Which plants can grow in full shade?

[drfruit]

Which plants can grow in full shade (from a building - north side)?

Are there any varietes of cherries, apples, plums, pears, raspberries, gooseberries, red- and blackcurrants, blackberries, kiwi, grapes, which would tollerate shade well enough?

What about the popular varieties of cherries: Stella, Morello, Kordia or apples like Discovery or Jamie Grieve - would they have fruits when growing in shadow?

Are there any fruit plants, which can grow in shadow?

[veggiechicken]

Is that no sun whatsoever?
You may have a chance with raspberries or blackberries which will grow in partial shade. Morello cherries are supposed to be OK on a North wall.
Doesn't sound like a good place for fruit trees though!

[drfruit]

Is that no sun whatsoever?

None at the moment, but perhaps in summer when sun is higher it would manage to partly get there at noon.

Doesn't sound like a good place for fruit trees though!

Well, it seems that I have to start thinking about growing mushrooms there. ;(

[veggiechicken]

Can you paint the walls white or use mirrors to reflect light?

[fishpond]

An example:-
I am growing 2 x thornless blackberries up a wired fence.
1 x Blackberry faces East (early morning sun only) and hasn't yet reached the bottom wire 2.5 feet from the ground.(one shoot & no laterals)
1 x Blackberry faces South (in full sun most of the day) 1 shoot is 12ft long, the other is 8ft and both were producing laterals for next years crop until they stopped growing for the winter.
I also wonder about pollination of the Eastern one, but we shall see as they are only about 20ft apart.
Both of these new B/berrys were taken from the same stock plant approx May last year.
Hope this helps.
Mushrooms it is then, or as suggested, light reflectors.

[Kristen]

None at the moment, but perhaps in summer when sun is higher it would manage to partly get there at noon.(

Not sure it will help with shade cast by buildings, which is obviously less in Summer, but this site uses Google Maps to show shading from sunrise / sunset at different times of the year etc.

SunCalc - sun position, sunlight phases, sunrise, sunset, dusk and dawn times calculator

[arpoet]

I just chuck wildflower seeds in my most shady places.

[FB.]

Sun in winter isn't important - without leaves the plants aren't making use of the sun.
If there is partial sun in summer you can grow quite a range of things although less sun means less sweetness, smaller fruit and later ripening time.
Fruit trees, with their raised canopy, will have a better chance of being high enough off the ground to not be shaded while the fruit is ripening, and by choosing early-season varieties their fruit will have the best chance of ripening while the sun is still strong and high in the sky.

[The Griff]

I planted a morello cherry last year and have trained it in a fan on a north facing fence. It gets no sun at all as there is a building shading it from the east and it fruited well last year, it seems to be doing really well.

[planetologist]

I've read that soft fruit deals better with shade than top fruit. I grow blackcurrant in some fairly shaded areas without problem, but none of those is entirely North facing.