North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Lee Reich <lreich@hvc.rr.com>]

Hi Jim, 

Any chance that I could get a half-dozen or so seeds of igde from you for planting? Years ago I got some from the USDA but they never germinated. 

In my book about uncommon fruits, I wrote that the seeds did not germinate readily, often waiting until the second season unless they were nicked, soaked in acid, kept warm and moist for a few weeks, cracked out of their seed coats, or washed for 6 days to leach out inhibitors. Sounds like you found none of this to be true. (Maybe I read my own book too closely about how hard the seeds are to germinate!)

If your seedlings are growing well, you're probably home free. Whenever I've put in plants of King Red, they've always collapsed before the end of their first season, something Hector Black, in Tennessee, also noted.

Lee

Lee Reich, PhD

http://www.leereich.com/

Books by Lee Reich:

A Northeast Gardener's Year

The Pruning Book

Weedless Gardening

Uncommon Fruits for Every Garden

Landscaping with Fruit

On Oct 30, 2009, at 1:44 PM, <jelie@new.rr.com> <jelie@new.rr.com> wrote:

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

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