Ken W Wilson

Have you tasted them? They are really bitter. I think they would make good jam. The named varieties are probably better than the random natives I sampled.

I am looking for Vaccinium palladium plants.  Does anyone know where I can buy or trade for some?  The only nursery that I can find that sells them has terrible reviews. Commercial varieties don’t grow very well here in western Missouri. V palladium is supposed to be native to the area but must be either rare or not very noticeable. I have never seen it.

I haven’t been growing blueberries long enough to know from experience, but I believe that the branches are only healthy and productive for a few years. I don’t think each grafted branch would be productive very long.

If you grafted onto a young blueberry plant, you could try planting it deep with the graft below ground level so that the huckleberry scion would put out roots of its own. I think it might work. You might have to leave the graft above ground a year to let it grow enough to replant it deep. I think it would be an interesting experiment.

I have been thinking about planting Missouri gooseberries between my elderberries. I don’t know if they have any medicinal uses, but they are tasty.

What is growing in the hayfield now? If it isn’t well maintained, you might already have all kinds of young trees growing in it.

If it is heavily fertilized, and especially if it’s fescue, you will have to kill a circle of grass around each tree you plant, or the tree wont be able to compete.

I planted some in garden mulch a few years ago. I don’t think I got any mushrooms, but anywhere I dig in that bed is full of white mycellium.  I am sure it is helping my plants. I am hoping it might fruit someday.

Only one of my seaberries survived. I don’t know if it’s male or female. Will it be hard to tell when the shrub blooms? I have never seen a seaberry bloom.
I don’t want to buy one of each and end up with two males and one female

I guess they don’t self pollinate at all?

I finally got to taste a perfectly ripe fruit. It was still green and only a little soft. It tasted great! It seemed  to have more than one flavor that hit at different times. It reminded me of banana. A slightly less ripe fruit was a little tart, but I really liked it. I tried a wrinkled fruit. It was dry and no flavor.  None of them got yellow. The best ones were a little lighter, slightly softer, and heavier.

I think I have about 50 fruits from one vine in 6x8 greenhouse.  They probably wont all ripen in time. The greenhouse was unnecessary. It was just too cold and muddy when I planted that one. The outdoor vines did great but they are a year younger.

This one was slightly tart but good.

Squash isn’t worthwhile for me. I had about 3 summer squash plants. I got one small squash. I had about 3 winter squash plants and harvested 8. I can buy them for about 1.50. Fighting the squash bugs just isn’t worth it. The squash bugs attacked my watermelon after killing the squash. This cost me about 5 watermelons that didn’t get a chance to ripen.

Seed potatoes of interesting varieties cost more than a good crop is worth.  Our weather is too wet at planting time and too dry while theY are growing. Potatoes are cheap.

Sweet potatoes are cheap too, but I like growing them. They usually grow well here too.

Jen, how tall are your raised beds?  Our summers are really dry here and city water is kind of expensive. I have found that just 4-6 inches is high enough to let them dry out faster in the spring without making them need much extra water in the summer. Tall raised beds are much better if you have back problems.