The focus here, Teryaki, is pretty much what people want to discuss.

If you're interested in heirloom fruits and berries, just start a specific thread and see what happens.

Reminds me of the poster who complained that nobody was interested in heirloom flowers. But when a thread was started, folks came out of the woodwork to discuss them.

I like mulberries. I even eat them out of city parks!

I like hickory nuts. They're like pecans, but better. I find them in many places; pastures, school grounds and elsewhere.

Jim

I plan to grow (or try) strawberry spinach also called beetberry. Itty-bitty berries on greens that you can eat like spinach. From seedsofchange and an amish company. I doubt anyone has been tampering with these-I think they are native to PNW area?.

I just discovered American Persimmon this season. small fruits, but free, no-maintenance is good. I think we also have a wild blackberry in the back yard.

Have I ever bought "heirloom" fruits? no. I dont know if older types of cultivated berries come down with viruses or not....?

Jimster- I tried harvesting hickories earlier this year, but the fallen ones werent ready yet. Going to try again. Also harvesting Black Walnuts.

I think GardenLad is right, Teryaki. If people want to talk heirloom fruits, they'll start a thread or two.

But your question made me ponder this for a moment. Most people I know don't have room for lots of heirloom apple trees, or a variety of antique caneberry plants or large, vining melons in summer. I know I don't. Maybe that's why there is not as much discussion of them. If I had the money and enough time/room, I would have several heirloom apple trees, peaches, pears, plums, nuts as well as room for lots of heirloom everything in the spring/summer. But if you grow in a back yard, in pots on a deck, or even planters next to your driveway, then you probably don't have room for all the heirlooms you would like to try.

Just a few thoughts as I look outside at all the leaves falling on the back yard.

Mary

Black walnuts, hickory nuts, red mulberries, blackberies, black raspberries, and Missouri gooseberries are all here.

Yep, I'm definitely interested in Heirloom Fruits. I'm a member of a semi-local group called the Backyard Fruit Growers, out of Lancaster County PA. I say semi-local because I believe we have members in at least three states. Members can swap scionwood and cuttings, and there are many heirloom selections available, including apples and pears which came from Europe with Colonists.

By the way, you'ld be suprised how little space you need for at least a few fruits. A bare shed wall is the perfect spot for an espaliered apple or pear tree. Espaliering is sort of like topiary, but you train the tree flat to a fence or wall. Believe me, it's addictive once you start!

I LOVE persimmons, and hope to transplant some American persimmons this year to my garden. A nearby fruitgrower has offered to let me take some shoots off his trees' taproots. Our family has a couple of persimmon pudding recipes.

I have been cultivating the wild blackberries and raspberries that grow on my family's farm. My great uncles (died in the '60's)had a pick-your-own fruit farm, and I think some of the varieties are what they grew, and have survived and multiplied over the past 60-80 yrs. What is here are cut-leaf and Oregon blackberries, and black raspberries.

Some volunteer first year Oregon blackberry canes grew around my porch, so last summer I trimmed them all summer into a sort of hedge. They branched and spread out, shading some weeds I've been fighting for years (namely Japanese knotweed), and I wondered if blackberry plants might end up being the weeds' bane - because I've given up on fighting for a flower bed. I am going to try letting the blackberries take over for a couple of years.

So this year I hope to have a bumper crop of blacberries by my porch!

Was wondering what variety gwallamagoat's blackberries are. I have never heard of anything called Oregon blackberry. However, I am not a blackberry expert. The description reminded me of something called, "Himalayan Blackberry." It is not native to Oregon. I don't know if it really comes from Nepal. But the blackberries grow wild here during the summer. They will eat fences or trees without difficulty. Sometimes you'll see large lots filled with them, although this is not as common as it used to be. People stake out berry picking areas and pick enough for pies, jam or whatever they want to make. I was reading that Oregon produces more berries than any other state. This I can well believe.

I don't recall ever eating a persimmon. Can anyone compare them to any other fruits as to taste?

Hope redbrick posts again with some more ideas on growing heirloom fruits in a limited space. Could be an interesting discussion.

All the best for a great 2006 garden.

Mary

There are at least 3 kinds of blackberry canes that grow wild on this farm. Some are cutleaf, some have 3 leaves, some have 5 leaves. All of them have thorns. We call the big ones "Oregon blackberries." (They grow in Ohio though). I see that Himalya blackberries have 5 leaves, so that is probably the variety. I don't know how or why they got to be called "Oregon blackberries," but that is what most of the farmers I know call them.

We also have black raspberries, and they mostly all look the same to me, with 3 leaves and more purply-red, smaller canes.

If you want to get technical and Latin and all that, someone else will have to help you.

The American persimmon is orange, very soft to mushy with a sort of transparent, thin skin, and it has a bitter but also sweet flavor. It's about the size of an apricot. It is sweeter & less bitter after a frost, but you won't find them that way in the store because they get very mushy. They are best for pudding when mushy. They are too perishable to transport in large quantities, and locally they are only sold for a short time in the grocery store, if at all. People generally don't want to eat them raw, but some do (my mother for one). They make a yummy English-style pudding (like bread pudding). They have a distinctive flavor that isn't too strong.

I think native persimmons are kinda like really good mild dates. a bit more moist than date. I hadnt cooked any this year. I hope to get brave enough to ask neighbors for theirs (no one picked them! several on my road!) next year.

theyre just in the back of our yard, no attention or anything. We planted a few raspberries, and a blackberry this year, I think there is a wild blackberry or 2 id like to put in our "bed" with slightly improved soil.

I am going to try heirloom melons this year. Im thinking of planting in the end of a raised bed and just letting them trail into the thin-grass part of the yard. No sense taking up all that area, and if its covered soil, it should be less likely to have splashback or fruit rot than rich soil? we'll see.

I have been wondering about wild blackberries for several months now. This past summer I had an opportunity to harvest/transplant some wild blackberry vines from a Pine Barrens near me into 10 gallon containers. A new strip mall was being erected near a LoweÂs that I frequent. They were bulldozing a 10 acre section of Pine Barrens. In NJ, wild blueberries grow everywhere throughout these Pine Barrens. They love the acid-sandy soil. I just could not stand by and let them all go to waste as I knew that they would all get bulldozed underground.
"Some" of the blueberry bushes survived the transplanting and I am eagerly awaiting the spring to see if they will offer any berries. Wild blueberries are substantially smaller than store bought blueberries, but they are much sweeter and tastier.
I had even better success transplanting several blackberry vines. What confused me about the blackberries is that I found 2 distinct types. One was a "cane" type vine and the other is a "ground creeping vine". At first I thought that the "cane" type was a wild raspberry but the vines did have fruit on them and they are both definitely blackberries. The "cane" type had stalks/canes that were as thick as your finger and were attempting to grow vertically but arced toward the ground. The "vine" types were more like fishing line or shoelaces growing only horizontally along the ground. They too are in 10 gallon buckets adjacent to a trellis that I have erected for them. I cannot wait until spring and see how they will do. I did some research and know that wild berry strains such as these can introduce disease and/or fungus to domesticated berry varieties. I fortunately had no other fruits other than strawberries (on the other side of my property) and 2 dwarf Macintosh apple trees, also not nearby. I guess my question is; can I tell if I have 2 different varieties (or gender) vines?
I realize that because they are wild, it might be hard to tell. Is it typical to find both "cane" & "vine" types of certain blackberry types?...or wild blackberries?

Any help or info is appreciated

- Grateful

I am interested in blueberries and fruit trees. I want a white mulberry- anyone have 1-2 that I could buy/ trade?
I just bought a place that is very fertile and things seem to grow like crazy. I want to put in 30 or so rhubarb, strawberries, fruit trees,- I have 4 pears, Bartlett,D'Anjou, Moonglow and I forgot the other one. I also have 2 Cortland apples but am looking for fruiting crabapples. There are three types of gooseberries here, one that has more thorns than leaves, one that has about equal thorns and leaves and one that has only occasional thorns. Unfortunately I do not know the names of any of these gooseberries or the grapes that have been left to themselves for the last 6-8 years... I also have a very old apricot tree that needs to have scions taken and grafted on to new stock. I want pluots or plumcots and turn 2 acres into fruits of many kinds and vegetables.