Unusual soft fruit plants

ArbitraryRandom

I've got three honeyberry and a related plant called a 'raspberry honeysuckle' (which is supposed to produce red fruit. 

I've had them all for about a year and a half now, and they were about a year old when I got them, so this is the first year I'd really expect fruit (apparently they're on a 4-5 year cycle like blueberries so this and next year should be the most productive). Honestly I've not been impressed... Very few fruit and the fruit produced doesn't have a very distinct taste (lemony but not very juicy or refreshing). For the space they take up I'd recommend a couple of blueberry bushes - I've heard decent things about the pink lemonade variety. 

I've also got a jostaberry and gooseberry, plus a couple of Japanese quince, all of which were new this year so can't advise on productivity or taste as yet. 

twopenny

I love tinned loganberries - so I bought a plant.

It didn't exactly thrive and the fruit was meah. Nothing like the tinned ones so I'm wondering 'varieties' or 'soil' or something I don't know about.

Don't think I've seen them growing anywhere either so maybe there's a reason. But they must grow in profusion to be canned.

Of course you can't find any in tins as fruit generally is a dirty word with the supermarkets.

fatbelly

Currently growing a Goji berry. Not a very vigorous plant so far

Murphybear

ArbitraryRandom said:

I've got three honeyberry and a related plant called a 'raspberry honeysuckle' (which is supposed to produce red fruit. 

I've had them all for about a year and a half now, and they were about a year old when I got them, so this is the first year I'd really expect fruit (apparently they're on a 4-5 year cycle like blueberries so this and next year should be the most productive). Honestly I've not been impressed... Very few fruit and the fruit produced doesn't have a very distinct taste (lemony but not very juicy or refreshing). For the space they take up I'd recommend a couple of blueberry bushes - I've heard decent things about the pink lemonade variety. 

I've also got a jostaberry and gooseberry, plus a couple of Japanese quince, all of which were new this year so can't advise on productivity or taste as yet. 

I have 2 blueberry plants.  Haven’t had a lot of blueberries yet. I’ve found 3 PYO within reasonable travelling distance.  2 are near the seaside so we can go paddling as well   

My husband loves loganberry jam but it can be difficult to find.  We found a PYO that had loganberries but the bushes had been totally neglected.  We did find one NT property in Devon that had loganberry jam as well as strawberry jam with their cream teas. They had a couple of jars in their shop so naturally we bought them.  We lived in Devon for 14 years and got through a lot of cream teas.  

I’ve just remember we came across chuckleberry jam.  Chuckleberries anyone?  I wondered if they were the same as huckleberries which grow a lot on Exmoor.  

Afternote.  I’ve just found an interesting site called “British frozen fruits”.  They have chuckleberries:

”A chuckleberry is a hybrid between a redcurrant, gooseberry and jostaberry (a jostaberry already being a hybrid of a gooseberry and blackcurrant). This large mix of different flavour profiles has resulted in a dark red/purple fruit around the size of a blackcurrant, with a complex, yet delicious taste. It provides vibrancy and sharpness to cooking, whilst simultaneously being sweet - making it an incredibly exciting ingredient to use.”  

Farway

twopenny said:

I love tinned loganberries - so I bought a plant.

It didn't exactly thrive and the fruit was meah. Nothing like the tinned ones so I'm wondering 'varieties' or 'soil' or something I don't know about.

Don't think I've seen them growing anywhere either so maybe there's a reason. But they must grow in profusion to be canned.

Do you know the variety of your loganberry? Is it a prickly one or the non prickle type?

Asking because I used to grow a thornless one years ago & loved it, and thinking of getting another now, but they needed to be really ripe though

At the time there were different clones and care was needed to get the “right” one. There were rogues around.

alicef

One fruit I've not made much, (well - make that no), use of is mulberry, in spite of having a tree.  Apparently there are dwarf versions suitable for pots.    This year our tree has quite a lot of fruit, so I might shift myself to try making a preserve from the berries.  The fruit ripen over a number of weeks, so that possibly put me off harvesting.

FreeBear

fatbelly said:

Currently growing a Goji berry. Not a very vigorous plant so far

Just you wait

I planted a small cane several years ago, and it has taken over the bed. Not found the fruits to be particularly exciting, but the flowers & leaves make an interesting addition to a salad.

RAS

Unfortunately, I didn't record the source but a writer suggested that goyi berry referred to a lot of different plants, as in dessert plum, sloe, hedging plum , rubrus trees.  So fruitfulness is very varied. They indicated the most prolific goyibery they ever seen in the Uk was growing out of a crack in the pavement of a London station.

So nil coddling, brutal environment, minimal nutriments. And right variety.

kimwp

alicef said:

One fruit I've not made much, (well - make that no), use of is mulberry, in spite of having a tree.  Apparently there are dwarf versions suitable for pots.    This year our tree has quite a lot of fruit, so I might shift myself to try making a preserve from the berries.  The fruit ripen over a number of weeks, so that possibly put me off harvesting.

I bought a dwarf mulberry, had buyer's regret when I then googled it and found a lot of people saying that the fruit wasn't very nice tasting. Then even more buyer's regret when for three years, all it did was grow a new little twig, which died the following year.

I have a Saskatoon bush, which has quite unusual flavoured berries. And I had a Chilean guava "kapow" that I unfortunately killed when I thought it wasn't doing well and over watered it.

alicef

@kimwp interesting about the dwarf mulberry not tasting very nice - was it 'Charlotte Russe'? M. rotundifolia and not nigra/alba - maybe that accounted for the disappointing taste.   Saskatoon & 'Kapow' sound very interesting.   I sympathise on over watering - I'm sure that's what did for my lemon.