North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Michael Dossett <phainopepla@yahoo.com>]

Yasi,

I think all of the things that you mention in the title of your post can 
significantly affect fruit flavor and sweetness.  While I'm not sure that 
soil pH necessarily affects fruit sweetness I think that can be ruled out 
here since you have said that the same berries have been sweeter in the past. 
 You mentioned that you'd been having cold wet rainy weather and I think that 
is probably the answer to the question there.  The sunnier the weather, the 
more sugars will develop in the ripening fruit.  Cloudy wet weather can cause 
even overripe fruit to never attain the levels of sugars that would otherwise 
be expected.

Hopefully you'll have a little more sun next year and your red raspberries 
will be as good as you remember them being in the past.

Michael

Michael Dossett
Corvallis, Oregon
www.Mdossettphoto.com
phainopepla@yahoo.com


--- On Wed, 8/13/08, Jenny Ruth Yasi <voices@maine.rr.com> wrote:

> From: Jenny Ruth Yasi <voices@maine.rr.com>
> Subject: Re: [NAFEX] berry sweetness: soil, sun or genes?
> To: nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
> Date: Wednesday, August 13, 2008, 10:57 AM
> I'm noticing that my red raspberries this year, that is,
> the ones that 
> aren't moldy, are much more sour than usual. All the
> acid rain maybe? 
> Wondering if maybe sweeter berries grow in more alkaline
> soil (sorry if this 
> has already been discussed, I'm in  skimming mode)?
> 
> Although the reds haven't been nearly as productive as
> usual, the thorny 
> black raspberries are more than making up for it,
> absolutely loaded. The 
> blacks seem to have enjoyed all this cold wet rainy
> weather, while this 
> weather just dissolved our red raspberry crop...
> 
> Yasi
> Peaks Island Maine
> zone 5ish 
> 
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