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Since reading about all these berries all over the forum... I really have to figure out how to grow them! Please help!

We get strawberries here... and gooseberries (if we're really, really lucky!) - otherwise, everything else is only obtainable in cans or frozen form.

Can you grow all these different berries from seeds - and if so, can you get the seeds on e-bay? I'm kind of new to the 'surfing the net' thing, so haven't had a chance to peruse e-bay yet.

Any advice or ideas? ...on any berries! ...all berries! I have no idea why we don't get any other berries in SA, but if I get half the chance - I'm definitely going to give it a bash! I don't even know what any of them taste like (besides strawberries and gooseberries)!

Berry Bliss!!!

Hi Bridgette, Don't quote me but I think that most berries to plant are taken from cuttings. Strawberries send out runners which if left will send down roots along its length. These will develope into new strawberry plants. The idea is to use a small pot with potting mix, pin the runner where the roots are forming into the pot. Keep moist. When the new plant has about 4-5 leaves, you can then cut the runner off from the parent plant. You can do this to as many runners as you need new plants. You will have to buy the plants initially from the nursery, or do the above from friends or neigbours.
Other berry plants are usually taken from cuttings. I have used prunings from the older plants and replanted them. If you are potting up small cuttings, then you will need a special rooting hormone to assist in propogation. Instruction will be on the label.

Robin

Hi Robin

Thanks for the advice - but it's not really going to help me much for now... you don't get any other berries besides strawberries and gooseberries here !

Hold thumbs for me... hopefully one day I'll actually find someone here who has established plants !

Thanks
B

Bridgette - I think someone wrote somewhere else about a lot of berries being cool climate fruit. You may find that they just don't grow well in your kind of climate so that's why you don't find them there.

I hate to say it but an awful lot of berries really are not that exciting to eat - they need to be made into jam or cordial or put in desserts with a lot of sugar - so not so healthy as the kind of fruit you just eat as it comes off the tree/bush etc.

What fruit can you grow? If you can grow pineapples, bananas, paw paws, mangoes that sort of thing then if I was you I would be very happy indeed! Sometimes you just have to put up with what grows best in your climate - as most people in northern europe are finding out this dismal cool damp summer - it is lettuce! (ok not a fruit! )

Millymollymandy wrote:What fruit can you grow? If you can grow pineapples, bananas, paw paws, mangoes that sort of thing then if I was you I would be very happy indeed!

You know.... you've just made me realise something. We South Africans are so spoiled for fresh produce, yet we're always griping about getting the 'leftovers' after export.

Up until last year, we lived in a huge house with a huge garden on a naval base. We had a banana tree in our back garden - and even though my youngest son absolutely loves bananas (he and his 2 older brothers can go through 3 - 4 kg's in a weekend!)... we lived in that house for nearly 5 years and only once ever actually picked any bananas from it. For the life of me, I have no idea why... stupid hey! My neighbours chopped down a paw paw tree (most people here don't really eat them), a guava tree (also... nobody eats them here), as well as a fig tree (only the 'older generation' eats these). My neighbours on the other side had a lemon tree, as well as an orange tree... and they never used to harvest any. All the kids used to climb the tree when they weren't home, and grab as much fruit as they could... the rest just used to fall down and rot where they fell. My neighbours used to talk about me behind my back and refer to me (in a 'good natured' way...) as that 'arty farty woman that fights' with them not to cut down their trees! In my defense though, the bananas really tasted different and 'floury' in comparison to the bought ones.

Anyway, I know I'm being silly about the berries... but I tend to preserve so much anyway... from drying figs, paw paws and apples, to making loads of different jams and chutneys (apricots are the best!), I'm still sure I'd love the berries.

I've heard about a place that apparently grows all sorts of berries and sells all kinds of preserves - about an hours drive from here, so I'm trying to find out more... and exactly where it is. I'm hoping they sell plants, but if not... what exactly is a 'cane'? Is it a young branch that you cut off... or a root that grows out the ground?

So hold thumbs for me... I really hope I find this place and that they'll be forthcoming with info and advice. Who knows - maybe next year, this time, I'll have a couple of jars of my own berry jam! In the meantime, I'm going to come down even harder on my neighbours who are constantly cutting down their fruit trees!!!

I would say give it a try. Yes usually things like currants are propagated by cuttings, but I can see no reason why it might not work from seeds -- only one way to find out.

And hush your mouth - you person saying berries are no good for eating - they are delicious raw!

A cane - raspberries fruit on canes which are long shoots up to about 2 metres high. The plant sends out lots of these shoots/canes and it is easy to propagate from them as you just get a spade and cut them off below ground and they'll have roots on ready to plant out and make another plant from!

Blackberries probably grow the same way when they are cultivated but round here we just have the wild ones which tangle themselves up growing in all directions and grow through trees, hedges etc. Basically they are very nasty weeds for 11 months of the year (very nasty thorns) but for one month they are lovely fruiting plants!

possum wrote:And hush your mouth - you person saying berries are no good for eating - they are delicious raw!

Do you mean me? Personally I don't like recurrants, blackcurrants, elderberries and gooseberries raw as they are very sour.

Bridgette wrote:the bananas really tasted different and 'floury' in comparison to the bought ones.

I know it's too late now - but maybe you should have tried to use them for cooking: Fried with curry, for example; or to make banana cake. Well, maybe you get the chance again!

And MMM - shame on you : berries are soooooo healthy, eaten raw! Even the sour ones. I love blackcurrants (as well as all the others mentioned) with rolled oats and milk. No sugar.

Have a go at getting berries from seed, toherwise you'll always be wondering!

I grew lemon trees, orange trees, and lychee trees this way in the UK. I stuck the seeds in a jar with some wet kitchen roll,a nd left them on the radiator - you won't need to do that though, because of the heat there.

I'm not sure which seeds need stratification - might be worth researching that. I know cherries do, and i think strawberries, but i'm not sure about any of the others.

Give it a go, the worst thing that can happen is that the seeds don't grow (give them a good few months though, i've just got some tea going after 6 months or so...).

Good luck!

Millymollymandy wrote:

possum wrote:And hush your mouth - you person saying berries are no good for eating - they are delicious raw!

Do you mean me? Personally I don't like recurrants, blackcurrants, elderberries and gooseberries raw as they are very sour.

But in a syllabub/fruit fool they are gorgeous, the cream balances out any rawness.
We have just planted another gooseberrry bush and a white currant bush, looking forward to a nice crop next year

the.fee.fairy wrote:I grew lemon trees, orange trees, and lychee trees this way in the UK...
I'm not sure which seeds need stratification - might be worth researching that. I know cherries do, and i think strawberries, but i'm not sure about any of the others.

Hi Fee Fairy!

Thanks for the advice....

you too MillyMollyMandy!!!

It's all really appreciated! Just 2 things...

1. I saw your lychee pics - awesome! ...but I was told by a citrus farmer in Malmesbury once that it was impossible to grow oranges from seed - he said you could only grow them from grafts. I thought this was impossible though - how can you not grow something from seed? But I took it for granted and have never subsequently tried - but I will now! I'm all for inspiration !!!

and 2. What does 'stratification' entail? I usually grow my strawberries from seed that I've bought, but have thus far never been able to grow any from seeds that I've obtained from the fruit that I've grown...? Maybe that's why.... please tell me how!

Thanks once again!
B

Stratification (I think) is whether a seed needs a cold/hot period, for example some seeds need to be over wintered before they can germinate. There is also (I might be getting the two terms confused) striating the seeds which means scratching (or treating with acid) the seed coat to simulate chewing/digestion.

Some plants need you do damage the seeds in order to get rid of their dormancy. Some seeds you drop in boiling water, others you nick with a sharp knife, others you can sandpaper a bit.

I don't know which tecnique is suitable for fruit seeds though.

Some commercial types have been selected over the years so that their seed are non viable, however if you thnk about it, if you go far enough back they all had to be able to be propagated by seeds, else they would not have survived.
So in commercially bought fruit it is a bit hit and miss as to wether you will be successfull - but there is only one way to find out.

possum wrote:

Millymollymandy wrote:

possum wrote:And hush your mouth - you person saying berries are no good for eating - they are delicious raw!

Do you mean me? Personally I don't like recurrants, blackcurrants, elderberries and gooseberries raw as they are very sour.

But in a syllabub/fruit fool they are gorgeous, the cream balances out any rawness.
We have just planted another gooseberrry bush and a white currant bush, looking forward to a nice crop next year

My original posting in this thread said they were better in a dessert. I'm not going to nit pick any more!