How do people already have blackberries, blueberries, raspberries and peaches…im in 9a and mine are not ready yet at all. I just don’t understand hardiness zones and climates haha
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In your area,the 9a describes the average minimum temps, between 20 and 25 degrees Fahrenheit (around -6.7 to -3.9 degrees Celsius).
Ripening depends on things heating up and also how different cultivars respond to the heat they receive.
I’m in 8b,Western Washington and even though some places,for example,in Texas and California have that same rating,they heat up faster.
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I am in zone 7b southern middle Tennessee and it seems that my strawberries and red gem goumi ripens before most everyone in zone 8 9 etc…
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I’m 7b maryland and we’ve been eating strawberries for maybe 10 days. Just a few each day as we pulled nearly all the blooms since they’re all new this March. Can’t wait for next May!!
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Strawberries!
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This week is the first picking of Asparagus. Millennium and Purple Passion.
Still snacking on Profusion Sorrel also. Small amounts of Korean Celery.
Not much but greens around here. I skipped picking fiddleheads and I havent picked any ramps. I will most likely skip those this year, fiddleheads are too tall just now.
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@Eme … had first ripe strawberries April 26 here… and Red Gem goumi May 1.
Zone 7b TN.
When my goumi are ripening most others are just blooming.
TNHunter
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Awesome! I’ll look forward to having them earlier next year when they’re established!
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All climate zone tells you is your minimum winter temperatures. Hours of daylight has just as much to do with growing season as temperature does. Because of the way the Gulf Stream works, you have warm winters, but you’re still at the same latitude as the northeastern US. I am about 3 degrees of latitude north of TNHunter, and it isn’t all that much warmer there most of the time than it is here, maybe a couple of degrees. But spring gets to him 2 weeks before it gets to us here.
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Hommade ketchup from 4 cups of tomatoes and 1 cup of groundcherries from the yard. A little too much vinegar, but otherwise very good.
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Loquats started to be edible last weekend, so this week has been Loquat Week before the birds and raccoons steal all of them by the end of this coming weekend. My variety is Big Jim loquat.
And here’s loquat on a pizza from lunch today - Olive oil, fresh mozzarella, Le Delice de Bourgogne cheese, candied maple bacon, and sliced loquat. It was fantastic!
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Been grabbing a few serviceberries every time we come and go from the house. Tree is small, but we love it! Regalia spraying every 1-2 weeks seems to have worked because we’ve had a drowning spring and no rust on the berries. Just a little on the leaves.
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I’ve been eating stonefruit and mulberries for two months in Z7b thanks to my greenhouse. Figs and grapes will be ripe soon. And most days I eat home grown pecans.
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Cherries and red currants,
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my northline, wild grafted to northline, apple and jb30 serviceberries are loaded for the 1st time this year. i spray them with infuse or immunox when i spray my cherries after bloom. seems to keep them clean so far in wet springs.
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Little belarouska harvest. Has that musky taste and finishes with almost a unsweetened grape taste. Not sweet at all, just flavorful.
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The bulk of what is in my yard is quite unripe other than some of the goumi bushes, which unfortunately, the birds have discovered. They really seem to like Moniz. I still sampled honeyberry, juneberry, golden raspberry, strawberry, and assorted herbs as I wandered today though. I will get my first tastes of Jostaberry, transcendant crab, and aronia from my yard if I can keep them from the critters, and flowering quince will give me a bunch to experiment with.
Ripe or not, I rather enjoyed 100% of my sampling, other than the horehound I mistook for mint. Definitely not the same flavor pallet there. The flowering style really should have kept me clear.
I have what is likely creeping charlie everywhere, but I have not brought myself to try it yet.
I did not eat them, but I saw my first ever flowers on my hardy kiwi today. Finally. Pretty sure they were all male ones, but it’s a start.
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Buff Red mulberry and a handful each of blackberries and blueberries. I’ll pick the blackberries tomorrow with at least a gallon to harvest. This is my first year with a large amount of Ponca maturing. Last year, intense cold in February down to -3F killed the vines down to the ground. This year, even with 0F in January, they are producing a very good crop. Ponca can handle 0F but not -3F.
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Almost every day for the last two months I’ve been eating a couple handfuls of Jamaican cherries.
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