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["Lon J. Rombough" <lonrom@hevanet.com>]

At the National Clonal Germplasm Repository in Corvallis, Oregon, where the soil is not particularly acid, there were outdoor plantings of cranberries and lingonberries.   Wooden frames were set on the ground and fill with sand, and the plants were put into them.  The sand was more to keep other plants from invading, since the lingonberries could easily put roots into the soil beneath the sand.   They grew quite well in those "planters" and produced what looked like a normal crop.  Two, actually, since there were early and late berries.  Point is, there was nothing to indicate the soil had to be either poor or excessively acid.
-Lon Rombough
Grapes, writing, consulting, my book, The Grape Grower, at http://www.bunchgrapes.com  Winner of the Garden Writers Association "Best Talent in Writing" award for 2003.
On Oct 12, 2006, at 9:20 AM, Mark or Helen Angermayer wrote:

Hi Jim,

I was going to try to grow lingonberries.

One of our kids had to make a family heritage dish for school.  The dish was
a Swedish milk pudding topped with lingonberry jam.  I didn't like the jam
that well, but my daughter liked it enough to want to grow lingonberries.
But after researching it, it sounded like too much trouble to amend the
soil.  Some stuff I read said lingonberries require even more acidic soil
than blueberries (But maybe that's not quite right because the info Sam
posted the other day indicated they only require a pH of 5.)  Either way
that's more of a soil amendment than I want to try to keep up with.  There
may be protests from others who say it's not that hard to get the soil down
to 4.5 or 5, but I'm a little doubtful.  This summer I spoke with a
blueberry farmer about 20 miles from here (pick-your-own).  She said it
takes a lot of acid to get it down.  They broadcast acid and also acid
fertilizer in the drip irrigation.  However, there is a caveat,  they live
on a gravel road.  Who knows how much the lime from the road is fighting
against them?  Does anyone else have any experience trying to move the soil
from a 7.4-7.0 down to 4.5-5.0?

Mark Angermayer
Zone 5 Kansas

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jim Fruth"
To: "NAFEX" <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Thursday, October 12, 2006 10:39 AM
Subject: [NAFEX] Lingonberry Questions


> Do any of you grow Lingonberries?  Or know of someone who does?
>
> Everything I have read about their culture claims that they prefer(!)
> poor soil.  Could this claim be only a belief because that's where
> Lingonberries are found growing in Nature?  Could it be that they are
found
> growing in poor soils because they can't compete with the plethora of
weeds
> that inhabit better soils?  Groundcherries, for example, are only found in
> Nature growing in poor soils where little else will grow.  Groundcherries
> perform poorly in Nature but grow to be giants in excellent soil; could it
> be that Lingonberries would do likewise?
> I need to ask these questions because we've got customers demanding
> Lingonberry jam and I've got to figure out how to grow the plant.  Trouble
> is, what little poor soil I have is occupied with plants I can't afford to
> eradicate.  I do have empty space available for planting but it has 14" of
> rich, black dirt.  What do you think?
>
> Jim Fruth
> Brambleberry Farm
> Pequot Lakes, MN  56472
> www.bberryfarm.com
> (218)568-8483 [Store]
> (218)831-7018 [My Cell]
>
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