17 Hardy Fruits That You Can Grow On The Prairies

I meant my final grade, I have my rough grade already

Hi Dave,

I planted a Valiant grapevine last summer. It is against the house in a south exposure, wind protected spot. It is coming up beautifully but … it has little white insects on it. The larger leaves are somewhat spotty with a white colour. I have tried to find out on the web what these insects are and how to get rid of them but have had no success. Any suggestions?

Thanks,
Dianne

Dave, I think you have whitefly. I get it too. I just go by with a strong hose and knock them off periodically. They don’t seem to affect the health of my Valiant.

Hi again.

I finally got my final grade certificate.

You mentioned I can transplant them anytime. I’m wondering in transplanting them now.

What kind of trellis would you suggest?

if I plant them next spring, is there a good chance I can get grapes that season? I read somewhere that grapes need to be in the cold prior producting grapes. is that true?

Wow, I’m debating what to do because is August.

Thanks,

Hi again,

I just planted my valiant. I will plant the other two tomorrow.

My first question is when should I start doing winter protection? and when should I free the plant from it?

I’m planning to wrap the plant with a lot of old clothing plus a plastic paint container (4 gallons) and plastic Garbage container around it. Could this be enough?

I don’t want to bury them because I read somewhere this increases the chances of diseases.

I have read in many places that this plant will make it anyway but what I noticed last year is that the first cold kill one branch easily (so I put it inside right away). The same happen this year when I brought it outside too early and I brought inside again.

Regarding the person asking about the “white insects”. I think they could be “mealy bugs”. just check.

hey where are apples grown in alberta?

How do I grow Kiwis?

Dave,

Any updates on your grapes this year?

Thanks,

Alex

What is (Rough Grade Approval)? I am about to start my spring garden indoors by incubation. I just moved in to an old character house in the Glenora area, downtown. Do I have to apply for some type of certificate to garden in my backyard? The backyard already has some gardening but nothing worth naming.

I’m about to start a veggy and fruit garden for personal use, not for profit. My back yard faces east and gets huge amounts of east and southern light. In my front yard I get western exposure for my more shady plants.

I’m going to garden peas, carrots, lettuce, tomatos, herbs, strawberries, blueberries, knuckles, sask berries, kiwi, and maybe even some lemon if I can.

What do you think? INFO PLEASE thanks

Goji (wolfberry) – zone 5 (maybe 4)
get seeds from ‘Richter’s’, or plants from ‘Dominion’

Kiwi – females thriving, males died off every winter
i’m going to remove the females and transplant as vines
and in their place, more valiant grapes, hopefully from cuttings

if anyone has any pruning tips for valiant’s, that would be appreciated
mine are 3rd year, fan trained

Wow Janet we think alike. I am 1 hour north of you and have many of the same plants. I have looked at the kiwi and grapes but never tried. I would like to know how your nut trees wintered (when you find out). If they worked for you I am going to give them a shot. My haskaps bore last year even with the June frosts and lack of bees. My Evans cherries were delicious and were tasty canned although a bit soft. I think they need less cooking time. Our Norland apples blossoms survived the frost and gave a few very yummy apples. I have giant nanking cherries and blueberries but they are too young to fruit.
I ate my 4th pomogranate off my indoor bush this morning and I have eaten fresh figs this winter off a houseplant purchased last spring from Henry Fields online.
If people want cheap goji bushes check out Rockwood gardens online.

My family planted honeyberries about three yrs. ago… boy are they good! We make ours into a ‘saskatoon’ pudding and pour it on ice cream.

A tip for starters it to cover the bushes with nets. The first couple yrs. we never and couldn’t figure out why we never got that many berries. We thought that it may be our water or soil, but we’re organic farmers, so that couldn’t have been a problem. After we put the nets over over, we got buckets!
This year we picked around 5 gallons from four of our older plants, and about 2 gallons from 5 of our newly planted ones.

About the kiwi’s and goji berries, what can you do with them? Where should you plant them, and do they need protection from wind, heavy frosts?

Bumped into your website looking for info on growing apples in Alberta. Is anyone aware of a forum(s) that has people sharing info about growing trees, gardens in Alberta? Tons of forums and info for everywhere else in the world but I have had not much luck on Alberta specific information.
I am currently growing about 12 different varieties of apples, a couple of crabs and some ornamentals that I use for rootstock. Also have some Nanking cherries, the U of S “Romance” series cherries, Haskaps, red and black currants and raspberries. I would like to grow a “test” orchard or “demo” orchard of apples and am seeking information on where to locate my orchard on my property. ie on a south facing slope, at the bottom of a slope, up on the top, soil amendments, tree spacing etc. I have 320 acres to chose from so I should be able to get a good location.
Thanks for any input.
Dave. d4dave1@hotmail.com

Hello again everyone. Apologies for my “post and run” last March. I got busy with my Peace River garden, preserving the produce I had someone in Manning custom grow for me, my “little” potato patch at a friends acreage out at Three Creeks plus looking for more land.
It’s been a beautiful gardening weekend and I have MUCH to do but am moving slow due to a cold/fever and need a rest so here I am. This is the first part of my To-Do list: finish soaker/drip hose on carrots & cukes, straw mulch cukes, make 5 more tomato cages from concrete re-wire, finish thinning carrots, try a replant of beets, hill & straw mulch the potatoes, get plastic tunnels or wall ‘o water over the peppers to give them some more heat and get a batch of aerated compost tea started. Then I have more trees and shrubs to plant – but not in my Peace River garden. It’s too full.
So, before I get into a full report, let me reply to those of you who asked questions… BTW, it is GREAT to see all the northern Alberta gardeners on here – not that I don’t enjoy hearing from all of you but northern gardeners seem to be a rare species on gardening websites.
Dave, thanks for the encouragement re: growing/blogging. My challenge is time. Maybe if I could figure out how to clone myself…. My Issai kiwis bit the dust this winter. The male was struggling last year and didn’t come back in the spring. One female succumbed to an unidentified pest this spring, the other was limping along so I yanked her out. I think I have them in a bad location – not enough sun or air, though well sheltered from wind. I did learn over the winter that the Issai kiwis are supposed to be bi-sexual, despite the labels they come with. I just purchased 3 replacements (Canadian Tire end-of-season sale) – All are “Arctic Beauties” (Actinidia kolomikta), one male & two females. I’ll put in the ground for the year – deep sun – then move to my new property next spring. I’ll keep you posted. I’d popped a common honeysuckle in the male kiwi place last spring and it’s doing fabulously. The bees love it and the orange/yellow blossoms are a nice little pop of color.
OTOH, my Valiant grape is looking awesome – many drupes of pinhead size grapes. It was a bit slow to get started this spring so I was nervous for it and didn’t prune them as hard as I should/could have. Last fall, I harvested 4 gallon pails last year. I juice like making jelly juice then can it without sugar in jars. To serve I mix in agave nectar or simple syrup then add as much soda water as juice and ice. Yummy stuff. Unfortunately, my sister killed her luscious grape vine. Didn’t snow cover it and walked on it all winter.
T. Wilson, did you get some grapes and kiwis planted? As long as they are are in a real sunny location (they even like south west), are protected a bit from north wind and get lots of snow cover they should do fine. I really think the added bonus of being next to the concrete is good for mine so would recommend a good rock mulch. I’m totally envious of your pomegranetes and figs. How much light do they need indoors. I have a pretty good houseplant jungle with one window that gets sun from 10 am-4pm year round. Do you think that would work? What varieties of each do you have? Anyone growing anything else indoors? Meyer lemons? Guavas?
Rob Read, you’d asked about the Trebizond date. Neither supplier was able to deliver the goods last year. Turned out the first supplier (Mr. V’s from Smoky Lake, AB) shipped a regular old Mountain Ash, not the “Shipova” promised. I was more vigilant with the second supplier (from the west coast – can’t remember the name). I phoned and had them check the Latin name and sure ‘nuff… another Mountain Ash. I have found a Canadian supplier – the Green Barn Nursery in Montreal http://www.greenbarnnursery.ca. Shipovas are sold out for this year but they have a number of exotics I’d like to trial for planting spring, 2012 on my new property.
Thanks for the goji info, Babka. How you got them growing? Where are you located? And thanks to you, too, Carissa. I did see Shallow Creek sold their nursery. How are your goji’s growing? My nut tree report for June, 2011 is:
Beaked hazelnut is doubled in size from last year. It had about 10 blossoms this year (tiny dark pink things stuck tight to the branch) but without a pollinator, none fruited. Surprisingly, the marauding deer left it alone. They girdled the young mountain ash beside it shortly after I posted last year. Killed it (although I learned about a grafting procedure called “bridge grafting” that I’ll try if I have another similar girdling event). The deer also leave the ‘Pixwell” gooseberry alone. It, too has doubled in size and has about 2 cups of berries ripening. My friend Brad (whose mother custom grew veggies for me last year) says his family farm in Manning, AB had a grove of wild beaked hazelnuts. I’ve got another that is waiting for planting out. The butternut tree was at my sister’s place and her dog chewed on it and killed it last summer (different sister than grape vine sister). I’m not sure it would be hardy here anyway, but I like to experiment.
Two of the blueberry bushes are bumping along, surviving but not really looking pert. One succumbed to a spider mite attack. The haskap bushes are doing incredible. One set a huge number of blossoms but didn’t have a pollinating buddy so again, no fruit. The others blossomed later and lesser. I’ve got more of those in pots to be set out, too. I’d stuck a Cornelian cherry (Cornus mass) in the ground when I planted the haskaps not realizing it will grow huge (15’ x 20’). I’ll need to move it but will wait for spring as they don’t care for fall transplanting. It’s really a kind of dogwood which I chose because birds and squirrels love the fruits. I figure I need to do something to keep them fed, happy and away from my edibles.
Speaking of cherries, my Evans didn’t make it through the late frosts last year. It was all budded up, then we got 3 days of really hard (-7C) frost and that was that. I chipped the branches and trunk and used the chips for smoking meats on the BBQ all summer. Not quite as nice as apple but okay. I have a replacement Evans for the new property. My sister (the grape one) gave me several suckers of her Nanking cherry shrub late last spring. They survived all year crammed helter-skelter into a pot, watered only when they looked pitiful wilted then survived in the same pot all winter. This spring I crammed them as a bundle into a flower bed – temporary (hah!). The darn things are growing like blazed. Must add that to my To-Do list… pot up those Nankings for the new property.
The “Sweetheart” cherry is doing excellent despite us snapping several branches off over the winter with too-casual snow throwing and too-rambunctious dog-play. I’m going to try moving that little tree this fall when I plant it’s playmates (now in pots) on the new place. I’ve got a “Romeo” and an “SK Carmine”.
Dave R., did you get started on your demo orchard? I’d be keen to hear what and how you’ve sited your plantings. I’ve been immersed in learning about permaculture design for the last year. Permaculture brings together everything I’ve been learning for the last 30 years of gardening –very awesome. Choosing the right plant for the right site is an important element so I think you are on the right path. Another permaculture technique is planting in “guilds”, choosing those plants and trees whose needs and strengths complement each other. It is the basis of planning and planting. At the end of July I’m taking a course with Jude Hobbs in Oregon on designing edible food forests. There is a lot of info on spacing trees, under and cover planting, etc. I can give you book titles and articles if you are interested.
What kinds of apples do you have, Dave R? Do you have any of those old-fashioned yellow transparent apples? I think they were originally from Russia. Do you know if they sucker or will graft? I’m also curious about your currants. Do you have any problems with mildew or viruses? Do you grow clove currants? I’m looking for info and tips on them. Also, jostaberries, which I understand are a gooseberry/red currant cross.
The two year old Norland in my Peace River yard almost died this winter. Two things happened: First it developed a sunscald on the main trunk. The bark got rough and black, started splitting. Then in February, my daughter’s dog gnawed off three of the largest lower branches. Come April it didn’t look very good at all – not leafed out when the Golden Pear had leaves the size of quarters. I trimmed up the chewed branches. I was going to dig it out but decided to treat it biodynamically. I made a tea of dried calendula blossoms and rainwater, let it cool then poured it slowly over the sunscald/crack. I fed it a seaweed fertilizer and sprinkled Azomite on the soil in the grow area. It’s rebounded nicely, all leafed out and even blossomed a couple of clusters on the highest branches. I think it might make it. I’ll give it a drink of aerated compost tea when I get it brewed.
I’ve now got a Norland, a Norkent and a September Ruby in pots waiting for the guy with the subsoiler to do his thing on my new property so they can be planted.
I’ve mentioned this new property a few times. It’s quite a little story – the replacement for the 5-acre river plot I bought in January, 2010 (the one I mentioned in my last post). When the snow melted last spring (right after I posted), I went out to my new property, planting plans in hand, all excited to do soil samples so I could get started planting trees and root veggies even before I started building. Turns out I’d bought me a gravel pit. Beautiful building site, magnificent view of the Peace river and hills, mature spruce building site and NOT ONE TEASPOON OF SOIL!!
So, it was back to the drawing board – or rather the real estate book, having learned an expensive lesson. I took a crash course in digging pits and doing field soil samples, tracked down the soil maps for the area and spend last summer shopping – again. I found a chunk of bare land in the village of Berwyn – almost a half acre, never-been-turned prairie sod, at the edge of town. Then I spent the winter learning and planning. And, like the true growing fanatic that I am, I bought 9 trees and 14 shrubs before I’ve turned the soil or even finalized building plans. I shouldn’t be allowed to set foot in a nursery or greenhouse – too dangerous for my bank account!
That gravel pit purchase was also the reason I grew 670# of potatoes at my friend’s acreage in Three Creeks last year. I’d ordered 10# of these varieties of potato seeds: fingerlings (Banana, French, Peanut) and full-size (Caribe, Sangre, Russet Burbank, German Butterball). Everyone who visited me between October and March went home with a sack of potatoes. I still have about 20# of peanut fingerlings fit to eat.
Mike, I resonate with your goal of sustainability. My plan for the Berwyn property is to offer my garden/edible forest as a demonstration and education site. I’d like to share what I know with others as I learn myself because I believe that one day we won’t be able to rely on food arriving to our doors on a slick of petroleum transport the way it does now. I also like eating wholesome and healthy, which I suspect many of you do as well. So much tastier, hmmm?
So…other food trees on my Peace River property (where I’m still living and gardening) are doing well…Golden Pear (ussurian), elderberry (sambucus) – cut back to a stump 2 years ago and letting regrow due to a virus on the old wood, chokecherry (wild), pincherry & several new 6’ high suckers, currant bushes (doing okay but need more sun), raspberries (loaded with fruit). Didn’t get that apricot but did get a Shagbark Hickory from Grimo Nuts. Mr. Grimo said it didn’t need a pollinator but others say it does so I’ll need to move it and find a mate. It’s a 3’ tall stick with a frizz of leaves right now.
I also have a HUGE aspen, polar bear willow, Amur maple, larch and several decorative shrubs (viburnum, yellow-twig dogwood, hansa rose, morden rose, Jacque Cartier and another Explorer rambling rose, mock orange, spirea. Sheesh, no wonder I need more land.
Suzanne, I’ve been thinking about your orchard/garden and wondering how it’s doing with all the rain we’ve been having. Things look so lush this year.
Well, I’m rested up now and ready for another go outdoors. Gonna get those carrots thinned before dark, and maybe the potatoes hilled. Supposed to rain tomorrow.
If any of you are ever in Peace River, give me an email and we’ll arrange a garden tour. Nothing I love better than trading stories and tips with growing addicts like myself.
(sorry for the giant post, Dave. Thanks for sharing your space)

If all goes well I want to order another 100 plugs

Produce your own – http://portageperennials.wordpress.com/2011/06/24/apple-rootstock/

Regards,
Mike

I agree that fruit has come a long way and that there are more options out there than ever before. I’d clarify / question the cranberry choice. We can do Highbush cranberry, but the cranberry that we all think of (Ocean Spray, cranberry sauce, etc)is the bog cranberry and I don’t think that we can really do that one here. The Highbush is nice looking, and has nice fruit, but they have pits, I believe, so more of a juice/jelly kind of fruit.

blackberries can be grown in Edmonton also – my friend has her plants loaded with berries every year