North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Mark Angermayer" <hangermayer@isp.com>]

MessageMichael,

I don't know for sure why commercial growers in this area replant so soon.
The guy I was talking to (Dr. Pat Byers out of MU) talked like it had
something to do with a Rasp. Crown Borer buildup.  He said he's dug up
plants with multiple borers on each plant.  I'm battling this myself, but my
understanding is it can be chemically controlled.  I've heard Capture is
effective.  Why commercial growers wouldn't use it, I don't know.

Evidently commercial growers just aren't that adverse to replanting.  To
wit, commercial strawberries are replanted annually around here.  Doesn't
make sense to me, but I'm sure it offers the most production in a commercial
setting.


Change of subject, but today I was talking with a fella who's blackberries
didn't fruit this year.  He seemed to know a fair amount about blackberries
but was at a loss as to why they didn't fruit.  He said he had lots of
foliage growth, and a few small berries that shriveled up, but that was it.
I quizzed him about pruning, and as far as I could tell he was pruning
correctly.  Asked him about over-fertilizing, and he said he didn't put any
more fertilizer on than normal.  I was puzzled because my blackberries
produced heavily, and this guy lives only about 10 miles from me.  We didn't
get a late frost this year.  Any ideas?  Oh, also he said his cherries
didn't fruit either.

Mark
KS







Michael wrote:

Mark,

It could be contamination or it could be a sport.  We have a plant here that
we call "early Marion" which was a sport (can't remember whether it
originated in a growers field or in one of ours) that consistently blooms
~3-4 days or so earlier than Marion but is identical to Marion in all other
respects.  Though with something that suckers and forms a hedge like
'Ouachita' it would be a little more difficult to tell I suppose.

The 7 year figure surprises me a little but not so much.  I wonder what
problems they have that they feel compelled to replace their plantings so
quickly.  The average life of a red raspberry planting in Washington is
around 7-8 years because of disease issues and black raspberries here in
Oregon are around 3 years.  A healthy planting of either should remain
productive for decades.  I'm sure establishment of offtypes in the field
would be more of an issue in such a case but commercial fields just aren't
in for that long.

I've never heard of someone growing Triple Crown without a trellis.  Not
that it can't be done.  I suppose if you hedged the primocanes off short
enough you may be able to get them to stand up on their own for you but
you'd be losing a lot of the crop load in order to do so.  I have a hard
time seeing it being grown successfully without support and still living up
to its potential.  While they come out of the ground stout, the canes can be
a little limber, especially after they branch.  Atleast they're thornless so
tying up the canes is a little less of a chore than otherwise :-)

Michael

Michael Dossett
Corvallis, Oregon