North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Ginda Fisher <ginda@concentric.net>]

I have both.  Mine are about as old as yours.  The first year, against
all advise, I let them fruit, and got a smattering of berries.  The
first fall, the set a good crop of buds.  The second spring, the buds
had all been stripped off.  (It happened in about a week, late in the
winter.)  I got only a couple of flowers, and they produced another
smattering of fruit.  The second winter, I set up a fence.  I got a good
crop of buds through the winter.  One of the Northblues set so much
fruit I was worried for its health.  It didn't grow a lot of foliage. 
We had a very dry spring, and at some point it dropped most of the
fruit.  I got a couple of handfuls of berries all told.  So maybe you
don't want to take my advice.  I think my bushes are still immature,
though.  A dozen fruit buds on six plants sounds like very few.  My
plants are small and scrawny, but have about a dozen fruit buds per
plant.

The northblue is larger and more fruitful than the Northsky.  All but
one of my plants look healthy, with minimal die back.  I have had a
running battle with chloriosis, and keep trying to acidify the soil. 
(Which seems to have worked, finally.)  The northblues are now about a
foot by a foot.  The northsky is much smaller - maybe a bit larger than
yours, but not much.  The other cultivar I grow in the same plot is St.
Cloud, which is the largest of the three, and as such is easiest to
manage.  For example, I can mulch it without fear of burying the plant. 
They're probably 18 inches tall by a foot wide.

All three are very tasty.  I'm still anticipating that they will get
larger and more fruitful with age.  Wish me luck  :)

Ginda

del stubbs wrote:
> 
> Does anyone have either of these? It might help me compare.
> Thanks to Ginda's comment about examining buds...altogether on six 3 year
> old plants I found about a dozen of what looked like fruit buds. Most plants
> showed 1/2 dead wood, 3 plants were only 6" diameter and 4" to 5" tall.
> Thanks! Del, in N. Minnesota where we just got a half hour hole in the
> clouds for the Leonids, some show!

------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~-->
StartMeUp jump starts your car's battery
using only the cigarette lighter.
$24.95 at Youcansave.com
http://us.click.yahoo.com/mNb7gB/LTTDAA/ySSFAA/VAOolB/TM
---------------------------------------------------------------------~->





------------------LIST GUIDELINES----------------------

1) Please sign your posting.  Include climate and location information if 
relevent.
2) Attached files will be stripped from your messages.  Post attachments on 
the www.YahooGroups.com website.
3) To unsubscribe send a BLANK message to 
        nafex-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
4) Include only pertinent comments/questions when replying to a posting and 
NOT the entire message (especially if the initial posting was large). 

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/