North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[<jelie@new.rr.com>]

John,

I have been hearing about the die-back issues with King Red Russian Olive for 
years so last fall I purchased some Eleaegnus orientalis seeds from a 
Middle-eastern grocer and after a dormancy period close to that of apple 
seeds I now have about thirty seedlings growing in the yard.  I haven't 
noticed any issues with them as of yet.  Our typical snow cover should get 
them through the winter if the mice leave them alone.

The seeds are sold from Persian grocers as "senjed" or "sencet" and from 
Turkish grocers as "igde" (pronounced "e day").  There are some nice pics 
online of the igde fruit on flicr, if I am not mistaken.

I do also have the two varieties of Trebizond Date which I purchased from 
from One Green World a couple years ago. I haven't had a problem with 
die-back but growth has been steady.

I don't know how seriously you would like to get Russian Olive but growing 
from seed is an easy, albeit, much longer option.

Take Care,

Jim Elie
Green Bay WI
z4/5


---- John S <swim_at_svc@yahoo.com> wrote: 
> Lee,  I have a couple of attempts going now. ......
>  
> I've been focused on trying to graft my dying King Red Russian Olive to 
> autumn olive rootstock (your excellent book mentions the problems keeping 
> King Red alive), but so far none of the grafts have taken - don't know 
> whether its my technique or an incompatibility.  I think the King Red 
> finally failed this fall.
>  
> Raintree sells standards of gooseberries from time to time.
>  
> John