Thank you for the article. Here's my experience with growing some of these in Tigard.
Chilean guava: it needs full sun to flower, the berries are very tasty, ripening around Thanksgiving. It needs protection from super cold spells and freezing rain. The damage is not complete but enough to prevent it from blooming that year. It's a keeper for me. It also does well in pots. Very shallow root system.
Figs: I grow close to 40 varieties, super easy, in pots. I have 4 trees in ground. Last year most of them produced twice which is unusual for us here. Totally worth growing.
Banking cherry: I have two varieties, red and yellow. There're about to bloom for the first time. The red one I've grown it from a seed. They need cross pollination, hopefully they'll do well.
Jujube: easy to grow. I'm sorry for your tree. My variety is called Honey Jar. Very productive and self pollinating. Delicious fruit mid fall.
Honyberries: I have three bushes. They didn't produce much yet but I keep moving them around. They tend to bloom too early for pollinators. I don't have much experience with the taste though.
Grapes: it depends a lot on what varieties you grow. My Interlaken is an absolute winner. No diseases, highly productive. Too bad I cannot share a picture with you. I have about ten varieties including a muscadine which hasn't produced anything yet. Grapes are generally speaking easy to grow in Oregon, but stay away from European varieties. My favorite is Sweet Seduction.
It sounds like you have a bit more sun than me, considering your excellent success with figs, chilean guava, and jujube! That's awesome.
Last year my little Ruby fig actually cranked out a sizable amount! Surprising considering it gets shaded out by about 1pm. I had another fig that didn't fruit at all. I may try some others at some point.
I started Interlaken & Buffalo grapes this year, and am waiting on Price & Jupiter cuttings in the mail to start.
I read that you were considering trying sour cherry, me too. I've narrowed down the varieties to Montmorency and Northstar. Some nursery websites say Montmorency grows in zone 3-7 and we're zone 8 or 9. Northstar grows in zone 8 and seems to be a smaller tree. People really like the flavor of Montmorency but I haven't heard much about Northstar. I'm very interested in knowing which variety is more resistant to bacteria canker. Rootstocks play a role too, and Colt seems to be more resistant to Gisela. I'm looking forward to your cherry/sour cherry research! If you're interested maybe we can pick a sour cherry variety together :)
Fresh eating! I like sour fruits like honeyberries. I don't like preserving - too much work. The only preserving I do is freeze-drying. Cooking fruits destroys the nutrients which I try to avoid.
I looove the taste of Issai, much more than Ana. I tasted them both at HOEC. I bought a small Issai on Etsy and it died the second summer. Recently I just bought a big one from Portland Nursery. Hopefully it'll survive. If not I'm going to try Prolific or Ken's Red. Have you heard of any disease resistant varieties?
I haven't! But hearing your report makes me feel better about not making space for the male and female needed to grow. Personally I'd rather have more grapes!!
Great info, thanks for sharing. We bought 2 Issai kiwi berries in the spring of 2022 and we surprisingly had berries last year. Too bad yours didn’t work out. We actually have them in post knowing we will have to relocate them at some point, but since they are slow growing we are giving it a try.
I saw it! It is big and it’s OLD too! That’s why I’m hoping we have a bit before we need to move ours (working on a good place the deer won’t get to it). I took a class there about pruning and maintaining kiwis. :)
Oh no, I hope you have minimal deer pressure, like I do. They can be pesky but so far haven't outright killed anything. Well, except my beets, because they love to yank the plants out of the ground as they are munching on the leaves.
Sadly I can’t say that, lol. Sometime there are 6-8 out here. But when we moved in we waited a year before building our garden so by then we knew what they could do. We’ve lost flowers and shrubs over the years but we fenced in our garden, so it’s safe. I wish they weren’t here cause we have 3 acres and I would grow so much!! Oh, and about the beets, yeah they do that with a ice plant, I lost count how many times I’ve replanted after their nibbles, lol.
Oh, I'm sorry. That would be incredibly frustrating. I seem to recall reading that mulberries and persimmons are deer resistant, but I could be wrong on that. Did you look into those? As far as I know the deer have never nibbled on my mulberries or persimmons.
That’s good to know, will keep that in mind! They can reach the thimbleberry as it’s just inside a 4 ft field fence but so far so good, it’s the birds that we fight for those, lol.
So glad/sad to read about your trials with fruit growing. We moved here from the mid-West where we had amazing veggie gardens and bountiful fruit trees.. growing things here has been incredibly underwhelming and difficult. Many parallels to your experiences. Black currants are a huge success in my garden which is nice. One of my 2 arbequinas died this winter, our stone fruit trees random, finally some good apples but I can't beat the birds to cherries or blueberries and my figs are a flop. Will keep experimenting :)
I have several fresh eating currant, jostaberry, and gooseberry plants I'm trialing. They are super young so I'm not ready to report back, but so far they are much more vigorous than many of the other plants I've grown.
Have you tried mulberry?
More posts with actual successes are on the way. :)
Thank you for the article. Here's my experience with growing some of these in Tigard.
Chilean guava: it needs full sun to flower, the berries are very tasty, ripening around Thanksgiving. It needs protection from super cold spells and freezing rain. The damage is not complete but enough to prevent it from blooming that year. It's a keeper for me. It also does well in pots. Very shallow root system.
Figs: I grow close to 40 varieties, super easy, in pots. I have 4 trees in ground. Last year most of them produced twice which is unusual for us here. Totally worth growing.
Banking cherry: I have two varieties, red and yellow. There're about to bloom for the first time. The red one I've grown it from a seed. They need cross pollination, hopefully they'll do well.
Jujube: easy to grow. I'm sorry for your tree. My variety is called Honey Jar. Very productive and self pollinating. Delicious fruit mid fall.
Honyberries: I have three bushes. They didn't produce much yet but I keep moving them around. They tend to bloom too early for pollinators. I don't have much experience with the taste though.
Grapes: it depends a lot on what varieties you grow. My Interlaken is an absolute winner. No diseases, highly productive. Too bad I cannot share a picture with you. I have about ten varieties including a muscadine which hasn't produced anything yet. Grapes are generally speaking easy to grow in Oregon, but stay away from European varieties. My favorite is Sweet Seduction.
It sounds like you have a bit more sun than me, considering your excellent success with figs, chilean guava, and jujube! That's awesome.
Last year my little Ruby fig actually cranked out a sizable amount! Surprising considering it gets shaded out by about 1pm. I had another fig that didn't fruit at all. I may try some others at some point.
I started Interlaken & Buffalo grapes this year, and am waiting on Price & Jupiter cuttings in the mail to start.
I read that you were considering trying sour cherry, me too. I've narrowed down the varieties to Montmorency and Northstar. Some nursery websites say Montmorency grows in zone 3-7 and we're zone 8 or 9. Northstar grows in zone 8 and seems to be a smaller tree. People really like the flavor of Montmorency but I haven't heard much about Northstar. I'm very interested in knowing which variety is more resistant to bacteria canker. Rootstocks play a role too, and Colt seems to be more resistant to Gisela. I'm looking forward to your cherry/sour cherry research! If you're interested maybe we can pick a sour cherry variety together :)
What do you plan on doing with the sour cherries? Just curious.
Fresh eating! I like sour fruits like honeyberries. I don't like preserving - too much work. The only preserving I do is freeze-drying. Cooking fruits destroys the nutrients which I try to avoid.
I looove the taste of Issai, much more than Ana. I tasted them both at HOEC. I bought a small Issai on Etsy and it died the second summer. Recently I just bought a big one from Portland Nursery. Hopefully it'll survive. If not I'm going to try Prolific or Ken's Red. Have you heard of any disease resistant varieties?
Oh wow, that surprises me! I've heard Anna was hands-down the best.
The only disease I know of that is very common to Kiwi is on Issai with phytopthora. But I have yet to do a deep-dive on the topic.
I enjoyed my tastings of Issai too. I hope it doesn't croak like it has twice for me!!
Have you tasted Anna? For me it just tasted sweet without much kiwi flavor. Anna is a much more vigorous and larger plant though.
I haven't! But hearing your report makes me feel better about not making space for the male and female needed to grow. Personally I'd rather have more grapes!!
Great info, thanks for sharing. We bought 2 Issai kiwi berries in the spring of 2022 and we surprisingly had berries last year. Too bad yours didn’t work out. We actually have them in post knowing we will have to relocate them at some point, but since they are slow growing we are giving it a try.
If you have a chance check out the size of the mature Issai vine at the Home Orchard Education Center. So big!! :)
I saw it! It is big and it’s OLD too! That’s why I’m hoping we have a bit before we need to move ours (working on a good place the deer won’t get to it). I took a class there about pruning and maintaining kiwis. :)
Oh no, I hope you have minimal deer pressure, like I do. They can be pesky but so far haven't outright killed anything. Well, except my beets, because they love to yank the plants out of the ground as they are munching on the leaves.
Sadly I can’t say that, lol. Sometime there are 6-8 out here. But when we moved in we waited a year before building our garden so by then we knew what they could do. We’ve lost flowers and shrubs over the years but we fenced in our garden, so it’s safe. I wish they weren’t here cause we have 3 acres and I would grow so much!! Oh, and about the beets, yeah they do that with a ice plant, I lost count how many times I’ve replanted after their nibbles, lol.
Oh, I'm sorry. That would be incredibly frustrating. I seem to recall reading that mulberries and persimmons are deer resistant, but I could be wrong on that. Did you look into those? As far as I know the deer have never nibbled on my mulberries or persimmons.
That’s good to know, will keep that in mind! They can reach the thimbleberry as it’s just inside a 4 ft field fence but so far so good, it’s the birds that we fight for those, lol.
So glad/sad to read about your trials with fruit growing. We moved here from the mid-West where we had amazing veggie gardens and bountiful fruit trees.. growing things here has been incredibly underwhelming and difficult. Many parallels to your experiences. Black currants are a huge success in my garden which is nice. One of my 2 arbequinas died this winter, our stone fruit trees random, finally some good apples but I can't beat the birds to cherries or blueberries and my figs are a flop. Will keep experimenting :)
I have several fresh eating currant, jostaberry, and gooseberry plants I'm trialing. They are super young so I'm not ready to report back, but so far they are much more vigorous than many of the other plants I've grown.
Have you tried mulberry?
More posts with actual successes are on the way. :)