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nafex - Re: [NAFEX] Need Help Choosing Beach Plums

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  • From: Lucky Pittman <lucky.pittman@murraystate.edu>
  • To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Need Help Choosing Beach Plums
  • Date: Tue, 02 Sep 2003 08:46:33 -0500

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





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