North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Richard MURPHY" <murphman108@msn.com>]

Hi Squad. It's Murph...

I've been gone a while.

 

Ginda send me some Saskatoon berries, and I took out the seeds by squishing the berries with my fingers in a bowl of water. The seeds all sink to the bottom. Rinse them off.

Then, I washed them in 10% household bleach and water for 5 MINUTES, not longer.

 

They were then placed on a damp stack of paper towels on a small plate, carefully covered with clear plastic wrap, and put in the lower back section of the fridge. It took 4 or 5 months for them to finally begin to sprout, but they all did; 99%. You can examine them through the plastic wrap easily. This method also worked great with apple seeds. I stratified a bunch, and only the Yellow Delicious grew out of a group of 7 different kinds. A couple months later, I checked the rest of the seeds on their plate in the fridge; they all sprouted. I just jumped-the-gun planting the other ones as they never grew.

 

Live and learn.

 

Murph

 

PS    I picked a bunch of Saskatoons at my small plantation in Maine. Raising those bare-root Smokies to finally fruit took some doing, and patience. These guys take a while to get established.

 

M

 

 

I believe Dr. Richard St. Pierre's Saskatoon Manual is a PDF now. Figures.

I bought the printed one a few years ago. Worth every penny if you're going in big.

 

M