North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[mIEKAL aND <qazingulaza@gmail.com>]

For 20 years the birds never touched my aronia, then in 2009 the
robins discovered them & now I have to fight them off.  They actually
completely cleared a couple of the plants that I have in the open.

Aronia is also being encouraged widely for organic growers since they
are essentially disease free.  A couple of the larger growers have
said there is a disease they are starting to see whose name I forget,
but these are larger monocultural planting so I don't find that all
that surprising.  For polyculture permaculture planting aronia is no
brainer.

I also allow a certain amount to dry on the bushes & they make a tangy
raisin & a lot of the astringency goes out of them.  But for all but
the intrepid, they will never be an out of hand fruit.

~mIEKAL

On Thu, Jan 27, 2011 at 2:56 PM, Richard MURPHY <murphman108@msn.com> wrote:
> Phytoholics:
>

>      Here is this large, rugged shrub, loaded with fruit, growing in wet
> soil, given no particular care, and AND... the birds leave it alone.
> So, on it's own merit, the berry itself is a 'who cares', but when you look
> at the big picture, it looks fantastic, especially for those of us that have
> some not-so-well-drained areas to plant it!