North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Martha L. Davis" <martha_davis@earthlink.net>]

Thanks Ron,

 I knew Maxine's material would be more appropriate for most of the US folks 
who were interested in the Canadian types which may have bloom time issues 
for those of us with warmer winters or fluctuating temperatures, but I didn't 
have all the info.  Bye the by do you think Maxine might be willing to do an 
updated talk at this summer's meeting?  Given all the talk I think it would 
be popular.

Martha

-----Original Message-----
>From: "Lon J. Rombough" <lonrom@hevanet.com>
>Sent: Jan 8, 2009 1:05 PM
>To: North Amercan Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>, "Martha L. 
>Davis" <martha_davis@earthlink.net>
>Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Haskap
>
>Just about all the edible honeysuckle on the market is from Russian 
>material that blooms as soon as the cold breaks in Siberia, which means 
>that in much of the US it will bloom way too early when there are no 
>pollinating insects.  Haskap is bred from Japanese material that blooms 
>much later and will set well in warmer climates.  Dr. Maxine Thompson 
>has bred low acid Haskap that tastes sweet, and she has selections that 
>have much larger berries with higher production than the Russian 
>material.  None of her best selections are on the market yet, though 
>some Japanese material is out there that's inferior to her best stuff.  
>She suffered a setback in losing her original test plots last year.  
>She selected the best material she could save and moved it to her own 
>property, but that may limit what she can do.
>Point is, if you've tried Honeyberry, don't judge Haskap by it.  The 
>new Haskap selections will leave it in the dust when they come out.
>-Lon Rombough
>NEW grape pruning video: http://www.bunchgrapes.com/dvd.html
>Grapes, writing, consulting, my book, The Grape Grower, at 
>http://www.bunchgrapes.com  Winner of the Garden Writers Association 
>"Best Talent in Writing" award for 2003.
>For all other things grape,   http://www.vitisearch.com
>A video about The Grape Grower : 
>http://cookingupastory.com/index.php/2008/04/18/the-grape-grower/
>On Jan 8, 2009, at 9:13 AM, Martha L. Davis wrote:
>
>With all the talk on Haskup I am reminded of the talk Michael Mcconkey 
>of Edible landscaping gave at a meeting. He said that he almost dropped 
>them from the catalogue until one woman in Maine wrote and raved about 
>them.  No one else had much success. I'm not sure whether it was lack 
>of pollinators, or frost damage of early blooms (I think that the first 
>ones available bloomed quite early), or whether  it was the growing 
>temperatures, but it seems like people in the middle to southern US 
>should do some research before they plant lots of them.  They seem 
>quite adapted to Northern conditions and the Canadian researchers don't 
>seem to have had any of those problems.
>
>Martha