North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Lon J. Rombough" <lonrom@hevanet.com>]

Limited genetic variability is always a risk if some new pest arises that the old strains can't tolerate.  Beyond that, more variability might bring out new useful traits.  Possibles might include: white fruit for uncolored juice, different growth habits to reduce pruning and training, different bloom color (aronia is planted as an ornamental, too), etc.
-Lon Rombough
NEW grape pruning video: http://www.bunchgrapes.com/dvd.html View a short, low resolution clip here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Q58zFY0B1M
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. 
A video about The Grape Grower : http://cookingupastory.com/index.php/2008/04/18/the-grape-grower/
On Aug 31, 2009, at 7:28 AM, mIEKAL aND wrote:

Most of the growers were recommending picking at 18 brix because they
are concerned about the berries going into a brown state where it
loses some of the anthocyanins.

I'm curious if you think long term planting of a limited genetic
variability would be an issue with aronia?