Hi,

I've been given 2 Huckleberry Plants. Can anyone let me know how best to
grow them?

They're in pots at the moment, but would they be suitable for planting out
in our allotment? What do they eventually grow to? Do you get berries, are
they edible?

Thanks in advance.


Gillian

"Charles Turner" wrote
in message ...
Hi,

I've been given 2 Huckleberry Plants. Can anyone let me know how best to
grow them?

They're in pots at the moment, but would they be suitable for planting out
in our allotment? What do they eventually grow to? Do you get berries, are
they edible?

Thanks in advance.


Gillian

Oooooyeaaaah! You lucky thing. I had bought some seed whilst living in
Oxford and the plant grows out rather large, you get berries but if picked
too early (even if soft to the feel) like most fruit the result is still a
bit bitter and you have to add more sugar to the result when cooking.

Apart from that I found the taste to be a creamy version of
blackcurrant/raspberry and any other delicious mix but think of ice cream
ripple.


Look up the recipe for huckleberry pie such as;
http://venus.spaceports.com/~jrjeff/huckleberrypie.htm

and....

Huckleberry Finn!

Save some for the rest of us in the group.

Richard.

if they are the things related to Night Shade ....When I grew them had a
fantastic crop. but didn't like the look or smell of them so binned the
lot.

--
David Hill
Abacus nurseries
www.abacus-nurseries.co.uk

"David Hill" wrote in message
...
if they are the things related to Night Shade ....When I grew them had a
fantastic crop. but didn't like the look or smell of them so binned the
lot.

--
David Hill
Abacus nurseries
www.abacus-nurseries.co.uk

"David Hill" wrote in message
...
if they are the things related to Night Shade ....When I grew them had a
fantastic crop. but didn't like the look or smell of them so binned the
lot.

..David, Huckleberry is Gaylussacia baccata. Most of the nightshades are
solanums, except for deadly nightshade, which is Atropa bella-donna.

Huckleberry is in fact a rather nice berry, but you have to wait for it to
get really ripe before eating it.

According to the RHS Encyclopaedia, hucklebery is fully hardy, needs sun or
semi-shade and moist, peaty, acid soil.

Franz Heymann

Dear Hanze
Thank you so much foe explaining about the Huckleberry ........
"Huckleberry is Gaylussacia baccata. Most of the nightshades are solanums,
except for deadly nightshade, which is Atropa bella-donna.

Huckleberry is in fact a rather nice berry, but you have to wait for it to
get really ripe before eating it.

According to the RHS Encyclopaedia, hucklebery is fully hardy, needs sun or
semi-shade and moist, peaty, acid soil....."
Unfortunately you forgot that there is another plant going under the name
"Garden Huckleberry", see ....
http://www.cniche.com/seed/hint27.htm
As you will see this plant is a member of the solanaceae family as are most
of the nightshades.


--
David Hill
Abacus nurseries
www.abacus-nurseries.co.uk

"David Hill" wrote in message
...
if they are the things related to Night Shade ....When I grew them had a
fantastic crop. but didn't like the look or smell of them so binned the
lot.

Funnily enough there is also a native plant that looks just the same but is
a smaller variety and best not put into the cooking pot but huckleberry, I
found grew to at least 6ft across and to about 3ft high whereas the other
plant (looking in book whilst online but can I find it?) is relatively
small. Could the smaller of the two be black nightshade ? ;-)


David, if you want supplies of callaloo it grows like a weed where I am,
having been bought over from Jamaica nearly fourty years ago and grows
everywhere that weeds do.

Richard.





--
David Hill
Abacus nurseries
www.abacus-nurseries.co.uk

"David Hill" wrote in message
...
if they are the things related to Night Shade ....When I grew them had a
fantastic crop. but didn't like the look or smell of them so binned the
lot.

The problem is that even if soft they might not be ripe yet. I have this
problem with a cultivated blackberry that gives tons of fruit for few
leaves.

Age, on my part has not taught me how to wait.


Richard.

Hi Richard,

I never say no to any seeds that are different, so if you have any spare
seed I would love to try them, and I can wait for fruit to ripen.
Just wondering what the birds make of it?
When I grew the Garden Huckleberry, I had a 40 ft row in the glasshouse,
there was probably 1 cwt or more fruit on the plants, but neither the birds
or the mice took any.

Just doing a web search for "callaloo" all it throws up is "....(Callaloo
is Jamaican slang for spinach)
So I am even more intrigued.

--
David Hill
Abacus nurseries
www.abacus-nurseries.co.uk

"David Hill" wrote in message
...
Hi Richard,

I never say no to any seeds that are different, so if you have any spare
seed I would love to try them, and I can wait for fruit to ripen.
Just wondering what the birds make of it?

They don't get a look in! I want to go small time commercial on it but
maybe it's not on the ECs list of seeds for sale.

It's only recently that some things have decided to take a nibble out of the
plants and Roy my mate and landlord who's dad brought the seed over says
that the leaves are best picked early as it gets a bit bitter but myself and
an African tenant loved it.

I'm now going to have to order a chest freezer to store the leaves in as the
plant gets to about 6 ft in height and can be about 3 ft in diameter. My
next door neighbour bought some seed last year, put it on his allotment and
said that ours grows much earlier so I guess that it's got used to living
here.

When I grew the Garden Huckleberry, I had a 40 ft row in the glasshouse,
there was probably 1 cwt or more fruit on the plants, but neither the
birds
or the mice took any.

Flippin' 'eck! 40 ft. I wonder if it takes a few seasons of watching other
things have a go befor tucking in ?


Just doing a web search for "callaloo" all it throws up is "....(Callaloo
is Jamaican slang for spinach)
So I am even more intrigued.

I've put the Jamaican term "grow wild like callaloo" on some short run seed
packets. Right now, it's growing in the flower beds, in the seed pots of
other plants in the green house, in-between the cracks in the concreted by
the back door. It's now pushing out the land cress that I brought with me
and was growing all over the place.

Send me your details quick and I'll send you some seed in the next day or
so.


Richard.