North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

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

At 10:53 AM 6/3/2004 -0700, Lon wrote:
> 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.

I've got a young planting of saskatoons - none are older than 8-9 years of 
age; seedlings of Timm & Success(from the now-defunct Bear Creek Nursery), 
Regent, Theissen, Honeywood, Forestburg, Martin, and Success.
Most productive, so far, have been the seedlings from BCN - but they are at 
least 2-3 years older than any of the others.  Fruits are small, but tasty, 
and do achieve a nice dark blue color - if they escape the birds that 
long.  None of my alnifolias are more than 4 ft tall, and with their 
current rate and style of growth, I don't really anticipate them surpassing 
that - they sucker and just become a wider and wider bush - which is OK 
with me, at least for the present, as the deer haven't(yet) become a 
problem in the orchard.
Have yet to see any evidence of rust on them, but have had quince rust on 
one seedling quince that I grew from seed that Lon parceled out several 
years ago.

Lucky Pittman
USDA Cold Zone 6
AHS Heat Zone 7
Hopkinsville, KY