Hedge

[Johnnycake]

You guys are so great! Thank you so much for thoughts and suggestions. Aloha

[hpp4me]

Has anyone tried fruit-generating hedges? What are the options here?

[emorata]

fruit hedges, thats a great idea, what few coming to mind - fejoia or pineapple guavas....strawberry guavas trimmed to shrubs, cherimoya/atemoya trimmed to shrub shape, monstera, passionfruit on a chain/fence setup. i've also seen really well trimmed mango trees, that are severly topped off and used as hedges.

[Hotzcatz]

Surinam cherry would make a fruiting hedge. No thorns, either. Some blackberries are thornless but they are prolific growers and might take over. Probably not any worse than guava or waiwi, though. May as well plant edible things! Coffee can be kept trimmed into a hedge shape.

[tptplyr1]

I have a hedge of pomegranates growing on Oahu. I am already mostly moved over to HPP and will be bringing some seeds or seedlings. I use it to "protect" the front of my nursery on Oahu, because it has thorns. The thorns grow to about 3" so they are quite significant. Of course there are people that help themselves to the fruit, but it produces quite well so there is normally enough for my use. When I want them to leave the fruit alone I put up my, "These plants have been treated so the fruits are not safe for consumption" sign. We thought or putting a "Radioactive Treatment Used" sign but thought we might get the wrong kind of interest from the wrong kind of people. It is fast a growing plant and fruits year round here on Oahu. Not sure how well it will fruit where you are. I will find out how well it does in HPP. Height wise it will get up to 7 feet quickly, but you will have to trim it back several times so that it bushes out for privacy. That still shouldn't take too long. Let me know if you are interested and I can bring some seeds over. I will be there towards the end of next week.

dean

[Les C]

quote:

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Surinam cherry would make a fruiting hedge...

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We had a Surinam Cherry bush in the Kaimuki area on O'ahu (hot, dry). It does hedge nicely. The fruits were not that tasty, very tart. But, of course, that may depend on your soil and moisture. In Kaimuki, we had to water it regularly, I imagine Puna would be different. It can be messy as the fruits drop. The small, pumpkin-shaped fruit has large stones/pits. I don't know how large it will get in the Puna growing conditions, it eventually became a 5-6 ft. tall, dense hedge.

[Hotzcatz]

Surinam cherries are EXTREMELY tart but they do make a tasty jam. The geese clean up the berries under the tree and they don't seem to mind the tartness. Every other year or so, I'll gather enough to make jam or jelly and that will last for a year or two. Last year it was guava jam so this year it will be surinam jam. Double or triple the amount of sugar used if you are doing any recipes with surinam cherries.