North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["victoria l. caron" <vicaron@gis.net>]

Ginda,
I have a gooseberry variety that is native to northern NH. It grows
in my woods here, in rich soil and shade from big maples. It would not
be good for eating but only for extracting the juice since the berries
have thorns. (Yes, I said the berries have thorns).They do not produce
heavily like the currants do either. If you don't find anything better,
I can get you some of these.
Vic

Ginda Fisher wrote:

I have very limited sunny space to grow fruit, but I do have a shaded
area (under oaks) in the back where I'd like to plant some bushes as a
visual screen.  So I wondered if there are any fruits I could grow
instead of just planting evergreen shrubs or witch hazel.

Parts of the back have excellent rich soil (a prior owner tried to grow
vegetables, and put in a lot of compost) and parts are mixed rocky/loamy
New England dirt.  There's some scrubby, non-bearing wild blueberry, so
I assume the native soil is pretty acid.  There's also some non-bearing
bramble.  (Both flower.)  The area gets no hours of direct sun, but the
shade is high and light, with dappled spots of full sun throughout the
day.  It's the top of a hill, so gets excellent drainage, but can be
dry.

Can anyone recommend anything good to eat that might like the spot?
Since the alternative is no fruit, I wouldn't mind planting something
that would produce more with more sun, so long as it gets enough light
to be fairly healthy and produce a little.  I'm willing to irrigate for
a year or two, but not for the long term.

Ginda Fisher
Zone 6
Eastern Mass.

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