North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[R F Hollaus <hollaus@comcast.net>]

Northerners,

I have heard of the kind of damage done that Jim Fruth was talking
about in Alaska.  The temperature charts from this past winter
indicate -35F average temps the week before +40F and rain came on
January 17.  Pat Holloway who teaches botany at the Fairbanks
university was out in the test yards during the first week of summer
break surveying all the damage.  She noted that it was the worst
winterkill year.  Even to things that live within 6" of the ground. 
At that time Pin cherry and Ussurrian plum plots were just starting up
and continued into full bloom in spite of this.

I will forward you another report about cherries that I wrote over a
month ago.  In short, I grew a dozen 'C-Passion' cherries (crosses
between northstar & hardy ground cherry) in silt/organic soil, which
caused late hardening off so all trees killed above the soil line (now
regrowing suckers).  A nursery in North Pole Alaska was able to do a
bit better than I did with CP and with 'C-Jewel' most of his survived,
if not all of them.

----- Original Message -----

From: Jim Fruth 

    My North Star Cherry (and the Sure Fire Cherry from Raintree) either
failed to harden off last year OR the -38 F winter temperature did it in.
Both sprouted from below the snow-line but only the North Star is acting
like it will continue to grow.  I got over an inch of rain in the Winter so
that 18" of snow didn't have much insulation properties and alot of my
plants suffered.

Jim Fruth
Brambleberry Farm