I created to bring attention to our collective shame for not planting or talking about Cranberries and Lingonberries enough.
Seriously not enough threads.
Perhaps we should all consider joining a group order and dividing the 10 minimum over several people.
Cranberries can live in a foam-type container in some sandy or clay soil floating in a pond…that’s the method for the average city home and small yard. Either that, or in containers on the porch/patio.
Production is not good considering the cost…so buying cranberries is cheaper. I don’t believe lingonberries are commercially available.
12 cultivars are available at Hartmann’s
links in the hartsmanns shared order thread.
You can buy lingonberries in jam form pretty readily, but you’re correct that the berries are not widely available other than that.
I might put some cranberries in my carnivorous plant bog this year.
How many? Join us in our group order.
Don’t tempt me! I already spend too much money on plants.
I have one Ben Lear I planted from a plug last year so it’s rather small. I also have six different lingonberries shipping out to me this spring. I may be in the market for some more cranberries assuming I don’t find another small acidic soil loving plant. I have one wintergreen as well which for a plug actually produced over a handful of berries last year. Might want some more of those too.
If you want 2 of each Bisgard and Red Sunset Lingonberry. That will be enough to secure an order.
I planted one or two of each between my blueberries. The blueberry rows are overgrown with wild thorny blackberries and weeds - haven’t gotten good attention.
I hadn’t seen the lingonberries or cranberries in a couple years at least so thought perhaps they’d succumbed. But last weekend I noticed one strolling by, probably lingonberry. More visible since they are evergreen. I’ll have to investigate and see if I can find evidence of the others, or some labels.
I got a six pack of plants from raintree nursery in 2020 (2 each or koralle, ertenesegen, and ida) that I put in 2 2 ft x 4ft garden boxes. Ida so far has made the largest darkest berries and koralle bears pretty heavily. I haven’t gotten a ton of production from the ertenesegen as it seems to be the one that is trying to spread throughout the garden boxes. They are nice little berries that if you like tart are fine fresh. My favorite use so far is in pancakes but I haven’t gotten a big enough harvest yet for sauce or jam. I had to move one of the boxes after the first year as the spot they were in was too warm for them.
I just assumed nobody had either plant because of the lack of discussion, but here I come to find they are just the disregarded black sheeps of the acidic loving berry family (blueberries obviously being the star). In all seriousness, I am excited to try both in between my blueberries and possibly pawpaws if I can find a balance that keeps all of them happy pH wise. I plan to concentrate sphagnum moss around the berries and leaf compost/wood chips closer to the pawpaws.
Asimina triloba is going to like 6.5 pH better than a 5.5 you might use for blueberry.
Hollies, azaleas, crapemyrtles, mtn. laurels…and blueberries do fine together .
Higher pH for honeyberries, currants, and many other fruits and veggies.
I’ve killed cranberries at 6.5 and
I’ve moved off and left lingonberries doing great on north side of a place in zone 8a that had acidic soil…in the 5 pH range.
But, return for the labor has seemed too small. I did it for the experience and haven’t repeated it.
I have a number of varieties of lingonberries that have grown well and spread, but don’t produce after more than a decade. I started some cranberries from seed. When I planted them out a year and a half later in a carefully prepared bed, the gophers promptly chewed them off! Ggrrrrrr. . .
For what it’s worth, in Blake’s book he DOES specifically mention that pawpaws tolerate between a 5.5 and 6.5 pH if I remember correctly… That said I’ll likely be keeping the lingonberry/cranberry/blueberry bed separate from the pawpaw /blueberry bed (pawpaw blueberry is further from the garage foundation).
I’m excited to see how everyone’s new setup goes for these after the Hartmann order.
A word of caution - when I bought my first set of plants from Edible Landscaping in 2019, my neighbors piggybacked on the order and bought a few koralle lingonberry plugs. They planted them and promptly forgot about them without amending the soil or watering them (they died quickly). So give them a good start and you will likely be rewarded. A $5 gallon plant needs a couple dollars put in the hole sometimes to help it flourish.
Good points.
Blake’s book is a good one. Best on the subject evidently. But, the happiest fruits in nature are along a stream in the silty soil of flooding river or stream bottoms. And the pH is typically 6.5 or higher. I’ve seen some straggly looking trees in hilltop fence lines and such in areas that host mountain laurels or sassafras or sourwood trees.
Do cranberry and lingonberry cross pollinate?
Does anyone who bought these have a report to share with the group?
I’ve been thinking about buying some cranberry and/or lingonberry on my spring Hartmann’s order. I’m in acid, but somewhat heavy soil in z7b southern VA. Ph range from 5.1-5.7 without amendments. Obviously I need lime for almost everything except blueberries and relatives lol.
My main concern will be water regulation and heat. I do have a shaded boggy area above my pond…but I’m thinking the chance of me beating critters to anything down there is probably approaching zero. Hartmann’s claims that for them cranberries do ok on upland soil. I do have a young, irrigated blueberry patch. I could plant cranberries in between plants and probably be fine for at least a few years before the blueberries crowd in. Not sure that I want to gamble 10/variety or offer the extras for sale publicly unless I have a good idea they will survive. I feel like experimenting with plants is great fun, but most folks just want a proven producer.
Thanks!
