There are quite many SBT varieties which can be described as ‘sweet’ but the acidity is still the main flavor characteristics. The best tasting ones can be compared with the oranges - still acid but sweet enough so you can eat them raw. These sweet varieties mostly come from Russia (Lisavenko breeding and some others). Thorns are not a problem, there are usually just a few at the end of the shoots.
What is a real problem is the susceptibility to various fungal diseases - while the sour varieties are usually strong growers and nice and healthy bushes, the sweet ones are quite hard to grow. The branches are very often damaged by some kind of necrosis and must be completely removed. Sometimes the whole bush just dies.
I didn’t test the “Ukraine Freedom” variety but I believe that it will be very similar to others from this “sweet” group.
I have a friend who says her SB positively grow like mad. She lives on a hill with almost no topsoil, created from leftover copper mine tailings.
I am hopeful and wonder if it might just be a case of missing the symbiotic nitrogen fixing bacteria “Frankia”… I also have some pathetic plants so I will try moving soil around between them as this thread suggests. Thanks for the helpful post.
Same here, sunny open windswept prairie area on a slope with impoverished, alkaline soil. They thrived!
It seems like that may be the key. Mine are in acidic loam, generally good growing soil. Maybe I should pour some battery acid on them, bury them in gravel, kick them, and then walk away and forget about them. May help. 
What’s the growing habit of these two varieties? I am considering either one of those or Garden’s Gift.
Does anyone know where I can find a pollination chart for Sea Buckthorn?
I have a bunch growing in good soil in pots. They are doing better than most of my in ground ones in average soil. Good soil doesn’t directly seem to hurt them and they may even like it. I think the problem with good or even half decent soil is that it’s soft enough that whatever critters like to eat the roots are easily able to burrow through the good soil and chew away.
Until there are more named male selections available it won’t be possible for anyone to create a meaningful pollination chart. The vast majority of males sold are simply labeled as “male.”
they taste like strychnine I imagine would taste like. those things went for a ride. it didn’t take me long. If you want to add sugar to anything…
I honestly don’t know as I’ve only had them in the ground one year. They didn’t grow as much as I was hoping last year, but did put out about 3 in of top growth. I’m guessing, though, that they reach for the skies like a column. Soil may not be the problem, I’m waiting to see how they grow this year especially with the vole outbreak I’ve had. They are surrounded by a deep circle of wood chips though, with vole proof cages shoved deep into the ground so that may help protect the roots.
That bad, eh? I guess if I experience taste the same way as you, I can always make them into fodder for the sheep. I read somewhere that the foliage makes a nutritious leaf hay.
I was stuffing my hands in my mouth and spatting everywhere and then they took a ride
Ho ho! That sounds identical to my experience with Phoenix Tears Goji berries.
Battery acid would have you moving the wrong direction (probably good for blueberries though!)
What you would want is to mix limestone sand into your hole, which would keep things well drained and alkaline.
I have a 5 gallon bucket of purified steel slag that is basically the same thing, great as AG lime too.
Any recommendations on varieties that might be available in the US that would be sweet other than the ones mentioned?
Thanks for sharing your experience!
The first time I tried sea buckthorn, I got stock from Plains, MT in 1999…and planted some in someone’s yard for ‘edible landscaping’.
All the plants died. (Can’t say the precise reason…but I guaranteed them, and had to replace every one of them for free.)
And all the replacements also ended up dying.
I’ve not been encouraged to try the species again.
How I want to answer that would come off in a way that would not include its potential.
The mixed one I have is called Miracle: Hydrate. It is blended with Pineapple & Peach. The carrier is mineral water. Waay to thin to stand up to the SB. Serving size is 250 ml.
I’m covering for my staff at the grouphome this weekend, so I don’t have the straight one handy. I think it is called Sibu, and I think it only has one ingredient. I’m not sure if it is a concentrate or full juice, but I’m sure it is not diluted. Serving size on that one is one ounce.
I don’t think I’d go so far as “foetid,” but I understand the appeal of the word. For both products “beer” is the word that comes to mind. Every beer I’d had has a couple of negative flavors in common. This is not the alcohol, as that is “clean” can be covered up enough by other things in liquors or wines, not hidden, but covered. This is the other nasty, the dirty one, which can be blended away. I don’t think “hoppy” is the right word, but maybe that’s it. I suspect beer drinkers can acquire the taste faster than others.
I’m on the fourth bottle of the blend, and it is not so insulting to my palate as the first. I’ve probabbly had as many doses of the straight stuff, and while I still think dose is the best term, I can see it blending well with thicker juices - the orange and mango others mentioned above, and probably something like a pear or maybe even a red grape.
I’d be curious to try the fresh fruits (and the ice-cream), and I suspect that solving the problems with the sweeter ones is the key to marketability. Well, stems that stayed on the fruit or let go cleanly at least would be a key as well.
I don’t mind the tart, and these two products don’t give me the citrusy taste like I imagine from other descriptions, but I do see potential. The sheer number of female varieties with vague reasons to choose them and the lack of defined male cultivars that can satisfy bloom times without having to buy your entire set all at once from one vendor makes it risky for me. I have limited space and don’t want to need three males to pollinate three females that may as well be different fruits. The healthy elements are appealing, but I eat well enough where only the omegas are potentially not redundant in sufficient quantities already. Too much vitamin C can actually be a negative, most of the time.
I could not readily find a source for the bacteria to innoculate with, so I suspect potted from an established plantation in the way to maximize success, or at least having a source of fines to top-dress with.
Not sure why everyone seems put off by your inquiry James, but from the description this sounds like a winner to me.
I’ve grown several varieties of Buckthorne over 20 years. First learned about its wonderful flavor on a visit to my wife’s home in Ekaterinburg, Russia. Her family introduced it to me and after drinking its juice for each day of my visit I was convinced it’s worthy of growing. My favorite and most productive female is Titan, developed in your country. The only drawback it needing to pick the berries among the thornes, but it’s definitely worth it once you have the juice or the jelly from it. There is no other fruit I can compare it with, but its tart sweet taste is certanly memorable. If you try this thornless variety, I would like to know what you think.
Dennis
Kent, wa
Dennis what kind of soil are you growing it in? Well drained or wet? Clay/loam/sand? Acidic or basic? Mineral or organic? Do you give it any fertilizer?
Hi Ryan
There is no need for fertilizer, it grows here readily as long as you give it good drainage, and do not pile up soil around the tree once planted. It fixes its own nitrogen in root nodules. So the trees are probably the easiest to grow. Plant at least one male per every 3-4 females with the male standing upwind if you have a prevailing wind direction. I grow clover around mine so the soil stays well conditioned. My soil is mainly slightly acidic and the remnants of a glacial moraine. In Russia you generally see them populating the rich sandy soils beside stream banks.
Dennis