North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

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

Rita,
I purchased a couple of beach plum seedlings from OIKOS several years back 
- I think they were just the species, but *might* have been the 
'precocious' seed strain Ken had selected & was offering at the 
time.  They've done OK here, but the two are quite different from one 
another in growth habits - one is short & shrubby, only about 4 ft tall, 
the other is quite a bit more vigorous, maybe 8 ft or so.  This is the 
first year they've borne heavily - a good crop of small red/purple fruits, 
and as others indicated, curculio & other insects cause minimal damage.  I 
largely ignored the fruits, until all the mulberries were gone, and found 
that unlike the P.angustifolia growing nearby, the P.maritima held their 
fruits, with them almost drying to raisins - and becoming tastier and 
tastier the longer they stayed on the bush.  The birds ate some of them - 
and as I was mowing this past week, I see there are still pits clinging to 
the bushes, stripped of their pulp.

Not a bad little fruiting shrub to stick on a fencerow or edge, but I don't 
know that I'd want to dedicate a lot of premium space to them.

My sole experience with chokeberry(Aronia) has been some planted as 
ornamentals at a putt-putt golf course in Nicholasville, KY - big clusters 
of handsome berries, and while they weren't disgusting, the flavor was 
certainly nothing to write home about.  Haven't seen them in their fall 
regalia, but seems as if I've seen photos showing pretty impressive red 
fall color.



Lucky Pittman
USDA Zone 6
Hopkinsville, KY