Solanacées • Solanum retroflexum

Sunberry - Organic

Small, dark fruits that ripen discreetly, revealing their sweetness to those who know how to wait.

$4.49

Number of seeds 100 seeds

Sunberry nightshade is a unique annual plant, long overlooked, but now appreciated for its abundance and culinary uses. Selected in 1909 by the renowned horticulturist Luther Burbank, it was developed specifically to offer a nightshade with edible fruit , unlike the toxic black nightshade, which it closely resembles.

The plant forms a compact and vigorous bushy habit, growing rapidly to about 50 cm in height. It produces an abundance of small, round, dark bluish-purple fruits with a matte appearance, clustered in bunches. These fruits are only edible when fully ripe , at which stage they develop a sweet and pleasant flavor.

In the garden, Sunberry proves surprisingly adaptable. It grows in most soil types, without any particular requirements, and gets off to a quick start once established. Its production is early and sustained, and the plant can sometimes self-seed when conditions are right.

• Sowing: Germination requires useful experience;This variety requires a cold stratification period of 20 days, carried out in cold conditions in moist soil, in order to break seed dormancy and promote uniform germination.

• Cultivation: Easy plant to grow

• Growing season: Warm season

• Growth: Rapid growth

Note: The fruit should only be harvested when fully ripe, completely dark, and soft. Green or unripe fruit is not edible. Harvesting should be done gradually, as the bunches ripen.

The ripe fruits of the Sunberry nightshade are particularly prized when processed. Their sweet flavor shines through in jams, tarts, jellies, and other baked desserts. Raw, they are generally underutilized, but cooked, they develop a rich and pleasing taste.

Sunberry is part of a tradition of home processing, where cooking plays an essential role in revealing the flavor potential of certain small fruits.