North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["J. Rosano II" <GIANNI-2@prodigy.net>]

Hi Jim:

Ya know, after all that being said. I noticed at your web site there were
no dwarfs either. I would venture you sleep at night quite peacefully, huh? : 
)
Thanks for the excellent run down on dwarf mythology! I seem to recall Ed
shaking my tree about that one months back before. Guess my neurons are
misfiring.
Do you see any promise for the "Pumiselect?" I mean, are you still trying?
BTW....
Where's your Saturn-doughnuts, can you get them from Dave Wilson or will you
be intending any in your spring line up? Annnnnd, do you have another
source besides DW?
Would much rather secure my trees from you than Stark storytellers and
keep it in the NAFEX family....
Again, many thanks.

Best wishes,
Gianni
S. NH Z 5/6

jim wrote:
> 
> Ed may be condemning one of the best scams in the nursery trade!!!
> 
> Prunus besseyi  --  the western sandcherry.  Used for lo these hundred years
> as a rootstock for peaches, the sharpshooter's dream.  Most of the catalogs 
> for
> backyarders carry "Dwarf Peach Trees".  Consider the
> scenario:
> 
> 1.  Nurseryman fall-plants 1500 pits of P. besseyi.
> 2.  1000 pits germinate and make buddable liners.
> 3.  Liners are budded in August, cut back in March, varietal buds sprout in
> April.
> 4.  Come August, nurseryman begins to notice marked reddening of the shoots
> and slowing growth on perhaps 25% of the budlings.
> 5.  Fall arrives, leaves fall, and  400 of the trees have bright red
> shoots.  It's digging time;  100 of these 1000 beautiful peach trees break
> at the union during digging.  Now 900 go into the packing house (most of the
> 400 are, perversely, still intact).
> 6.  Orders pour in for Dwarf Peach Trees.  Only $23.95 this year, folks!!
> 7.  900 Dwarf Peach Trees go out to Alabama, Alaska, and even Indiana.
> Gardeners plant, pant, get the ice cream ready.
> 8.  On our 400 reddies, we have profusion of bloom this first season.  The
> greedy let the fruit stay on the trees.  100 of these blooming reddies curl 
> up toes in
> June;
> 100 in July; the rest succumb after giving a tantalizing vision of fuzzy
> fruit to come.
> 9.  Now we still have 500 Dwarf Peach Trees.  Autumn arrives; snow; spring
> at last.  Every tree is blooming; oh how wonderful is spring!  June; July;
> August:  6 big beautiful Elbertas on this wondeful Dwarf Peach Tree!  Tell 
> it to
> the neighbors.  Brag at the coffee klatch.  Be sure to tell NAFEX.
> 10.  Year three:  17 peaches, and let's invite the neighbors for peach
> sundae.
> 11.  Year four:  ah, yes, the moment of truth has arrived.  Trees all bloom;
> promise of bountiful harvest; order  a bigger freezer, bigger ice cream
> churn.  June; July; but growth has stopped.  Leaves small; almost seem to
> shrink each morning.  Suddenly, collapse.  No peach sundae this year.
> 12.  The gardener's responses:
>     a.  That was a wonderful Dwarf Peach Tree;
>     b.  I wonder how I killed it?
>     c.  I'll order four Dwarf Peach Trees for next spring.
> 
> Nurseryman's dream??
> Well, it isn't a fairy tale.  Peaches on P. besseyi  exhibit either
> immediate incompatibility, expressed in the nursery and in first orchard
> summer, or delayed incompatibility, usually during the 3rd or 4th cropping
> year.  Rather fewer than 5% of peaches on P. besseyi  do survive to 10 
> years;  most of
> these survivors, however, are not dwarfed very much.  I do think it should 
> be
> possible to select within that <5%, though, propagating by cuttings, and
> eventually come up with useful dwarfing stock.
> 
> Two last comments --
>         1. 'Citation', Floyd Zaiger's interspecific hybrid, still merits
> consideration.  The trees on Citation that were in the 1984 NC-140 trials
> were virus-infected, which likely had considerable effect on outcome.  No
> question about the extreme dwarfing.  We were not happy with fruit quality,
> but maybe that was related to the virus infection.  I was more concerned 
> that trees on
> Citation terminated growth and went into full dormancy very early, then 
> apparently saw
> chilling requirement satisfied very early, and were ready for active growth 
> a month before
> anything else.
>         2.  'Pumiselect' is being introduced now.  It's been knocking around
> Germany for about 20 years now, a clonal selection of P. pumila, the eastern
> sandcherry.  We've found it an extremely difficult nursery subject, but that
> may be related to our brown thumb.  The one planting I saw in Germany a few
> years ago was mighty impressive.
> 
> Personally, I'll continue to prefer Lovell or Bailey until I see more light
> at the end of the tunnel.
> 
> //Jim
> www.cumminsnursery.com
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