John Stoen

There is a variety called “Marge” that is supposed to be a cross (open pollinated in Marge’s backyard) between European and American elderberry.

From google-
‘Marge’ is a hybrid between the American Sambucus canadensis and the European Sambucus nigra which gives us an elderberry plant with all the characteristics of the European varieties but free from the diseases that plague so many. The berries are larger than the American varieties and ‘Marge’ is also self-pollinating so only one plant is necessary for fruit production. Flowers form on last year’s woody growth, so fruit will form the second year after planting.”

This link here goes into some detail about the different varieties and it does talk about Marge. It does not explicitly say that it is a cross between European and American varieties- it just says one parent is European and the other is unknown.

http://extension.missouri.edu/greene/documents/Shared_Documents/SWregion/Byers/ElderberryPresentationMN.pdf

Geoff Colpitts wrote:

R. Steele wrote:Hi John,

Any pH tester will work. The leaf luster set up with the capsules, is cheap, accurate and effective. Just follow the directions exactly, and your good.

An old post, but for reference:

Regarding PH, you should read Heidi Hermary's book "Shifting Paradigms".  She shows pretty conclusively that PH has little to do with growing blueberries... or rather it's far more complex of a relationship, and PH tests usually just involve using chemicals to determine one half of what can be a slow and not very useful test.

There are plenty of alkaline blueberry bogs in the world.  It's true that you can have acidic conditions that indicate an availability of iron, which goes a long way to having successful blueberries, but the real key is just the organic matter content - I believe it was that Iron is available at any PH, at high organic matter content, but it really varied a lot, and beggars the question of "why test this in the first place", or "why plan ahead rather than just trying out both and letting nature take its course".
The short version of "PH is only kind of relevant" is that the availability of minerals to plants is not a one dimensional graph, but at the least a two dimensional one, so it's a bit like... using a hammer on a screw.  It might work, or it might break the screw, but it will definitely be clumsy.

I have a feeling that if you look deep enough into big agrobusiness, you'll find that they are directly responsible for this very common partial myth.  It allowed them to mine peat bogs to death (specifically the death of the human species).  Peat was supposed to be the "acidifier" that fixed blueberries, whereas really it's more important because it retains moisture and adds organic matter.

I second the person who says honeyberries avoid the spotted wing fruit fly.

A little disturbing that I'm writing this from the house of one deceased "R. Steele".

Who is R Steele?

Anyway, I never got a solid answer on my soil but I believe it is alkaline. I didn’t really trust the tester though (it was one of those manual ones you stick into the ground). I have a couple blueberries and they don’t do a thing. They lead out and do not bloom or produce fruit.

My honeyberries on the other hand are doing great and are quite vigorous. If I did it all over again I would skip the blueberries.

I’m not familiar with fuzzy kiwi, but I did have an “arctic” kiwi I had planted and it started to die and wilt away (just like your pic). It had plenty of water and lots of sun. I moved it to a spot with mostly shade and it came back and is putting out new growth. The “hardy” kiwi seem to prefer full sun.

Thanks for the replies. I’d written off the “early” berries but this gives me second thoughts. I’ve never actually eaten a honeyberry either. I love blueberries so can’t go wrong there.

I have a pH tester on the way so will see what the soil is like and slowly build from there.

What’s your preferred method for testing pH?

I’ve got some extra space in my yard and want to plant more berries. Cold climate.

Everyone around here seems to throw blue berries in their yard and they seem to grow ok, although I don’t know if the soil is acidic or not.

If you could pick one or the other, which one is easier to grow and maintain? I think honeyberries might be easier because you don’t have to worry about the soil acidity, but they are also more complicated with matching up the blooming seasons and getting different varieties.

Any opinion on “early bloomers” vs “late bloomers” for the honeyberry? All else being equal, wouldn’t late bloomers be a safer choice?

Any reasons to plant a blueberry over a honeyberry?

I’ll probably need to put up a fence of some kind. Just last night a moose was in the front yard looking around at my plants. It didn’t eat anything, but once winter comes I’m sure it will change it’s mind.

The Minnesota cold fruit looks pretty cool. I’d like to try a frostbite apple it looks like it has unique taste.

I live up north. It’s cold (4b or so). The yard is covered by snow November- March.

I have a HUGE front yard and back yard. The front yard is split in half by a driveway. On one side I have 3 large mature trees that produce a lot of shade. On the other side it is wide open and has nothing but sun. The neighborhood is “ok”- lots of dandelions, cars parked in the yard, water heater sits outside on the front lawn for 9 months...as long as it doesn’t look super bad I say I can take some liberties. In the winter the snow plow will push up a huge snow pile about 3 or 4 feet into the yard (so plants may get squished in that zone), and moose frequent the area and rub horns or eat things in the front yard. There are no sidewalks so people constantly walk through the front yard all over the place (I don’t mind, but the dogs poop everywhere and they step on stuff). In the front I planted a row of Saskatoon berries and tried to plant a row of seaberries, but my male seaberry got kicked over and it died. I also planted a cherry bush and a cranberry bush. The cranberry is supposed to get 15 feet tall. The saskatoons are supposed to get quite tall as well.

Questions- small strip of land between fence and road- plant anything there or forget it? First pic below (if they render in the same order I attached- pic 1).

Shady area under the trees (pic 2 and 3)- can I do anything with this space? What would you recommend?

Big wide open front yard, lots of sun- what would you plant here? And where? See pics 4 and 5. Should I make an outside perimeter (like and outer ring) of shrub bushes? Any opinion on the seaberry, Saskatoon berry or amber autumn olive bush? Or maybe some apple trees? Or would you do something different? This area gets regular foot traffic.