North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Ginda Fisher <list@ginda.us>]

On Jun 3, 2007, at 11:21 AM, Richard MURPHY wrote:

> Hello All;
>
> . . .As far as 'how to produce crops, and what cultivars to use',  
> they have well established this. BUT...... It is all for zones 3  
> and 2 climate. Not going to be a slam-dunk for Americans.
>  . . .
> I have an orchard 4 hours north of my residence. It is in zone 4  
> Maine. I have about 500 Saskatoons in the ground. . . .
> Another thing that differs from here to Saskatchewan is sunlight  
> hours per day. Don't they get a lot more than we do ? Temperature  
> is another factor, and soil composition and structure. The latter  
> is being dug into more deeply by yours truly.
>  . . .

Richard, are you just growing the Canadian cultivars, or have you  
tried local ones?  I found a wild one in my backyard in eastern  
Massachusetts, and I've seen a lot of them on the islands on lake  
Winnepasauke, in NH.  So I'm pretty sure there are some locally  
adapted varieties, although probably not commercially available.  My  
employer just planted a row of them as an ornamental in Boston (!!)  
last spring.  They fruited last June are well on their way to  
ripening a good crop this June, and look quite healthy.  (Something  
fungal on perhaps 1/5 of the berries last year, but the other berries  
and the leaves were pretty clean.  Haven't noticed anything this  
year.)  So maybe locally adapted ones are available commercially.

Ginda