Frost tolerant fruit bushes?

[ChingfordHarry]

Hi

i have a frost pocket on my allotment that also floods every winter. At the moment I have (in half dustbins (with the bottoms sawn off) so the roots are clear of the floods) two blueberries, a Chilean guava (Kapow - which is not really frost tolerant - it's doing okay now but looked like it was dead in February) and two honeyberries there. There's room for one more bush (or two if I move the Kapow), so I was wondering if anyone has any suggestions for something that might "thrive" (in my hands that means limp along in most years) in that situation, and provide something that's actually worth eating? I have blackcurrants and gooseberries elsewhere, so I'm not very interested in having more (but could be persuaded...).

[Nicos]

Have you thought of cloudberries?
they grow about the same size as strawberry plants so wouldn’t be very high yielding if that’s what you are after ?

[Nicos]

Ah…I’ve just realised they take up to 7 years to fruit

[MelanieSW]

What about a Saskatoon berry if you have space for something a bit bigger? Very cold hardy as it's from Canada, if I had space left that's what I would grow as the fruits are so tasty (imo)

[Jungle Jane]

Would a raised bed help in that area,maybe put a load of branches at the bottom to absorb the flood & take up space so you don’t need as much soil. Apache blackberry is thornless & produces bags of big blackberries that taste the same as wild blackberries,good flavour & flower after the frosty weather.

[ChingfordHarry]

Many thanks all.

Nicos - I have a black mulberry which will probably keep me waiting that long (if not longer!)

Melanie - Saskatoons (aka Amelanchier) are an idea, but from what I have read the average height is 2 - 2.5 m - so a big bush!

JJ - the half dustbins I've put the other plants in act as raised beds; the area will flood anyway (my plot has the lowest point on the site, so all the spare water finds its way there eventually!). I have this thing about blackberries (wild brambles always seem to taste better...) but from what I've just read about Apache the rest of the web agrees with what you say. Certainly food for thought.

I had thought about black huckleberry (Gaylussacia baccata) as something unusual, but haven't managed to find a UK supplier. This isn't the same plant as the garden huckleberry, which is a kind of solanum.

I'd briefly thought about Japanese Wineberry (which is hardy to ~ -10 to -15C), but I've tried those (they're planted in the Babraham Road Park and Ride outside Cambridge, along with a bunch of apple trees) and while they're interesting, I'm not sure I'd want to actually grow them myself.

[ChingfordHarry]

James Wong on GQT at the weekend mentioned feijoa sellowiana (aka "pineapple guava")- it seems they are frost-hardy to about -10 degrees C. Does anyone have experience of them? Roots plants sell them but don't give a variety - to me, buying an un-named variety of any fruit is like buying an "apple tree".

There was a nursery in (I think) Scotland run by a Kiwi (this is relevant because feijoas are widely grown in NZ) that specialised in them and had several different varieties available, but it seems to have gone out of business.

[Nicos]

I often check in on this lady’s posts
Theres some interesting reading on here….

https://practicalselfreliance.com/ha...ulture-plants/

[ChingfordHarry]

Thanks for this. The Asimina Triloba (American pawpaw) looks interesting but apparently grows to ~5m + (in 20-50 years, so I probably won't be here to see it...). Another one of hers is Elaeagnus umbellata - (Autumn Olive), which also looks interesting and is probably a more manageable size.

https://jurassicplants.co.uk/ have an interesting selection...

[Nicos]

What a great site that is! Great name too

[ChingfordHarry]

I found something on the Jurassic website that they call "Mexican Mountain Guava" or Ugni Myricoides that looks intriguing. It's related to the Chilean Guava (Ugni Molinae), but has a more northerly distribution. It might pair well with my Kapow, and would almost certainly be something that other people on the allotment don't have (if I get one and try the berries I might find out why...)

[ChingfordHarry]

What I should add is that Jurassic call this "Ugni Montana"; the Kew website lists "Myrcoides" as a synonym for that, but the RHS doesn't mention any synonyms. I found a discussion from a few years back on "tropicalfruitforum" that gives a bit more information; the "tropical" in that site's name doesn't bode well for my frost pocket!

[Nicos]

Yeh - I notice the RHS suggests down to -5 to -10 max

Do you get those regularly enough to put you off fleecing it?
One thing worth checking is that presumably the hardiness is for the plant - I wonder how the flowers fair with cold temperatures? No flowers- no fruit

Another thing worth checking out is position in your frost pocket. I understand Camellias don’t do as well East facing when the morning sun hits their frosted leaves. I guess that could be the same with other plants?

I’m no expert in these matters but those would be questions I’d be looking into.

[ChingfordHarry]

Jurassic also say it should be good down to -10oC, which I wouldn't get except in a really cold snap. So I'm very tempted, because I do like to try things that you don't get in the shops. From what I've read the fruits taste similar to Chilean Guava but a bit more "clovey". Could be good for a toothache...

Frosts in Spring this year seemed to have killed my KaPow, but it came back from a couple of twigs ~8cm high to a bush that's now ~50cm and flourishing, but no sign of flowers or even flower buds - so I've already been warned to fleece this year - thanks for the reminder! Late frosts put paid to 3 of my "local" apple varieties (St Edmunds Pippin, d'Arcy Spice and Sturmer) crops - not single apple from any of them (but see below), but the late-blossoming Court Pendu Plat produced well.

Basically, all the cold air on the site rolls down the hill into my frost pocket , which is the lowest point on the site (also why I get a pond there, because all the water finds its own level)!

The plot is on a western slope that gets full sun until early- to late afternoon (depends on the time of year), but doesn't get really early morning sun, so that's at least one problem (challenge?) that I don't have (I'd love to have a camellia or two there, but lack of space and acid soil puts me off).

Weirdly, fruit has now set on my apples from a September/October blossoming - I've occasionally seen late blossom but it's never set, so I've put it down to "just one of those things". I'm tempted to leave one or two apples to see how far they get...

[ChingfordHarry]

A quicky - here's a photo that I took this morning of where the newcomer would go (in a half bin to make up a second row of 3, where the strawberries are just now - note what a couple of days of rain does!