North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Stephen Sadler" <Docshiva@Docshiva.org>]

That's my thought, too.  The list of nutrients that increase sweetness in
ripe fruit seems to be "all of them."  I've had sour/bitter plants sweeten
up as the I've improved the soil and fertilized.  Groworganic.com has a
blend they call Brix Mix.  Pretty much anything that's been shown to
increase brix is in the mix.  It might be interesting to see if something
like that would have any effect.

To my taste, all cranberries are bitter; but I've had highbush ones that
were intolerable even to cranberry lovers.  My favorite cranberry-like fruit
is lingonberry.  My experience with them is that if someone thinks they're
cranberries, they often regard them as the best they've had.  If they know
they're something else, they'll reject them as not 'traditional'.

~ Stephen

-----Original Message-----
From: nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org
[mailto:nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Ginda Fisher
Sent: Tuesday, December 30, 2008 9:51 AM
To: North American Fruit Explorers
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Hypothesis needed

Is there any chance it's genetic?
___
Ginda

...... Original Message .......
On Tue, 30 Dec 2008 11:26:48 -0600 "Jim Fruth" <jfruth@tds.net> wrote:
>    I need everyone's best guess as to what might cause bitterness in 
fruit 
>(and, possibly how to correct the problem):  I harvest Highbush 
Cranberries 
>(Viburnum trilobum) from six places.
>1. Swampy area between a lake and high ground.  These are understory 
bushes, 
>perhaps as many as 100 of them, getting filtered sunlight and peeks of 
>direct sun.  Their roots are constantly in saturated ground.  These 
berries 
>have a musky taste, are otherwise pleasant and make excellent jelly.
>2. Two bushes at the edge of a lake with surface water 2 to 3' down. 
>Berries taste great and make excellent jelly.
>3. Two bushes in front of an office building near a creek with surface 
water 
>about 7' down.  Berries taste great and make good jelly.
>4. Large bush in my neighbor's front yard.  Water table unknown.  Berries 
>taste great and make good jelly.
>5. Bitter berries from a small thicket in the woods with water table 
>unknown.  Jelly is bitter.
>6. Bitter berries from my orchard.  Bushes obtained from two nurseries, 
one 
>in Minnesota and the other from North Dakota.  Planted 2' above hardpan 
clay 
>where water pools after a rain plus receives some irrigation water.  Jelly 
>is bitter.
>
>Jim Fruth
>Brambleberry Farm
>Pequot Lakes, MN  56472
>For jams, jellies & syrups:
>www.bberryfarm.com
>(877)265-6856 [Store]
>(218)831-7018 [My Cell] 
>
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