like in early spring]
Honeyberry - Early fruit with great taste, but you have to make sure it is ripe - difficult to tell and I think people that report not likeing it may not be waiting for full ripeness.
Seaberry - a must have in every garden! - don't start you own seeds, spring for named variety plants
Ground cherries - easy and productive - 1 in 10 fruits fully ripens here (rest drop early and don't ripen) but is worth it.
Goji - fresh fruit is not as good as dried - mine have limited productivity that I'm still working with.
Yacon - not really a fruit - root vegetable that is a must try - very productive, easy to harvest, stores well and has mild sweet taste.
Wintergreen - mine did not thrive and died out after a couple of years - wonderful fruit if you can get it.
Chilean wintergreen - beautiful plants and bland sweet fruit - worthwhile but mine kept dying out, so gave up on this one. Will try again if a move - would try for a milder micro climate, such as up against the side of the house
Pawpaw - my father found a wild patch about a decade ago - we used to go to harvest fruit every year when he was healthy - love the smell of the fruit but did not like to eat it. One fruit will stink up the whole house for weeks, but most people don't mind.
Aronia - good for juicing or eating small quantities - skin is unpleasantly bitter if chewed but interior juice is good.

krowten: Wow what a list. I've never heard of yacon before, but did some more checking on it and it sounds like something I would like to try. Could you tell me more about how you plant it, do you fertilize, how much water, when to plant and anything else? I would appreciate it.

Libby,

Plant around last frost date. Keep well watered, full sun. I don't know how zone 4 would be for sure, but I think it would be OK. Wait to harvest until you see some plant damage from minor frost, but don't let hard freeze. Put propagation crown in peat in plastic bag and refrigerate for next year after harvesting tubers. Too wet and crown will rot. In Feb, I remove crowns from fridge and put on counter to let start to sprout (or divide tubers and plant in pots). I divide into individual plants (pot indoors to size up a bit) and plant about 18 " apart. I've never fertilized, but that sounds like a good idea to try. Available from Nichols and Seed of Change this year. Would possibly work a trade if I have extra plants, but will not know until May.

krowten, that's exactly what I was looking for! Thanks, I'm impressed that you grow all those and are kind enough to write all that feedback.

You say "Crandall is not to be missed"... what is it? Variety of Jostaberry, listed just above it?

Thanks krowten. I have nothing to trade this year. I will just order it. But thanks so much for all the information on it. One more question. Does it get a flower? I read where it is a member of the sunflower family.

I started a thread for Yakon Tubers some time ago... There's a link to more information in my post...
Yakon tubers for diabetics
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/423953/

Crandall is a relative of black, red, white currant that is itself black, but distinguished by an explosion of beautiful yellow flowers in the spring (like forsythia) followed by black currants that do not have the distinctive (and for me unpleasant) black currant taste-sweet and pleasant. Mine is small but highly productive.

Thanks!

I just planted 3 black currants, local ones with variety unknown. I've never tasted fresh currants of any color, and only have had the black ones dried in my scone recipe.

Hi Darius,

In my opinion, I doubt the currants you had in your scones were black currants. The dried currants that are used in scones are a dried grape (a type of raisin) and are sometimes called Zante currants. They have nothing to do with black currants (ribes species) which are a black colored fruit that looks sort of like a blueberry in shape, but smaller, and they are used most often to make jams and jellies. I grew up eating a lot of blackcurrants because my parents are both British but here in North America, most often when people say currants (especially currant scones) they are talking about the ones like raisins.

If I am right in my guess, you will find that the black currants you are growing are very different from what you expected, but they're very good! A lot of people don't like to eat them fresh but they do make lovely preserves. Fresh black currants are extremely strong tasting, so if you didn't grow up with them, you might not like the flavor right away.

Here is a link with some information on the confusion between zante currants and black currants.

http://www.currants.com/index.php?src=news&refno=13&category=Currant%20News&PHPSESSID=692e98c83d31b2dd6db3c12d2bdb57cf

Claire

I agree with Claire but have not been able to adjust to the taste of my Ben Adair(sp?) black current. Darius, please don't judge all currants by the blacks you have planted. Get a red or white one to try...or try a Crandall. As an alternative, try a Jostaberry, Orus (gooseberry/currant hybrids) or Black Velvet gooseberry. I'm personally glad that I only bought 1 black currant bush years ago as I would have dug up the others. Your taste, of course, may vary but frankly I'll be polite here and refrain from a candid comment about what I think they taste like :)

.

All good advice... Thanks! I won't know what I have until some fruit sets, which probably won't be this year.

DH says that the leaves smell like cat pee to him. I don't think so but they do smell quite strong. You could always mix a few of the Ben Adair currants with red and white to make a jam or jelly and you probably would enjoy it. My favorite thing to do with my blackcurrants is to slow cook them with sugar and strain the puree. I then make a vanilla custard style of ice cream and add the puree, and pop it into the ice cream maker. It is divine, in my opinion. Even non-black-currant likers enjoy it!

I agree that the jostaberry is another good option - nowhere near as strong.

I just bought an Orus from Raintree and planted it today in fact. I am looking forward to it - never tried it before. In the same shipment I ordered 5 other black currant species, just to try some new ones! Can you tell that I'm addicted to them? Lots of antioxidants in them too!

Claire

Cool... and BTW, Happy Belated Birthday!

Thanks Darius! My last year in the 30's....I guess I should make it count!

But all the more reason to plant more healthy berries in my yard, right?! I'd like to try the hardy kiwi vines as well.

Hardy Kiwi's... Here's info by a web article.. Hardy Kiwi's require a non-fruiting male for pollination, though.

Anna, earlier-ripening Geneva and Dumbarton are some particularly good fruiting varieties.
http://www.rodaleinstitute.org/uncommon_fruit_delectable_and_pest_resistant

For the hardy kiwi, A. arguta, please consider Issai as the starter variety. It will fruit without a pollinator and set fruit on smaller plants. All of the other arguta's I've tried have not bloomed(except Anna). Due to my limited space, I have to keep the arguta's small. A NAFEX'er who is their kiwi expert told me that Issai needs a much smaller root volume to set fruit than the other, larger members of the family. My "Anna" which I gave freedom to grow unlimited for a few years, did not start blooming until it was huge.

Darius,
You might try jujube--or Chinese date. They are deciduous so they are somewhat cold-hardy. The fruit are small and have an apple-like taste unless dehydrated to a date-like consistency. They have a single seed.
Sugarcane52

Thanks for the article Darius! That's an interesting one for a number of these uncommon fruits!

Thanks Krowten for the suggestion on Issai. I was thinking I would try training several kiwi vines on a structure of some sort, putting the male pollinator in the midst of the others. Maybe I should try that but also plant a couple of Issai vines in case they don't all do well. I will include Anna in my mix as well. Two years ago I bought one (I forget which one) that was at a local smaller garden center that already had fruits on it. Unfortunately it died that winter. I think I didn't protect it well enough and it was late fall by the time I was planting it. Now that I have 5.5 acres, I certainly have more room for such vines, so will give it a whirl. Might end up being next year though, before I get to them. This year I'm focused on my currant and gooseberry area, and getting proper fencing in to keep the deer out.

Some people have good luck with Issai but for me it was never vigorous enough and never hung on to its fruit. It died last year too, my first arguta to bite it. I would prefer a Geneva plus a male as an early fruiting option.

I wouldn't recommend Jostaberry either, it doesn't taste very good. I pulled mine up last summer. Poorman has been a good gooseberry for me. I like Minaj Smyriou as a black currant with less of the off taste to it. I like eating them fresh.

Scott

I agree, Poorman is a nice gooseberry. I am also enjoying Oregon Champion - seems to do well for me here in Iowa even though I'm a long way from Oregon! This year my "Red George" gooseberry should bear fruit for the first time. I am looking forward to trying it.

I guess I will have to wing it with the kiwis and see what works in my climate. I have a lot of strong winds in my area. The winter can also be harsh with limited snow cover in some years. I will probably try several varieties and see what works best. I'm still experimenting with grapes in the same way.

Claire

Scott, I am quite fond of my Jostaberry, so I am wondering if different growing conditions affect the taste. Its a shame that it couldn't have gone as a trade somewhere.

Claire, I have Red George, Poorman and Hinnomaki Red. They are all red table gooseberries. I have trouble telling them apart to the extent that if I ever lose the labels I probably would not be able to tell you which was which. As they mature, that may change. For what its worth, all three of these have fruited for a couple of years for me and I think that they are likely the best tasting table/dessert gooseberry. You should be very fond of them. I managed to start a second H. red last year, but Poorman and Red George efforts failed. I'll be trying again because I like them and could use a couple more plants.

BTW. once the gooseberry harvest kicks in, consider fast freezing them on a tray, then stick in handi-vac bag for storage in the freezer. Worked great for me and they make a good addition to many things. Most, however, get consumed in small quantities as a snack. Freezing changes texture and taste a bit in a nice way.

Great idea on the freezing of the gooseberries. I haven't tried it with them but I often freeze green grapes in the summer for snacking on, so I imagine the texture would be similar. My bushes are still fairly small so I don't usually have many left over after some gooseberry jam has been made! Hopefully this year I'll have more. I use tomato fertilizer on all my currants and berries because nobody seems to have a berry-specific fertilizer around here. What type of fertilizer do others use on their berry and currant crops?

Just my 2 cents on currants:

We grew red currants in Upstate New York years ago. I never knew of a year that they failed to produce tons of currants.

I think the fruit is beautiful; it reminds me of plastic, translucent beads with one black dot...all strung together on a green stem.

Momma would spray us with bug spray to keep the 'skeeters off and off we'd go with our buckets. We ate the currants straight off the bush, plus mom made the best red currant jam in the world.

During the harvest months, I couldn't seem to remember that we were poor. I felt like a millionaire with my bucket full of currants, blueberries, black raspberries, red raspberries, grapes, elderberries and tons of every type of apple.

Which species/cultivars of ribes make the best fruit? I am also interested in planting edible fruit shrubs (nanking cherries, too) so I am trying to familiarize myself with their formal names. I have only seen flowering currants locally so far.

Thanks!

Nicole

Tough question Nicole - depends on what flavors you prefer. I grow black, red, white, and pink currants, all different ribes cultivars. I have also grown Nanking cherries in the past but haven't got one now. There are many cultivars to choose from. Nourse Berry farms has some of the more common ones. I have also purchased extremely good plants from Raintree and One Green World. They have some more unusual and hard-to-find cultivars.

Claire

Just have to pipe in about the black currant. My husband is British and I've been to England a few times. Seems as though there's a ton of black currant flavored stuff over there --- soda, candies, jam, etc. To one who isn't used to it, it really is a very strange flavor. I'd hesitate to plant it before tasting it. Can't say that I ever acquired a taste for it though I tried!

I agree McCool. I grew up in a British household, albeit living in Canada, and we had a lot of blackcurrant things. I love 'em, and so do some of my other friends from Europe, but Americans not so much. Although I have converted my better half - he thinks they're yummy now, especially since I make ice cream with them. :-)

I have nankin cherries. This is the third year and they bloom nicely. We'll see what comes out of it.
I planted those after I saw a large bush in the neigbourhood that had berries on it. It was part of
a privacy hedge.

This year I planted AROMATNAYA QUINCE which is supposedly hardy to zone 5 this year. I'll see if it's true.

Claire,

Sorry, I should have split up my question. It was rather vague in hindsight! :)

Thanks for the web site references. I checked Nourse & Plant Files and now know that red currants are ribes rubrum, the local nursery flowering versions I have seen are all ribes sanguineum.

For the second part of my inquiry, I just meant does anyone have any absolute favorite cultivars they prefer over others? I am looking to plant red & black currants.

Thanks again!

Nicole

Nicole, When I first started with ribes, I went with currants first and later got into gooseberries. I now regret that order, as there were a number of years without the gooseberries.

My favorites:

Black currant = Crandall
Non-black currant = try the pink either Glorie des Sablons or Pink Champagne
Red Gooseberry = Hinnomaki Red
Yellow Gooseberry = Hinnomaki yellow

I think the red gooseberries have the best flavor of all the gooseberry colors, so my overall choice of best flavored gooseberry/ribes is H. red.

Enya, Nanking cherries need a pollinator. If you only have one, it is very likely you will not see fruit. If you need a second plant, consider ediblelandscaping.com, who carry a white variety and are nice to deal with.

Regarding ribes sources, I have purchased most of mine from Raintree or One Green World. In comparison, OGW has consistently delivered larger, better ribes plants than Raintree. I've had plants from OGW fruit the year received, while Raintrees plants are typically smaller and some have not fruited until the third season. They have been healthy plants, just much smaller. You may also want to consider Lucille at Whitman Farms. I have not ordered from her, but consistently hear that she is the best source of ribes from many people I respect.

I have 4 plants with one doing much better than the others, it's up to 5'. It's the first year they bloom, two years before I did not see any flowers at all.

Thank you for all the info. You have quite a list of plants you dealt with and remarkable memory of the varieties etc.

Just wanted to add some additional information. Last year I was able to pick up two distressed bush cherries, var Joel, from Lowes. They had about 2 cherries that ripened in August for me. This year, the plants are about 1' high and maybe 18" wide. Both plants are absolutely covered with green cherries this year. So it looks to me like this would be a highly desirable fruit for your consideration. Productive at a small size, precocious and late summer fruit harvest.

Wonderful!

This is too cute! I planted 2 small gooseberries in tubs a few weeks back, not knowing yet where I want them. Can you believe one of them, only about 10" tall, already has a GOOSEBERRY??

Close-up

For what its worth, I have 2 articles scheduled here on DG on small backyard fruits and berries. 2 more in the works: 1 on fruit trees, and 1 on nuts. The 2 on berries are Aug, 20 and Aug. 27.