North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["M Stanton" <6ducks@fuse.net>]

I had a great Meiwa kumquat that might have been on Flying Dragon rootstock.
I bought it as a 5-gal plant at a home depot store on a trip to California,
and
then packed it in my suitcase to bring home.  You can remove citrus from a
quarantine region as
long as you do not bring it into another quarantine region.
The trick to packing s plant in a suitcase, besides hoping that the
screeners at the airport don't want to unpack your stuff, (which one did
because she did not believe me when I told her what it was)
is to remove the plant from its retail container, gently remove the soil,
and pack the root ball is moist newspaper and then wrap it
in a plastic trash bag.  A 5-gallon plant will then fit in a large suitcase
if you lay it diagonally between layers of clothes, arranging it carefully
so as to not bend leaves or branches.  Sounds crazy, but I've done it
several times with no apparent ill effects.  The advantage to this method is
that you save money over mail order, and get to pick the plant out yourself.
Of course, you have to be somewhere in 'citrus country' (probably CA, AX,
south Texas or FL) to do this.


Michele Stanton
Ohio


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Subject: nafex Digest, Vol 29, Issue 59


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Today's Topics:

   1. Re: Duke cherries. (joanrrosenberg@aol.com)
   2. japanese beetles so bad? (kieran or donna)
   3. Duke Cherries (mauch1@aol.com)
   4. Purslane, mercury and weeds (Stephen Sadler)
   5. purslane (Dianne Stephany)
   6. cherry budwood question (mauch1@aol.com)
   7. Dwarf Kumquats (Doreen Howard)
   8. Apple Pruning Questions (kieran or donna)


----------------------------------------------------------------------

Message: 1
Date: Thu, 30 Jun 2005 12:53:59 -0400
From: joanrrosenberg@aol.com
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Duke cherries.
To: nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
Message-ID: <8C74BAB7232884D-1A0-2BE4@mblk-r31.sysops.aol.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Few nurseries sell Duke cherries these days.  They don't have the volume
production that other forms do.  But some of them are hardier.  If you know
of someone that does sell them, I would be interested. 
 
-----Original Message-----
From: kieran or donna <redherring@tnaccess.com>
To: nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
Sent: Wed, 29 Jun 2005 22:43:43 -0500
Subject: [NAFEX] Duke cherries.


I seem to have one.  I found a tree years ago that had sweet cherry leaves,
but the fruit spurs were like sour cherry and it blooms later than my sweet
cherries.  I got a sprout from it, the original was bulldozed  of course,
the fate of most trees in Cookeville these days.  My tree hasn't fruited,
but it did make a sprout which I planted. The cherry consultant in Idaho
told me he had 14 different Dukes.  He said they were "common".  It made me
want to go kick the tree that had gotten me
all excited, but I have found they are not at all common here.    Donna

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Message: 2
Date: Thu, 30 Jun 2005 12:15:24 -0500
From: "kieran or donna" <redherring@tnaccess.com>
Subject: [NAFEX] japanese beetles so bad?
To: <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Message-ID: <007301c57d99$16cc8e60$87f7b40c@computer>
Content-Type: text/plain;       charset="iso-8859-1"



>I was told by one of the agents at the
Clarksville, AR station they were testing an
experimental Mlkyspore trap that captured the beetles
an dusted the bug and let it go, there by inoculating
the soil were the eggs are laid.

Oh, what clever people!!!  Why didn't anyone think of this before?  Though
as my husband says, it would really hurt to let the dang beetles go after
catching them!
    We have plenty of Japanese beetles, though maybe not as many as some
because they are said to like nice short grass, and mostly we have trees and
pasture around us.  When we bought our place, there was no Milky Spore
available, so I got some dirt from back in East Tenn where we had spread the
stuff 10 yrs earlier at a rental house and my grandmother's house.  I dried
and sieved the dirt and threw it around, I am sure that by now we have got
about as much Milky Spore in our soil as if we had bought the stuff
recently.
    No, we aren't spraying.  Mostly the beetles go for the plums, they want
to eat them right up.  And also the beans, some roses, the cannas, the
cherries, my little stunted apple trees, but the defoliation is not nearly
so bad on them.  When they hit in east TN, we were in a rental house with
two big sweet cherries.  The beetles defoliated them several times a year
till they were so weakened they up and died.  So you can lose trees.  But
for the most part the damage tends to get spread around, and apart from the
plums and grapes, nothing loses all it's leaves.  I'm about ready to see if
I can buy Neem locally, or put in my long postponed Fedconorder.
    For years my approach has to been to go around with a small bucket with
half an inch of water in the bottom, I knock them off the plants and throw
them by the handful to the chickens.  The hens go crazy every time they lay
eyes on me this time of year, they like beetles that much.  If it were just
orchard we were dealing with, we might let the hens out, but they do too
much damage in the garden.  The guineas, ducks, and muscovy ducks have been
very interesting to watch.  When they reach up high to get a low-hanging
beetle, they tend to catch or jostle the leaf it's on and that shakes down a
few more.  In this heat they are likely to fly rather than fall, but enough
fall to keep the guineas hanging around my plum trees.  I see plainly that
these birds are not going to save my roses or much of anything else from
Japanese beetles, esp the ones in trees that they just can't reach.   But
they do reduce the numbers somewhat, converting the leaves I have lost into
protein as meat and eggs for the table. For those of you who are so
afflicted, the slug population has taken a nosedive since the ducks were
introduced.  Unfortunately the frog and salamander population is also
affected.  Oddly enough, they also eat grass and dandelion seeds, so it is
kind of mind boggling to think how the garden will change.  I know it will,
but have no idea how much or which way.  It has changed so much already.
For example, "broom sedge", which my mother knew by the more descriptive
name "poverty grass" quickly disappeared from our garden area.  It indicates
low pH, low N, low P.  But it was replaced en masse for 2 years by another
weed called "Poorjoe" which tells me that we were a long way from perfect.
But Poorjoe also dropped out of the weed population, and now we get a much
better class of weeds, including chickweed and redroot pigweed, which to my
mind are indicators of pretty decent soil. If the pigweed looks a bit yellow
or stunted, I know I have a problem.  (On the other hand, if it's looking
really good, it's swamping out my crop
plants!)  If any of you know of any other useful indicator weeds, I'd like
to hear about them.  I have the 2 books put out by ACRES USA but can't tell
they are all that much help. One weed I find interesting is purslane, called
"plant mercury" in China because it concentrates mercury.  If I remember
correctly, you can get 2 oz mercury per ton of plant.  Anyway, it won't grow
in our garden.  I have bought seeds several times, and accidently imported
it in some dirt from elsewhere.  It wimps out and next year, it's all gone.
What do you call a weed when it's not a weed?  That's all for now.  Donna




------------------------------

Message: 3
Date: Thu, 30 Jun 2005 15:19:03 -0400
From: mauch1@aol.com
Subject: [NAFEX] Duke Cherries
To: nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
Message-ID: <8C74BBFB64F5221-6D0-3C76@mblk-d38.sysops.aol.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

Raintree Nursery used to sell Dukes.
 
http://www.raintreenursery.com/catalog/producttype.cfm?producttype=CHER
 
They do have a cherry that "may be a Duke by another name"
One is "Danube", which specifically states in their description is as hybrid
of Sweet and Tart cherry.
 
Also there are two other 'tart' cherries that have supposedly high sugar
contents for eating out of hand: Balaton Surefire
 
Raintree sells both Danube and Surefire
Cummins Nursery sells Danube, Surefire and Balaton
 
http://www.cumminsnursery.com/tartcherry.htm
 
Couldn't find any nurseries selling Duke cherries.
 
Chris Mauchline
SE PA, zone 6
40? 5' N 75? 51'W
~650 ft elevation
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Message: 4
Date: Thu, 30 Jun 2005 12:30:53 -0700
From: "Stephen Sadler" <Docshiva@Docshiva.org>
Subject: [NAFEX] Purslane, mercury and weeds
To: "'North American Fruit Explorers'" <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Message-ID: <20050630193107.4BF904C00B@lists.ibiblio.org>
Content-Type: text/plain;       charset="US-ASCII"

Purslane, contrary to mythology, is not high in mercury - it is, however,
high in omega-3 acids, and a really healthy veg!  I wonder why the Chinese
thought it was high?  In Taoist views, a plant low in lead - like purslane -
was necessarily described is high in mercury, the Taoist metallic opposite
of lead (lead, heavy and dense; mercury, light and liquid).  Taoists thought
that mercuric property to be healthy, and Chinese herbal medicines to this
day are frequently high in actual mercury, assayed through more modern
science than when the Taoists were ascribing these metallic properties.
Remember, western 'science' at the same time postulated that wood
'contained' fire.  

Weed, defined:

The way I learned it, all plants have some use, so usefulness or uselessness
does not describe a 'weed'.  A weed is simply a perfectly good plant that's
where someone doesn't want it to be.   

Stephen Sadler, Ph.D.
USDA 9, AHS heat zone 8, 
Sacramento CA - Mediterranean climate


-----Original Message-----
From: nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org
[mailto:nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of kieran or donna
Sent: Thursday, June 30, 2005 10:15 AM
To: nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: [NAFEX] japanese beetles so bad?


...
One weed I find interesting is purslane, called "plant mercury" in China
because it concentrates mercury.  If I remember correctly, you can get 2 oz
mercury per ton of plant.  Anyway, it won't grow in our garden.  I have
bought seeds several times, and accidently imported it in some dirt from
elsewhere.  It wimps out and next year, it's all gone.  What do you call a
weed when it's not a weed?  That's all for now.  Donna






------------------------------

Message: 5
Date: Thu, 30 Jun 2005 15:31:43 -0400
From: "Dianne Stephany" <iluvdanc@rochester.rr.com>
Subject: [NAFEX] purslane
To: "North American Fruit Explorers" <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Message-ID: <002501c57daa$58f43980$c4394342@stephany>
Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1";
        reply-type=original

Donna wrote:
>One weed I find interesting is purslane, called "plant mercury" in 
>China
>because it concentrates mercury.  If I remember correctly, you can get 2 oz

>mercury per ton of plant.

That is interesting about the purslane concentrating mercury. I had read 
that it also is a good source of vitamin C and had considered adding it to 
my salads, but not now with the possiobility of mercury.
    Rochester NY had the driest May on  record and one of the coldest- so I 
haven't seen many insects at all, no Japanese beetles.

Dianne Stephany



------------------------------

Message: 6
Date: Thu, 30 Jun 2005 15:48:33 -0400
From: mauch1@aol.com
Subject: [NAFEX] cherry budwood question
To: nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
Message-ID: <8C74BC3D55E95A1-6D0-3FC9@mblk-d38.sysops.aol.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

 I have had some success with whip&tongue grafting cherries.  But it
required me to either graft 
incredibly early (before February 15th), or after the stock had begun to
leaf out.  In the second case, I bagged the graft to keep it from drying
out.
 
I haven't had success in budding cherries, but my overall budding success is
low.
 
The bad news is that 2/3 of my cherry trees are on GM 51 (and the 3rd
dwarfing rootstock is unknown).  To paraphrase Jim Cummins when I heard
speak at a Nafex conference: "Beautifully dwarfed tree, but no fruit"
 
Some of the scion wood were from not particularly productive trees so I may
have compounded my problems.  I'm considering starting to grow the sweeter
tart cherries and give up on the sweets.
 
*SIGH* 
 
Chris Mauchline
SE PA, zone 6
40? 5' N 75? 51'W
~650 ft elevation
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Message: 7
Date: Thu, 30 Jun 2005 14:51:27 -0500
From: "Doreen Howard" <gardendiva@charter.net>
Subject: [NAFEX] Dwarf Kumquats
To: "North American Fruit Explorers" <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Message-ID: <007701c57dad$1aa14d00$1202a8c0@Doreen>
Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1";
        reply-type=original

Who has the best dwarf kumquats for container culture?  I'd like to buy a 
couple to grow in my sunroom during the winter.
Doreen Howard
Zone 4b-5a
IL-WI Border 



------------------------------

Message: 8
Date: Thu, 30 Jun 2005 13:45:05 -0500
From: "kieran or donna" <redherring@tnaccess.com>
Subject: [NAFEX] Apple Pruning Questions
To: <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Message-ID: <001c01c57db1$68842020$a1f7b40c@computer>
Content-Type: text/plain;       charset="iso-8859-1"

>Is it possible to top apple trees without the upright branches 
>producing so
many water-spouts?
 I say use sawdust or leaves if you want to produce a N deficiency.  The
trouble is that next year after the sawdust is all broken down, the N will
be available again, and the soil will be even better, so you may get more
growth.  But seems like if you only add things to your orchard that are N
deficient, that you should be able to keep all that excess growth to a
minimum.  Anyway, a slight N deficiency is supposed to make for better fruit
color and keeping quality.

>Is it advisable/inadvisable to top
trees at this time of year?

Now I think you are really asking the right question, and I think the answer
is yes.  I'm sure some summer pruning experts will chime in with real
experience, but I can tell you something I saw once and never again.  They
do this horrible thing to trees here in Tennessee, called "topping".  In the
winter these guys come around with a cherry picker truck and for a big fee
they butcher your shade trees.  The resultant growth is whiplike upright
branches, terribly abnormal looking and a very sad sight.  But once, just
once, I saw the Fosch company top some trees in the summer.  For one thing,
they didn't get right in there and whack them off at main branches, and I
have to wonder if all the leaves didn't hinder them from more conventional
whacking.  Their worked all over the tops of those maple trees, pruning them
as you would a hedge or a bush, so they were reduced by maybe 1/4 or even
1/3.  The next year, I couldn't see anything wrong with those trees.  I wish
now I had studied them longer and harder, as I am sure there must have been
some sign of the pruning in the new growth.  But I think they did far better
than any other shade tree pruning I have seen.    Donna



------------------------------

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