Anyone grow Surinam Cherry?

hogleg · Jul 22, 2015

I just noticed someone selling one gallon starts in my area. Just curious if anyone here has experience with em.
They sound really tasty.

BigB · Jul 22, 2015

haven't grown them. have eaten them. they are quite tasty

Not sure if it's a plant that has to be grafted to fruit quickly, i'd check into that as well and make sure you get something that will produce

hogleg · Jul 22, 2015

BigB said:
haven't grown them. have eaten them. they are quite tasty

Not sure if it's a plant that has to be grafted to fruit quickly, i'd check into that as well and make sure you get something that will produce

Whats the flavor like? Could it pair with peppers for a sauce?

BigB · Jul 22, 2015

very sweet floral taste as I recall, I would say it could work well if you had enough of them, and if you wanted a fruity tropical sauce. Where are you? Pretty sure it's a tropical fruit

hogleg · Jul 22, 2015

Sonoma valley, not exactly tropical but we only get a couple of brief freezes a year. It seems the dude selling them gets fruit, his pictures of them appear to be his. His aren't quite as ribbed as other pictures on the web but he shows them ripened to nearly black in some pics.

Hawaiianero · Jul 22, 2015

hogleg said:
Whats the flavor like? Could it pair with peppers for a sauce?

I grew up calling them Pumpkin Cherries. Sweet/sour tasting, not too different from a cranberry meaning you can get different levels of sourness from the same handful. Makes really good jelly and I never thought about it before but I bet you could make some kickass sauce with this as an ingredient.

BigB · Jul 23, 2015

Hawaiianero said:
I grew up calling them Pumpkin Cherries. Sweet/sour tasting, not too different from a cranberry meaning you can get different levels of sourness from the same handful. Makes really good jelly and I never thought about it before but I bet you could make some kickass sauce with this as an ingredient.

I know exactly what you're talking about and those aren't surinam cherries. I can't recall their name, maybe barbados cherries but they grow on a big shrub. Surinam cherries are always sweet.

Now back to hogleg, ask him for a sample fruit to make sure it's not mistaken for another fruit and ask him if his plant is started from seed and let it continue to grow or if it's grafted. you want a grafted plant otherwise it could take way longer to fruit

Hawaiianero · Jul 23, 2015

BigB said:
I know exactly what you're talking about and those aren't surinam cherries. I can't recall their name, maybe barbados cherries but they grow on a big shrub. Surinam cherries are always sweet.
Now back to hogleg, ask him for a sample fruit to make sure it's not mistaken for another fruit and ask him if his plant is started from seed and let it continue to grow or if it's grafted. you want a grafted plant otherwise it could take way longer to fruit

No they are Surinam. I guess I wasn't clear enough. Different levels of sourness dependent on different levels of ripeness. Of course the really dark ones are sweeter than the light orange ones but unless you have your own shrub you will never get all ripe ones. And maybe sour is the wrong word. Tangy maybe....damn now i'm splitting hairs. :neutral:

Try 'em Hogleg. Maybe they just taste different on that side of the globe.