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Old December 17, 2012   #68
SEAMSFASTER
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Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: American Fork, Utah
Posts: 160
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On May 17, 2012 someone gave me a few dehydrated "goldenberries" to try:


Predictably, I immediately reconstituted one of the fruits, fermented the seeds, then planted them all on May 22. Only three seeds germinated.

Two of those plants froze before putting on fruit. I put the third plant in my backyard high tunnel, where it got a little extra protection from frost.

Over the weekend, the high tunnel froze out (circuit breaker overload), but I got one ripe fruit:




Is this identical to the Inca Berry I grew during the 2012 growing season? It's hard to say. The plants looked identical in all respects - growth habit, flowers, leaves. But the fruits on this later plant were a bit smaller (could easily be due to cooler weather) and the flavor was even better: less tart, more fruity flavor.

Unless I grow them under identical conditions, I won't be able to say for sure if they are the same variety, though it's pretty obvious they are the same species.

This comes to 207 days from seed to first ripe fruit. This is clearly a fruit that would do better in zone 8 or higher. Or I think it could be grown successfully under plastic or in a greenhouse in my area (zone 6b).

With my main Inca Berry crop of 66 plants, when the frost hit in October, they were wiped out with many hundreds of fruits growing well. Only a handful had ripened enough for eating.
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