North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Chex <ricechex@rocketmail.com>]

I'm going to have to find me a copy of Richard
St. Pierre's Amelanchier Manual.  Isn't Richard
on this elist?  I planted 8 northline
serviceberrries last year from Raintree.  There
were only maybe 10 berries this year and they
were kind of mealy and flavorless.  The reason I
chose saskatoons over blueberries is that my
focus is on edible landscaping.  Blueberries are
not a plant one can stick out and have living
here (soil is alkaline) if one rents a property 
at some point as a tenant will never care for
them.  I figure a saskatoon will still be there
unless someone makes a concerted effort to kill
them.  I am hoping that when the northlines
mature that they will be more appealing to the
taste buds. 

Chris
zone 5, IL

P.S. I moderate an elist on edible landscaping at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EdibleLandscape if
any members of this elist would like to share
some of their skills.




> Message: 8
> Date: Mon, 19 Jun 2006 18:55:12 -0400
> From: "Richard MURPHY" <murphman108@msn.com>
> Subject: [NAFEX] Saskatoon Selection
> To: "nafex" <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
> Message-ID:
> <BAY101-DAV9F70C9C2540073C154B94EC860@phx.gbl>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
> 
> Hello Ginda and All;
> 
> Down here in Massachusetts, nobody knows what a
> Saskatoon really is.
> It is actually a distant cousin of an apple.
> 
> As far as selecting the best kind 'for this
> area', (zone 5 / 6) it's a crap shoot. 
> The more you read, the more confused you'll
> get. So... whenever I set off to pork myself, I
> usually observe someone else's success first as
> a model, and modify accordingly.
> 
> Although the climate is totally different, go
> to
>
www.saskatoonfarm.com<http://www.saskatoonfarm.com/>.
> 
> See what Paul Hamer did.
> Read his opinions about the various cultivars
> of Amelanchier.
> 
> Then... buy 2 of each type, plant them and have
> fun!
> 
> A long time ago, I made the mistake of buying a
> un-named cultivar.
> Sterile piece of crap. Chucked it. Lesson
> learned.
> 
> Mike out at Burnt Ridge in Washington gave me a
> decent price on a boatload of Smokies, so I
> bought them and planted them in zone 4 Maine
> last year, in clayish soil.
> 
> Most of them immediately caught some kind of
> leaf crud, but they survived the winter. Some
> that defoliated early actually put out some
> suckers and they are still alive. (I thought
> they croaked last November!). Finally, this
> year I gave them all a dose of Clorothalonil
> and Malathion before bloom, and as of today the
> leaves are fine; no crud, no bugs either.
> 
> These plants definitely don't like to be
> planted in muck. Down the bottom of my lot, the
> earth is still spongey, and the plants did die.
> Some are growing moderately fast, some slow,
> they are all still too young to have fruit.
> 
> As far as soil fungus benefit... I can't
> comment, nor speculate responsibly. I have read
> Richard St. Pierre's Amelanchier Manual about
> 75 times (own a copy), and don't remember him
> mentioning that topic at all; but it doesn't
> mean it isn't a valid idea. Sounds like another
> experiment. I might consider trying it,
> somewhere far away from the big orchard just in
> case....
> 
> Right now, there just isn't enough data on
> Juneberries to draw on for this area.
> We should try to fix that. What a cool
> experiment.
> 
> Mr. Hamer also weighs in on the seedling vs.
> tissue babies................ Mostly true from
> seed.
> Seedlings may take another year to fruit.....
> 
> Why would anyone bother with these unknown
> berries when blueberries are so easy to grow??
> The taste. Send for a jar of jam etc and you
> will be hooked, as I was.
> Wow.
> 
> 
> Have fun.
> 
> Murph


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