North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Douglas Woodard <dwoodard@becon.org>]

Sarah, I predict that Biga and its colleagues will not do well for you 
unless you get a few mild winters in succession. A few years ago I 
visited Ken Taylor and saw his Biga tree; it looked as if it was not 
long for this world and he told me it had taken damage in severe winters 
there near the boundary of zone 5b and 5a. Ken's climate ratings tend to 
be a little optimistic and I think are not on the basis of test winters 
but average or even favourable ones.

Biga apparently originated from a Bing seed planted a little below 
Quebec City. I am not sure that it is fully hardy in test winters there.

Ken tells me that Cerise de l'Isle, an old sour cherry which he found in 
his area, is highly resistant to voles and I think on that basis it 
should be more widely tested. I don't think however that it is likely to 
survive long in zone 3. I'd say plant it with some confidence in zone 5 
on favourable soils, test in zone 4 if you are willing to take a chance.

Some years ago the Summerland station of Agriculture Canada published a 
booklet on BC fruit cultivars. It listed sweet cherry cultivars by 
hardiness groups as revealed at the station. They considered Hudson 
(Geneva station, NY) and Salmo (Summerland cultivar) to be the two 
hardiest sweet cherry cultivars, in a class by themselves. I'd say they 
would be worth trying on favourable soils in zone 5, but in more severe 
conditions would likely depend on protection or a run of mild winters.

In places with open winters I expect that rootstock hardiness would be a 
significant factor. Some years ago the East Malling station in England 
experimented with clones of Prunus X Dropmoreana, a complex hybrid 
originated by Frank Skinner at Dropmore, Manitoba in I think zone 2b. My 
recollection from an annual report of that station from the 1970's is 
that some clones were not fully compatible with a wide range of sweet 
cherry cultivars, but it might be worth trying. I don't think it is 
dwarfing. I think the Gisela series might be hardy in zone 5. Prunus 
fruticosa might serve as a nurse root; apparently it is compatible with 
sweet cherry but tends to be overgrown after a few years.

Doug Woodard
St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada


Sarah Kehler Ewing wrote:
> I had trouble with mice girdling trees the first year and have kept putting hardware 
> cloth collars (about 18" height and 6" diameter) around the trees ever since, 
> but the addition of too many cats seems to mean that the mice don't get into the 
> unmulched parts of my garden where I currently have about 2000 fruit tree seedlings.
>
> Most black sweet cherries available in Canada are actually a 1983 Canadian 
> introduction called 'Lapins' which is 'Van' x 'Stella' and was originally 
> trialed as a Bing pollinator and became it's replacement in commercial 
> orchards.  I found 'Lapins' at our local Canadian Tire store and had to put 
> in two trees last spring: this spring one leafed out right to the tip and the 
> other died back by half; it had a gap in the windbreak to it's Northwest 
> which is where our prevailing winds come from and last winter hit the extreme 
> cold temperatures that we get (-45 F).  There are a few hobby growers up here 
> who have gotten fruit off of their 'Lapins' trees in spite of it being listed 
> as zone 5 so I have high hopes even though I am further out from Edmonton 
> than they are which usually means about a zone colder than they are.  This 
> spring I put in a 'Biga' and a 'Binga' which are supposed to be zone 3-4 
> hardy black sweet cherries (Windmill Point Farms in Quebec) that
>  I can only assume are 'Bing' seedlings named by someone without much 
> imagination! With that idea in mind I keep trying to grow 'Bing' seeds and 
> have had no success to date.  I don't have more any actual info on 'Biga' and 
> 'Binga' and if anyone does, I'd love to hear it.
>
> As for 'sour/semi-sweet' cherries, I have 'Evans' (of course: the Dr. Evans who discovered and propagated them lives only a few miles away!), 'Cerise de L'Ile' (a self fertile Quebec heirloom I added this spring), 'Lake' and 'Raven' black cherries (cluster sweet cherries, not chokecherries, looking for more info on these too), 'Rose', and all the University of Saskachewan cherries: 'Carmine Jewel', 'Crimson Passion', 'Valentine', 'Romeo', 'Juliet', and 'Cupid'.  If you have a chance to grow the U of S cultivars: jump with both feet!  They are super hardy (at least zone 2 and my 20+ trees have not died back here in the 4 years we have had them) and they are very tasty: much more flavour and sugar than a Bing' although they have more acid too which is why they are generally listed as semi-sweet.  They make super jam, pie, ice cream topping, et cetera, and we love to eat them off the tree.  
>
> I'm also planning to add the zone 5 black sweet cherry 'Stella' (also 
> produces for other people I know up here), the Mazza cherries ('Mazy' and 
> 'Maza', ditto on imagination, kudo's for species clarity!), and anything else 
> I can find next year!
>
> Sarah
> Zone 3b
>
> > hello I am writing from z 3a in  n .minnesota, what sweet
> > cherries do you
> > hope to grow? all I have accomplished so far are
> > Evans,which are great, but
> > not really a sweet cherry
> > when propagating any seeds in the ground *I* always have to
> > put them in old
> > window screen to keep the mice from eating them
> > Del Stubbs
> >
> > On Tue, Sep 23, 2008 at 1:05 PM, Sarah Kehler Ewing
> > <skkewing@yahoo.com>wrote:
> >
> > > I'm wondering if any NAFEX members might have some
> > advice on starting plums
> > >  and Arctic Kiwi from seed.  I'm not sure if the
> > Kiwi seeds need to be cold
> > > stratified and I'm wondering what others have
> > experienced.  These Kiwis are
> > > the smooth skinned grape-sized ones with the
> > tri-colour new growth.  And I
> > > recently met someone at our local fruit growers
> > festival that had cracked
> > > their peach, cherry and plum seeds in a vice before
> > planting them out in the
> > > fall to cold stratify over the winter.  I have grown
> > 100's of chokecherries,
> > > Cherry Plums, and Nanking Cherries by just planting
> > them in the fall so is
> > > all this cracking really necessary for the other stone
> > fruits?  Ironically
> > > enough, I have had very little success growing Peaches
> > and sweet cherries
> > > from seed.
> > >
> > > Thank-you,
> > >
> > > Sarah
> > > Zone 3b, Edmonton, AB
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
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> > --
> > Del, 2b/3a n. Mn
>
>
>       
>
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