It deserved the hype!

General Fruit Growing
#21

@Robert how would you rank comice vs bartlett and Bosc in terms of eating qualities?

#22

@tubig I have all three. Comice as I stated earlier is tops with a silky smooth texture. Bartlett is a good eating and canning pear. Bosc is firmer, but good, and cooks better than the other two. Each has their own unique flavors and are worth having.

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#23

Few things

  1. Baby Crawford peach - its voted as the best in Santa Clara CRFG multiple times in a row. I wasn’t sure if there is anything special about it as many of the yellow peaches taste the same. This is really good in our climate. Very strong peach flavor with sweetness. Too bad this is high chill

  2. Santa Rosa plum - I listed Flavor King in the other thread, but Santa Rosa is its refined form that I love (I know everyone here thinks the other way around). Not sure why many think it is an average plum. When perfectly ripe, it is spicy, juicy, sweet and tart - explosion of flavors

  3. Cherimoya - This is just vanilla ice cream in a fruit. Exceptional flavor and sweetness. I thought this would be like other Annonaceae but the difference is chalk and cheese

  4. Figs - If you’ve only eaten Brown Turkey and unripened Tiger figs from the supermarket (like me few years back), home grown figs are a revelation - specifically the jammy, sweet ones like Black Madeira, Tia Penya, CdDs

Many more to list - Morus Nigra, Marion berry, apricots,…

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#24

In my experience, the only way to propagate Morus nigra is through grafting to a Morus alba that propagates easily from cuttings

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#25

Mangoes. Keitt, Mahachinook, Orange essence, Fascell…the list can go on

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#26

Absolutely agree with Morus nigra black mulberry for those who can patiently grow it

#27

Thanks! Yes, it’s a fine fruit, and cold hardy, and I don’t currently have one. I planted one 3 years ago that died for unknown reasons (not winter kill) and Fedco hasn’t been able to send me one for the last two years. I may need to try to find another source.

For clarity, though, despite having tasty dark fruit, Illinois Everbearing is not a Black Mulberry (Morus nigra), but a Red Mulberry (Morus rubra). Or according to some people, a Red-White hybrid (Morus rubra x alba). My assertion though (and that of some other people in the thread) is that true Black Mulberry are head-and-shoulders above all the Reds and Whites for flavor.

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#28

Please do! And while you are at it, tell us more about Western trailing blackberries. And do you happen to be able to contrast Cara’s Choice Blueberry with Hannah’s Choice Blueberry?

#29

Ah, ok. Is ‘Northrop’ supposed to be nigra? That is the only other graft I have had survive winter but they are not as good as Illinois.

#30

No Northrop is not a nigra.

These are natives in the west. Many need protection in my zone I have to protect them to get fruit. Cultivars with western traits are tayberry, boysenberry, siskiyou , New Berry, marionberry, Black Diamond, the Columbia series etc. I prefer the taste and lack of grassiness the thornless types have. Well the thornless gene Arkansas uses. The thornless gene in the westerns is a different gene. Arkansas should use it,
I still grow Arkansas thornless as they do have some good qualities. Productive, decent size. Easy to harvest. Trailing thorny types are a bitch to deal with. Lack of hardiness is another huge disadvantage too.

#31

I have been meaning to ask you how hardy your pluots are. Would you say pluots and pluerry are hardy to zone 5?

#32

Cherries.

It’s hard to find a cherry that’s not good.

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#33

I can only say they are fine here in 6a.

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#34

Downside to cherry trees is the grocery store already has amazing cherries. Can’t really improve on it as much for sweetness as a apricot, pear, apple, peach or plum. Also not very rare like a mulberry or paw paw. I grow cherry trees but I grow them because the prices at the store are so high and not the increased flavor or that stores don’t sell them.

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#35

I’ll second the comice. They have been outstanding here in my mild coastal climate and, knock on wood, have not been plagued by any significant ailments. They are buttery, sweet juicy smooth eating and, if I store them cold, and stagger them, I can eat them fresh for many, many weeks. Bosc is also good here, a bit firmer and great, but comice takes it with the combination of texture and flavor. Still waiting for my Warren to start fruiting and hopefully be another challenger to comice.

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#36

I’m a bit south of you and I can see why you like them. They are very early and make great flavored preserves. Out of hand eating is an acquiired taste, though.

#37

I’ve grown them from seed quite easily. Buy from a legitimate source to be sure they are M nigra. Then if you don’t like the fruit of any you can graft a named variety fairly reliably.

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#38

Sun Gold tomatoes. I’ve reached the point where mulberries, Sun Gold tomatoes, and Mt. Etna figs are all I need for a full growing season of fruit.

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#39

I had my first good harvest of arctic raspberries this year and when they are properly ripe they definitely live up to the hype (I would describe it as a flavor somewhere between a sweet raspberry, billberry and wild forest raspberries). The problem is to know when they are ripe enough, and the receptacle sticks to the fruit so a bit of a tricky one to pick and get rid of the stuff you don’t want to eat.

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#40

The ones that grow wild here in the PNW have great flavor but mostly grow as an understory plant in the woods, where they don’t produce much. I’ve never found a dense patch of them, they are more of a special treat you come across occasionally. I’ve also never seen them grown in full sun and fertilized, though I keep telling myself to collect some runners at some point and give them a try. Maybe they would be more productive if they are babied a bit.

Unfortunately, they are mostly outcompeted in the wild here by the invasive Himalayan blackberry, which have larger fruit and produce abundantly, but with inferior flavor.

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