North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[rmelrose@bluemoo.net]

Yes Dave, plenty of windmills -- and even more things that would benefit
from a good poke with a sharp stick.

I would be very interested to hear how you get on with the sweets cherries
grafted onto hardy sour cherries, since I was planning on trying such
things myself. I will definitely have a go grafting onto some wild Black
Cherry (although it all seems to have something that looks like black
knot). My Meteor and Bali pits from last year did not sprout well -- only 2
of 20 -- probably because I left them out under the snow instead of
refrigerating them. I am trying some semihardwood cuttings, but without
much expectation of success.

Clearly if the rootstock is not hardy enough, that is a bad idea and I
agree about mindless wholesalers. (It is even more annoying to see retail
places, as they do around here, selling things that would have almost no
hope of surviving without extreme measures). However, I have never been
clear as to the degree of hardiness which is actually conferred by a hardy
rootstock. Okay, the roots are hardier than they would otherwise be but is
the upper scaffold, even to the buds, really rendered hardier? What is the
mechanism supposed to be, sap composition?

Where did you get cherries grafted on Gisela 5? I suppose it is patented. 
Frankly I think this is a travesty. Such things should be given Trademark
protection (i.e. the name should be protected), but the patenting of living
organisms is simply appalling to me.

I haven't seen Hudson or Sweet September for sale, but maybe I wasn't looking.

Richard

On 30 Jul, Griffin Gardens wrote:
> Excelsior, Sancho! There are windmills to be tilted. 
>   I tried to get all my trees on Gisela 5 for the improved hardiness of it,
> which doesn't take much when most sweets are budded on mazzard. I lost a 3
> year old North Star on mazzard because the buried bud union hadn't had time
> to get onto it's own roots, and the mazzard roots were killed. The local
> giant wholesale grower propagates it only on mazzard - why put a zone 4
> tree on zone 5 roots I don't know - but now I bud my own on seedlings of
> Meteor, North Star or Mesabi. I will be trying sweets on these next year.
> Anybody had any experience with this?
>   Meanwhile, I was successful getting Gisela 5 trees except for dead Black
> Gold (supposed to be more hardy) and dead Summit were on Mazzard. Live
> Hudson (most hardy cv., maybe) is on mazzard. Live Kristin and Sweet
> September are on GM-61 and live Ulster is on G-6. 
>   The list is for 1st winter trees only. I have 2 winter trees of Lapins(1
> ea on G-5 and G-6), Hedlefingen (GM-61), Kristin (G-5) and Rainier (G-6).
> The few flower buds on these were killed, but there was virtually no
> dieback in spite of a long wet fall. Seems to say the older the better.
>   Recovery has been vigorous on all trees since the June 6th assessment was
> made. New growth ranges from 18" - 24" in spite of deer eating it off twice
> early on. These sweets do great here in the summertime, its just the winter
> that might be a little problem.
> 
> Dave