Anyone grown "Wonderberries"? - Homesteading Today
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  #1  
Old 09/15/05, 03:04 PM
 
Join Date: May 2002
Location: Kitsap Co, WA
Posts: 3,025
Anyone grown "Wonderberries"?

I bought some Wonderberry seeds from Bakers Heirloom Seeds, and like all of their seeds, they came with ZERO instructions. (I won't be buying from them again despite their fabulously tempting array of vegetables and seeds, because I can't simply divine growing info by looking at a seed...) Be that as it may, I planted them and they grew, and there are blossoms and berries, but none are turning black, which I believe is what they look like when ripe. They are also known as Garden Huckleberries, and are a solanum, I think.

Has anyone grown them successfully? Do you have an idea of how long they take to ripen? (Obviously, longer than they've had so far...) Will they ripen like tomatoes if I just harvest the entire plant and store them somewhere moderate?
Or should I just rip them out and compost them?
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  #2  
Old 09/15/05, 04:11 PM
 
Join Date: May 2002
Location: Tennessee
Posts: 2,139
I grew them years ago and as I remember was very disappointed in the taste of the berries. Never grew them again so I guess that tells it all. Rita in TN
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  #3  
Old 09/16/05, 06:42 PM
 
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 19,807
Hope this answers your questions.

Pony!


http://www.extension.umn.edu/project...ckleberry.html

Garden huckleberry or wonderberry (Solanum melanocerasum, syn S. nigrum guineense) is not related to true huckleberries, woody plants in the heath family. Instead, it is an herbaceous annual in the nightshade family, related to tomatoes, peppers, tobacco, eggplant and potato. An unusual crop for gardeners to try, garden huckleberry bears small jet-black berries that are cooked and sweetened, and often combined with other fruits such as apples, lemons and grapes, to make jellies, preserves and pies.

Culture of garden huckleberry is similar to tomato culture: start plants indoors in early April, covering the seeds with ¼ inch of soil. Germination should take one to two weeks. Transplant to a sunny location outdoors when all danger of frost is past and the weather has settled, in late May or early June. Allow two feet between plants.

Garden huckleberry plants resemble pepper plants, bushy and erect, up to two feet tall. Flowers, appearing in clusters in July, are small and white. Each plant will bear hundreds of ½-¾-inch berries, ripening from green to deep black. One plant should produce enough berries for a single pie.

The fruits are not edible until fully ripe and cooked. They are toxic if eaten unripe, and the raw fruit is quite bitter. The berries are ready to harvest about two weeks after they first turn black, when their skin has changed from shiny to dull, and the flesh is very soft. The interior pulp will turn from greenish to purple when ripe. The flavor of the berries is improved by allowing them to remain on the plant until after the first frost. The plants have some cold tolerance and may continue to ripen fruit after light frosts.
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  #4  
Old 09/29/05, 06:59 PM
 
Join Date: May 2002
Location: Kitsap Co, WA
Posts: 3,025
Thank you for your replies and the link. I cleaned out some tomatoes which were next to the little patch of wonderberries, and low and behold, hiding under the sprawling tomato plants were some black wonderberries. And they are quite good! Not sour at all but sweet, and tasting rather like black currants. Easy to harvest, growing in little clusters with no thorns and no gritty seeds in the berries which cause trouble for people with dentures. Would be very good on pancakes...

I will try them again, maybe start them earlier! I wonder now if they will all ripen...maybe that's why they call them Wonderberries...
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