Sea Buckthorn

[GardenGayle]

From reading about it in my Homegrown Revolution book I could quite fancy growing Sea Buckthorn as it sounds delicious and seems fairly easy to grow.

It doesn't seem like the kind of plant that my local garden centre would stock but I don't mind trailing around a bit if its a good fruit to grow.

I wondered if anyone had any experience of growing/eating this and what your experiences were.

Thanks
Gayle

[noviceveggrower]

You can get them from Pomona fruits. £24.95 for 12 plants. Never seen it in local garden centres around here or even in the hedgerow either.
What can you do with the fruit? Sounds interesting.

[GardenGayle]

Eat them raw or make jams/jellies or use them in cooking I believe.
Thanks for the info.
Never eaten them myself hence asking for advice.

[veggiechicken]

They grow wild in the sand dunes here. Nasty thorny things - I've never been tempted to pick any for that reason.

[Pineberry]

They are popular in Eastern Europe. Very high in vitamin C, 15 times higher then in oranges, making them one of highest sources among plants. We grind them with sugar and store in fridge. Then add into tea. The pip is big inside and you chew to get the juices to and the rest you spit out.
They need male and female to fruit, and got large towns so picking is problematic, but not impossible.
Commercialy they cut the branches and then freeze them with the berries on, once frozen it easier to shake them of or soemething like that.

[chrisdb]

ART Plant list and order form

The Agroforestry Research Trust has quite a few improved fruiting varieties of Sea Buckthorn. I've found them to be pretty good for less common (in the UK) edibles.

I found Sea Buckthorn easy to grow from seed too, although yield won't be as good and you'll have to grow extras and weed out some of the males after they start flowering.