North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

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

From Uncommon Fruits for Every Garden (again):

            Grafting has not been a very satisfactory method of juneberry propagation. Grafts often take on rootstocks of other genera, such as mountain ash, hawthorn, and other members of the rose family, but the grafted plants sometimes stop growing. Stocks generally used have included Cotoneaster acutifolius, C. bullatus, Sorbus intermedia, and S. aucuparia. Amelanchier alnifolia is apparently the juneberry most compatible with other genera. Plant juneberries grafted onto other genera low enough in the ground to allow the juneberry scion to root. The rootstock, in this case, acts as a temporary nurse root, but may have the unfortunate habit of continually sending up sprouts. Crataegus arnoldiana as a juneberry rootstock reputedly shuns this bad habit.

            Interestingly, one Amelanchier species is not always graft compatible with another. When grafting a juneberry scion onto juneberry roots, choose a nonsuckering clone for roots or you will constantly be finding shoots thrown up from the rootstock.

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 Nov 6, 2009, at 12:48 PM, Kieran &/or Donna wrote:

>A. Canadensis might be a possible rootstock for other Amelanchier varieties .... "IF" the graft works. Has anyone tried this?

 

I want to know too.  The few native juneberries around us grow slowly and when they finally fruit the berries tend to be ruined by rust.  By contrast, the little Timm x Success sprouts Lucky sent me years ago have had completely clean fruit.  It's taken a few years to get a nice clump, but they are at the edge of the garden and I was able to protect the fruit this spring and eat a handful.  If any of you don't know, the best way to eat juneberries is cooked, because they develop the most amazing almond flavor.  I've gotten to do this exactly once, but have never forgotten.  You can taste it when you bite into the seeds raw, but cooked is far better.  TxS flowers aren't as pretty as the natives and they bloom several weeks later.  I was wanting to do a cross, so I'd have to pick the native flower buds or a branch of them and put them in the fridge to keep them from blooming too early. 

    There is one native plant in the woods that I have waited for years to grow, and  now it's finally reached 2 feet tall, I think I'd be wise to just stick some TxS on it.  I felt like a fool when I found a nice bush out by a volunteer pear I'd grafted at the edge of the neighbor's field.  I've passed it for years, so it must have bloomed for the first time this year.  The berries were smaller than what I picked from a tree in town years ago, but only maybe 10% had rust, and it was a bad year for all rusts.  Amelanchiers should be more widely grown, but we all need vars that do for our area.   Donna

 

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