We like eating wonderberry. We've grown wonderberry for maybe 5 years. It has no taste to speak of. Do potatoes? Do carrots have taste? <...Read Morebr />
The babies love 'em. That's the problem. I'm pulling out the plants afraid that babies may eat green fruit. I'm trying to find out if it is true. Are unripe berries really deadly?
The plant is super east to grow. The seeds really take hold. From one plant, you'll have dozens the next. They grow in any soil, any light, any condition.
I had never heard of this berry before, and got it as a bonus pack from Annapolis Seeds (Nova Scotia). I was shocked and delighted at how...Read More prolific and delicious these berries are. The plant (mine was only about 18 inches tall--in the ground, poor soil, my mother's was almost 3 feet--in a pot rich with compost) started producing berries in late June, and is still producing berries today, mid-October. (I'm in Halifax, Nova Scotia.)
The berries are tiny, easily squished (be careful when handling them, they burst easily), but are so incredibly sweet and delicious. To make sure they are ripe, check the bottoms of the berries. If there is any green whatsoever, leave them on the plant. The berry must be fully black (so purple, almost black) before it is ripe. It has a toxic bitterness if not fully ripe.
My only complaint is that I didn't plant more of these. Next year, I intend to grow a full row of them, so I have a larger, steady supply of the delicious berries.
I purchased seeds from Baker Creek (sold as the Wonderberry, S. burbankii, developed by Luther Burbank; if you're reviewing this, make su...Read Morere you're talking about the correct species, which has never been wild as it's a manmade hybrid between two species, according to Wikipedia, anyhow, although it possibly may be ferral in some places; I could see it reseeding easily; Solanum scabrum and Solanum melanocerasum are not the species I'm reviewing, but S. burbankii is; I don't know why those are so often considered synonyms, as they already belong to other plants). I grew S. burbankii in 2017. They are nice plants and very easy to grow. The fruits are very small, and taste excellent, IMO. They taste like watermelon (kind of acidic for watermelon, though), with a hint of bilberry. They are sweet (not savory). They do not taste like blueberries. I was disappointed by their small size, at first, but they're prolific and very easy to harvest (no husking like ground cherries; no prickles like Morelle De Balbis, although I do like both). Even though they're small, they're still worth eating and I get satisfaction from a single berry. The seeds are large for the tiny fruit size (as big as small tomato seeds, and bigger than some tomato seeds I've seen), but they are soft and not significant when eating. Fruits pluck easily from the plants. No scissors needed. Much easier to harvest than currants or elderberries, IMO. Either scale insects or mealybugs seem to be on my plants, but the plants don't seem to mind much, if at all. Harvesting fruit gets a perhaps green powdery substance on my hands. I didn't water mine anywhere near harvest-time, and they're in full sun in soil that was once clay but has been amended over the years. The plants had partial shade when they were shorter (they're next to a container that shaded them). They are heat-tolerant. It's been 95-106 degrees F. or so for the daily high for weeks, and they've been setting and ripening fruit in a prolific fashion.
I've attempted to grow Solanum melanocerasum (The Garden Huckleberry) before, but it was not as easy to grow as Solanum burbankii, and spider mites feasted on it extremely. I didn't get any fruit. The leaves don't look the same. Solanum burbankii is said to be sweeter, but Solanum melanocerasum is said to have larger fruit. I didn't have the most ideal soil or soil amendments for my Garden Huckleberry, though.
In Asia, they are wild. Nobody really growing them on purpose. People eat ripe dark berries as snack and cook the young shoots and leav...Read Morees as leafy vegetable. Easy to grow from seeds and no maintenance!
Val-des-Monts, QC (Zone 4a) | October 2014 | positive
My 1st year: plants were up to 30" in zone 4a (Gatineau mountains) and resisted -1C with bubble wrap pegged to the cages; have resisted 2...Read MoreC no covering without loosening ripe berries and continue to flower.
Mine took 30-90 days to germinate in flats outdoors so germination is probably heat dependent. acid tolerant, sandy poor soil is fine, 6-8 h direct sun at peak summer and mine only required light watering 4x after planting out. even the latest two 4-6" produced heavily.1/2 have ripened by now. I found them sweet and they never got further than my mouth! Does anyone know whether green berries finished inside (upside down, drying) makes them safe? I will try germination rates on green berries. I am also going to transplant back to pots, bring in under flourescents, will test groups: left alone in 5gal buckets, cutting back branches, and/or trimming roots and small pots on test groups, except for a group of 5, which I will try outdoor wintering. They are not gas heat tolerant: one seed germinated; I kept that one in a 12" pot and it reached 18" very prolifant. They don't seem to want to air layer or propagate by putting a rock on a lower branch. Don't need support at 30" (I put cages over in Sept to support a covering)
Attract predator hoverflies as well as bees, and non violent wasps!
I have seeds to trade for anything zone 5 or lower or if you are near Ottawa, ON willing to trade seedlings next Spring. Will update on wintering results next Spring, and results on volunteers (self seeding), also on wildlife preferance.
We grew garden huckleberry (Solanum guineense) last summer. I did not start them indoors. I direct sowed them in a garden row from thre...Read Moree-year-old "free with purchase" seeds. They germinated within a week with a very good rate of germination. We were in an "exceptional" drought area last year, so I watered them daily. The garden huckleberry plants thrived along with the other nightshades in the heat. The plants reached a height of 4'-5'. The blooms really attracted bees to our garden. Each plant had upwards of 100 fruits or more on it. The fruits are about the diameter of my thumb. They do not taste like sweet berries raw, even after the first frost and turning dull. However, cook them, then stir in sugar, and something wonderful happens--they smell and taste delicious and make a wonderful rich purple canned fruit. I served cobblers made with home canned garden huckleberries, and people thought that they were delicious. The color fooled some into guessing the cobblers were made with blueberries, though I find the taste very different myself. Warning: This is a nightshade, so the green parts of the plants are poisonous, just like tomatoes, potatoes, jimsonweed, and other nightshade plants. The berries are poisonous until they turn black. It is best to wait to pick and process them until after the first frost and when the berries go from shiny to dull. This plant is a winner for our area!
Friendship, OH (Zone 7b) | February 2011 | positive
Extremely easy to grow, even easier than tomatoes. Doesn't seem to be very finicky with regards to watering and soil type. Fruits appear ...Read Morequickly but take quite a while to ripen. They are best when left on the plant as long as possible and turn from glossy to dull. The fruit quality is variable, from bland to pretty tasty. The tastiest ones had a citrus and blueberry-esque flavor. I never cooked with them; I only ate them fresh. I will probably grow them again this year to see how they fare as a jam.
Got my first ripe berries and I'm not impressed. I'm sure that if you want to make pies and have enough berries that it would be really g...Read Moreood, but raw off the plant they have very little flavor and are purple balls full of seeds. They do not even compare to lovely fresh blueberries. I don't have enough room to grow enough plants to really get enough for a pie so I won't be growing these anymore in my small garden. Would rather make room for blueberries you can eat off the bush.
Not only that but some pest here in the San Joaquin Valley loves this bush and has eaten alot of leaves and left holes in most of the berries. Could be grasshoppers or caterpillars. No aphids though so that's a plus.
Do not confuse S. retroflexum (syn. S. x burbankii ) (wonderberry), with S. scabrum (syn. S. melanocerasum, S. nigrum guineense) (garden ...Read Morehuckleberry) - these are two different species. Solanum x burbankii this is a synonym name of Solanum retroflexum (accepted name).The names: S. melanocerasum and S. nigrum guineense these are the synonyms of other plant - Solanum scabrum (accepted name) - garden huckleberry.
Solanum retroflexum (= S. x burbankii) this is a hybrid of Solanum scabrum (garden huckleberry) and S. vilosum (woolly nightshade).This species was breeded by Luther Burbank.
This plant is easy to grow. This gives a high yield. It quickly begins to bear fruit. Fruits are very tasty.
New York & Terrell, TX (Zone 8b) | April 2006 | neutral
80 days from transplant. Although a lot of companies are stating that this is a "new" plant variety, it has been cultivated for at least ...Read Moredecades. An interesting looking plant, similar to tomato plants with pepper-like leaves. They reach about 3 feet in height and produce hundreds of 1/2 inch to 3/4 inch dark purple, almost black, fruit. Grows with very little effort.
Harvest when the fruit turns from glossy to dull. They have little flavor raw and only used cooked into pies and preserves and can be canned and frozen for later use in recipes. Although they do not have a strong taste, some people may not care for them while others will love them.
We like eating wonderberry. We've grown wonderberry for maybe 5 years. It has no taste to speak of. Do potatoes? Do carrots have taste? <...Read More
I had never heard of this berry before, and got it as a bonus pack from Annapolis Seeds (Nova Scotia). I was shocked and delighted at how...Read More
I purchased seeds from Baker Creek (sold as the Wonderberry, S. burbankii, developed by Luther Burbank; if you're reviewing this, make su...Read More
In Asia, they are wild. Nobody really growing them on purpose. People eat ripe dark berries as snack and cook the young shoots and leav...Read More
My 1st year: plants were up to 30" in zone 4a (Gatineau mountains) and resisted -1C with bubble wrap pegged to the cages; have resisted 2...Read More
We grew garden huckleberry (Solanum guineense) last summer. I did not start them indoors. I direct sowed them in a garden row from thre...Read More
Wikipedia reports the unripe (green) fruit is poisonous.
Extremely easy to grow, even easier than tomatoes. Doesn't seem to be very finicky with regards to watering and soil type. Fruits appear ...Read More
Got my first ripe berries and I'm not impressed. I'm sure that if you want to make pies and have enough berries that it would be really g...Read More
Do not confuse S. retroflexum (syn. S. x burbankii ) (wonderberry), with S. scabrum (syn. S. melanocerasum, S. nigrum guineense) (garden ...Read More
80 days from transplant. Although a lot of companies are stating that this is a "new" plant variety, it has been cultivated for at least ...Read More