Sooner rather than later I’m going to be running out of prime real estate, meaning full sun areas. I do have some areas with less hours of direct sunlight, say down to 50% because of shadows from the forest and the house.
I’m in zone 4. Which one of these would enjoy the shades the best? Anything I don’t currently have would also be a good candidate.
Haskap
Saskatoon
Gooseberry
Jostaberry
Currant
Chokeberry
Artic kiwi
Sea buckthorn
bush cherries
im in the same zone as you and i would say arctic kiwi, saskatoons. currants, jostaberry , haskap, gooseberry, bush cherries in that order. seaberry wont tolerate any shade. it needs at least 7hrs of direct sunlight or lower branches will die off. i have everything but jostaberry. i figure its in between the currant and gooseberry for shade tolerance. keep in mind all of these fruit produce more if in direct sunlight at least 5-6 hrs a day but ive heard of haskap grown in the shade in the north side of a house and still producing fruit. give it a try.
Saskatoon/Amelanchier for vigor, honeyberries for cropping.
Is arctic kiwi different than hardy kiwi? Most sites online say they require full sun.
Tart cherries take a fair amount of shade. In England a common recommendation is to plant it against a North Wall. Myself I have harvested a tart cherry tree that was in dense shade. It was leggier than it would of been in sun and the yield was lower than in full sun but it still produced cherries. You may have more disease problems if the shade is dense however.
Arctic kiwis are extremely shade tolerant. They will burn in Sun.
Cornus mas is my must shade tolerant fruit.
The biggest wild saskatoons in the bush are on the shady side.
my gooseberry’s in shade outpreform my courants in shade. Both do just fine though.
I think alpine strawberry’s might also be okey. And looking for something bigger certain cooking plums are quite shade tolerant. And they ripen earlier season when there is more sun/sun is higher in the sky.
Im not familiar with zone 4 gardening though. So dubble check if they work in your climate.
I think you should consider ripining time especialy. If the shade is from a high object, mid summer that shadow is way shorter, than spring/fall. Thus what might be full shade for a late ripening apple. Might be close to full sun for a early ripening apple. Considering the sun when repening most.
arctics are more cold hardy. i have 2 that are getting full sun for 5 hrs in the morning then dappled shade. in the wild they climb trees towards the light so theyre used to some shade. obviously like others on this list, the more sun the better they produce.
i have alpine strawberries in partial shade under my other fruit bushes and they still fruit well. gooseberry and currants growth are very similar and depending on cultivar vigor, different ones will preform better than others in some shade. ive started planting some currants on the north side of some of my trees. they are small yet but ill give a comparison of them and my others that are in full sun, once they start to fruit.
Our Native Evergreen Huckleberries are quite shade tolerant
but the more sun
the more sugar and earlier maturity.
can you give an example of a shade tolerant plum? that could be perfect for my alley
I think czar is know for handeling shade well. Don’t expect the same production/sweetnes as in more sun though. A lot of the wild small cooking plums also seem to do fine in shadier positions. I think their called damsons in english.
For your ally, i would also consider earlier ripening “normal” plums. If the shade is from a fixed object. It will shade plants a lot in the early spring and late fall. But might barely shade them mid summer when the sun’s higher in the sky. and thus fruits that riping during that time, still can get quite good.
I would still go for easier varieties in a spot thats shady during fall. Lots of shade during fruit bud developing times mixed with a hard to get dbearing variety seems like a bad match to me. Although if had no experiance with that, so it’s just speculation.
you could use the shadowcalculator i mentioned and explained in this topic
It could show you when in the year you have least shade, and how many houres of sun you get at that point.
I believe Pawpaw will produce the most fruit in shade.
More productive in sun, but more fruit in a shaded area than any thing else I have seen .
Many wild fruits in the Puget Sound lowlands are shade tolerant
but more shade= less fruit and lower sugar.
That’s fine. most are going to be my spare plants so I don’t rely on having a single plant of something I like that could up and die one spring.