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  • From: Deb S <debs913@gmail.com>
  • To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [NAFEX] biennial bearing
  • Date: Wed, 23 Mar 2011 13:55:18 -0400

I just read Gene Logsdon's latest essay at
http://thecontraryfarmer.wordpress.com/2011/03/23/oaken-resilience/

In this one he writes:
"It is amazing how many bugs, birds and beasts feast on these seeds of
the oak. At least two thirds of the thousands that fell last fall were
already infested with bug and worm holes beyond any hope that they
could germinate. The oak’s response to that is to skip a year or two
of bearing every so often, mostly because of frost kill, which has the
effect of disrupting the life cycle of the insect pests."

That got me thinking...maybe we should be breeding for biennial
bearing in fruit trees...perhaps it would be a way to break the pest
cycle. Probably not practical, but it was just an interesting
thought.

deb




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