North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Scott Weber and Muffy Barrett" <bluestem_farm@juno.com>]

Deb,With apples, no breeding is necessary.  Lots of the heirloom varieties 
that have fallen out of favor did so in part because of biennial bearing 
tendencies.  If you have enough of them in an orchard, the few fruits that 
form get hammered so hard by the pests that they will usually fall off in 
June drop (or sometime before maturity) and there won't be any fruit at all.  
 Then even the annual bearers are likely to get started biennial bearing.  
When I started planting apples I thought that I had to avoid biennial 
bearers.  When I realized how that could potentially cut pest pressure, I 
decided not to worry.  Now I have two areas planted to apples, almost a half 
mile apart and I daydream about getting them onto staggered alternate bearing 
years.  It won't happen, though, because often as not the bearing year is 
determined by frosts ruining one year's crop such that the tree puts lots 
into making flower buds for the next year.Muffy Barrettsouthern Wisconsin,Mud 
on the ground and snow in the air.

.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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>From sam.brungardt@state.mn.us  Thu Mar 24 10:31:14 2011
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From: "Brungardt, Sam (MPCA)" <sam.brungardt@state.mn.us>
To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Date: Thu, 24 Mar 2011 09:30:50 -0500
Thread-Topic: Wanderlust: The orchards of our past  (San Jose Mercury News)
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Subject: [NAFEX] Wanderlust: The orchards of our past (San Jose Mercury News)
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Wanderlust: The orchards of our 
past<http://www.google.com/url?sa=X&q=http://www.mercurynews.com/home-garden/ci_17673725&ct=ga&cad=CAEQAhgAIAAoATAEOARA1Zmr7ARIAVAAWABiAmVu&cd=TK26ArbHcIo&usg=AFQjCNEIbWeWeZ9Cxqq4z2swLW0IemUhIA>
  (San Jose Mercury News)     It's among the best places to go see spring 
blooms in the Valley, whether they are fruit trees or other blooming flowers 
and trees. (Photo by Patrick Tehan/Mercury News) Buried under our concrete 
and asphalt rests some of the planet's best alluvial ...    See all stories 
on this topic 
><http://www.google.com/url?sa=X&q=http://news.google.com/news/story%3Fncl%3Dhttp://www.mercurynews.com/home-garden/ci_17673725%26hl%3Den%26geo%3Dus&ct=ga&cad=CAEQAhgAIAAoBjAEOARA1Zmr7ARIAVAAWABiAmVu&cd=TK26ArbHcIo&usg=AFQjCNFsQ41bbuJk_NLHMyBsErpEtdZktA>