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oldokie

Goji or honeyberries

oldokie
10 years ago

Has anyone planted goji or honeyberries looking to add something very different to my orchard since i plowed up the stawberries.
Does anyone have any ideas of a different berry or fruit that can be eat fresh off the bush and also use to make jams or deserts or canned or frozen
also I want it sweet and tasty
My location is between catoosa and inola

Comments (4)

  • dbarron
    10 years ago

    I won't say you can't...but I thought of and researched honeyberries (if you mean the lonicera sp) and found them to not care for the heat we had in Chelsea.
    If you look up the plant on wiki, you'll note it says COOL temperate Northern Hemisphere. Oklahoma doesn't fit that at all :)

  • Okiedawn OK Zone 7
    10 years ago

    I agree. When I first joined Gardenweb, which I think was in 2005, there was a member of this forum who had planted lots of exotic fruit here in OK. Unfortunately the things she planted (I remember gooseberries and goumis were two that she planted) were like honeyberries in that they needed cooler summer weather that what we have here.

    I think the best fruits for much of OK are peaches, plums, figs (sometimes they may need winter protection) and blackberries. Strawberries can do well in good soil, but I lose them in the worst drought summers like 2011 even though I water a lot. They just weren't happy that summer when we were over 100 degrees for about 90 days straight. Pears can do well as long as they don't get fire blight, and some people can grow apples, though the folks near me who grow them have a lot of pest problems.

    If you have well-draining sandy soil and are in the northeastern quarter of the state, you might be able to grow raspberries. Here in southern OK, raspberries aren't happy with our alkaline soil, alkaline well water and our heat, so I don't bother with them, but I know some people have success with raspberries in NE OK in the "green country". Persimmons grow well here. We have native persimmon trees in several locations on our property, but the fruit is pretty astringent until after it has been frosted. You might be able to grow grapes, but they are high-maintenance and prone to diseases like anthracnose if you don't prune the heck out of their foliage regularly.

    If you have prickly pear cacti on your property, their fruit makes a tasty jelly as does the fruit of fruiting quince. Have you considered blueberries? Scott has had lots of success with his blueberries up there in NE OK.

    Some types of fruit are so hard to grow successfully in our climate that I just buy that fruit at the farmer's market or grocery store and make jam and jelly from it.

    Dawn

  • oldokie
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Thank you
    I have plumcots, plums, peaches , apricots, apples that struggle, pears that are new , blackberries and a few grapes. The grapes are going away to dry and disease and the strawberries left last year to much maintenance.
    so I will stay with that

  • DLene Krysler
    9 years ago

    I have success with BLACK raspberries in central OK.--have had them for about 12 yrs now; however, the red ones don't do well. Still have a couple of old style concord grapes that have survived about ten yrs.--started with nine bushes, but most of them froze out one winter when it was very wet.