North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Kevin Moore <aleguy33@yahoo.com>]

California has a wide range of climate conditions, though most of the breeding seems to go into heat resistance and low-chill requirements because most of the zone 4/5 land in the state is in National Parks and National Forests. The total amount of agricultural land there is actually very small when compared to most other agricultural states. They just grow more high-value crops and their labor costs are minimized by the huge number of migrant workers there. I can see no reason why other states couldn't follow suit. Even with short growing seasons most states should be capable of feeding their own populations.
Actually Western Washington has the best overall climate for fruit growing that I know of, unless you want to grow tropicals.

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From: Melissa Kacalanos <mijwiz@yahoo.com>
To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Monday, May 25, 2009 5:29:17 PM
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Pluots in Nebraska

All the pluots I see marketed were bred for California's climate, but I bet it would be possible to breed them for other climates. Has anyone crossed apricots with hardier plums, like the Asian/American hybrid plums?

California has such great weather for fruit, it's a self-fulfilling prophesy that fruit breeders will create varieties optimized for that climate, and ignore other climates that are in greater need of new fruit varieties.

Melissa