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

Berries average 1/4 to 3/8 inch in diameter.  There is seedling variation though, and it's likely that with some selection and good care 1/2 inch berries would be easy to attain.  My current crop is all from a single large berried plant I selected last year and I expect the seedlings will have larger fruit than average.   Plants will average 3 feet tall and may spread that much.  They like the same conditions as tomatoes.  The berries come in trusses like cherry tomatoes and it's much easier to pick them by waiting until all the berries on a truss are ripe, then snip the truss with your fingernails.  If you strip them, they juice all over your hands.  Once you plant them, you'll probably have them come back as volunteers for years to come.
And though they are Solanums, I've never seen blight or disease of any sort on them.   With their frost hardiness, it might be fun to graft a tomato to one of the plants and see if it gains any hardiness.
-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. 
For even more grape lessons, go to  http://www.grapeschool.com
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On May 24, 2007, at 11:51 AM, mIEKAL aND wrote:

Any tricks to growing Wonderberry?  I'm growing it for the first time & just about to put them in the ground...  How tall do they get, do they need support, what size are the fruit?

~mIEKAL


On May 24, 2007, at 1:45 PM, Lon J. Rombough wrote:

> I have some Solanum burbankii, the Wonderberry, that is pleasantly sweet to eat fresh, but it's messy to handle because the berries are soft and juice a lot when picked.  It self-seeds quite a bit and the seedlings regularly come up early and they take a surprising amount of frost. I have a lot of them already over 6 inches tall. They would be larger if they weren't crowded.
> -Lon_______________________________________________