North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Lon J. Rombough" <lonrom@hevanet.com>]

Title: Re: [NAFEX] Re: The serviceberry's fruit often overlooked

The Canadian material DOES have excellent fruit, but the plants have growth characteristics that can be annoying.  One is that they bloom very early.  I had Canadian and local selections of A. alnifolia and the Canadian stuff would be in full bloom when the local was still in full dormancy.  Second, the Canadian stuff has a "burst" growth habit.  It puts on a fast flush of growth, then stops and hardens, often by the first of July here.  Nothing you do will make them grow any more, even if you want them to, while the local stuff grows more steadily, well into mid to late summer.  As one result, they make such short bushes the deer can keep them nipped down.  A taller bush would escape that problem.  Finally, the Canadian plants will get 75% rust when the local stuff has less than 5%.  That's one of the reasons we badly need more selections of Amelanchier, to get plant types more adapted to different conditions.
-Lon Rombough
>             The species Amelanchier is one that has been said to be as small
> as twenty some to upwards of fifty.  Identifying the various ones is
> complicated my be fact that it hybridizes naturally.  I once copped some
> fruit from a A. Stolonifera plant at an Arboretum.  The plant had stalons so
> there was a pretty good chance it was what it was labeled.  Well, the result
> of the seed planting has no sign of staloning.
>
>             It is further complicated the nursery industry in a lot of cases
> has a "one plant fits all" policy.  I have purchase several Allegheny
> Serviceberries that lack the bronze unfolding leaf that is one of the
> identifying features of A. Laevis.  It is listed by Dirr as a Zone 4 to 8
> plant but the one I have I found in Roseau County in Mn some 40 miles from
> the Canadian border.
>
>             When it comes to fruit production year after year you can't beat
> A. alnifolia, the Saskatoon Serviceberry.  Smokey and Regent are two that I
> have, along with Honeywood that I can make a judgment as to taste and yield.
> I have tasted Pembina and have judged that it not desirable.  The sweetest
> and best tasting berries that I have tasted are the ones native to the area
> of zone 3 here in N. Mn (Del Stubbs country).  Also I bought a serviceberry
> advertised as growing only 4 feet tall from a nursery in Indiana that is
> nine feet tall and tastes very good.
>
>             Virtually all of my berry production is from plants grown from
> seed from berries I picked in Canada. The exception is 3 Regents.  The
> Canadians report that the plants come 80 % true from seed.
>
>
>
> Richard Kruse
>
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