North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Kieran or Donna" <redherring@tnaccess.com>]

    A couple of weeks ago I fought my way through the brush to one of the
wild Juneberries I discovered last year.  It had bloomed this spring and I
hoped to beat the birds to the berries.  I found weird lumpy things hanging
from it, a bit too large to be berries.  I picked one off and found my
fingers powdered with yellow stuff.  The leaves don't seem to have Cedar
Apple rust on them, but it appears the berries themselves, every one of
them, have become cedar rust "apples".
    This may explain why Juneberries are not exactly taking over our area.
Also why in 16 years of foraging in Tennessee, I have eaten exactly 4
Juneberries in the wild.  I just bought 2 Regent juneberry bushes, I guess
I'll find out the hard way if they are as susceptible as the local species.
    I have tried repeatedly to grow sweet huckleberries here (Peters Seed
and Research sells the seeds).  My conclusion this, the 4th year, is that
they are simply too closely related to indigenous plants, but with no
resistance.  The plants serve as food for flea beetles, blister beetles,
some kind of leaf roller caterpillar, horse nettle bugs, and lacebugs.  (The
horse nettle bug is like a potato bug but with gray larva and a more
handsome adult, I have no idea what it's real name is.  I have seen it
misidentified as a potato bug, but it rarely feeds on potatoes.)
    I tried once to grow chickpeas, and though the blight was expected,
finding a caterpillar in each pod was not.  I believe that they attracted a
local bug that normally feeds on rattlebox.
    It gets frustrating when you can't grow native species, and you can't
grow foreign ones either!    Donna
P.S.  Our one native chestnut in the woods succumbed to blight this spring.


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