North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Lucky Pittman <Lucky.Pittman@murraystate.edu>]

Gene,
Following is a posting from Richard Moyer, in response to a similar 
question some time back - I had it saved in an archive file.
Haven't seen Richard on the list recently; anyone heard from him?

Lucky Pittman

>From: <ramoyer@king.edu> (Richard A. Moyer)
>
>
>We have had Che fruit in for 7 years.  Putin both a male and female 
>plant.  Survived 14 below several winters ago.  Blooms after frost; has 
>not frozen out in five or so years (am away from my notes), unlike our 
>mulberry.  No observed disease or insect problems.  Birds are a problem, 
>have netted the female.  Disease and insect resistance similar here to 
>mulberry and fig, which are in same family (Moraceae).
>
>Pollination is the adventure with this plant:
>The male sets fruit but most of these fall off; a few of them will ripen 
>and be identical to female fruit.  Male died to ground two winters ago; 
>the female still set a full crop of seedless fruit.  The male grew back 
>last year, bloomed thisyear and acted like a female by setting the largest 
>crop of ripening fruit yet.  (It may be in the process of some type of 
>conversion; time will tell.)  Some debate has gone on for the need of a 
>male pollinator.  I'm not sure that I had any less fruit without the male 
>two years ago.  Our plants are on the far side of the field and hence do 
>not merit close observation; my kids eat most of the fruit with the birds.
>
>Both our plants are grafted onto Osage Orange.  Hence, if you know how 
>Osage Orange does on yours or similar land, this should suffice for your 
>site.  A.J. Bullard let a single stem go up to 8-9 ft, and cuts all others 
>off, he has a nice form as the result.  A number of our limbs on our bush 
>are on the ground.
>
>Hidden Springs grafts theirs onto Osage Orange if I recall correctly; they 
>do not grow seedling trees of Che.  If you mean they graft an unnamed 
>"seedling", they then are no different from any other nursery, to my 
>knowledge.  Don't know of anyone who has selected and named superior 
>cultivars from the wild (somewhere in China?)  My impression of the one 
>nursery that sells a seedless selection is that this if merely a 
>female.  My sample size is too small to determine the value of two for 
>pollination vs. one female.
>
>We are at 1800' zone 6, we rarely get into the 90s; we are on the 
>borderline for enough heat to ripen Che fruit.  In a cool summer, 
>defoliation in fall will occur before last of fruit is ripe.
>
>Ripe fruit has a strawberry color, knotty exterior like Osage Orange, 
>tastes a bit like pear and fig to us; sweet but not overly so.  Strange in 
>that slightly unripe fruit leaves a metallic taste in my mouth.
>
>In summary, an overlooked minor fruit.  Well worth the effort to put in as 
>a carefree, dependable producer in our area.  The Blacks at Hidden Springs 
>have made a jam with them.  Lee Reich plans to include a chapter on this 
>plant in his second edition of 'Uncommon Fruits Worthy of Attention'.
>
>Richard Moyer
>East Tenn


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