North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["kieran or donna" <redherring@tnaccess.com>]

Are you sure it is Manganese deficency? In Louisiana the wetter sites with
pecans had the highest Manganese levels. I ran over 1,000 samples over
several years and this was the trend. Corn can show stripes from Magnesium
as well as zinc deficiencies.

R.D.,
    I'd guess you were seeing Manganese that had washed down into low areas
over time, but I am on upland.  I tried adding Epsoms salts the first year
it happened, no effect.  Later we had a CEC soil test done, and we were low
on Mn, with 6.4 pH and 3.4 organic matter.  That sample was taken from one
of our worst areas, so I'd assume the pH and organic matter were even higher
in some more coddled sections.
Jerry,
    Is there a reason you need the 90 chromosome rootstocks?  Reason I ask
is that we have young persimmons all over the place, mostly in the acid
clay, but some are on the edge of the well-limed garden.  So really the
setup is already there, it's just a matter of doing the grafts.  I think
there are 3 young trees of grafting size right by one edge of the garden.
Others are scattered among my attempts to grow apples, those areas have also
been limed several times, though it's never been tilled into the soil.
    Seems like it might be easier, though there would be a fee to pay, to
get tissue samples tested from trees that suffered from KSD symptoms and
compare to healthy trees from the same general area.  If I could produce at
least one of each, a healthy tree and a sick one, tissue samples could
produce the final nail for the KSD coffin.  Is there some other theory out
there that makes as much sense?  I mean, I'd hate to be barking up the wrong
tree.  Are there some plants that do especially well or esp poorly if Mn is
too available?  The change in pH from the native soil to our well limed
garden is so extreme, and Mn's availability is so sensitive, that I might
have a good place to do a test.
    The only Kaki I have actually enjoyed is Ichi Kei Jiro, Mike Cartwright
could send me scions, if you think it's hardy in Z6.  Is Jiro anything like
it?  I'd suggest kaki seeds, but do they get the KSD?  And with the drought
we have going on, I'd hate to mess with seeds, and in fact, can't guarentee
very good grafting success next spring unless the rainfall picks up.  We
really can't water on our place, esp if it doesn't rain.  Mostly I haul
collected rainwater to plants that need it, as the creek is way downhill
from the garden.  I'm hauling all the water I can get now to my trees, as
the ground is bone dry down deep.  Donna