North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Deb S <debs913@gmail.com>]

Hey Muffy

Yeah, I figured it would be impossible to get two groups of trees to
alternate years :)

I'm with you on the mud...we've had 6 weeks of rain and now it is
supposed to freeze!  Weird year.

What are your favorite apple cultivars?  I am just getting started
with my orchard.  I only have a Queen Cox apple so far along with
cherries, pluot, peach, and lots of berry bushes (I am better at
berries than trees :).  I received some scionwood from some NAFEXers
and have rootstock coming so am diving in with both feet!

deb

On Wed, Mar 23, 2011 at 4:04 PM, Scott Weber and Muffy Barrett
<bluestem_farm@juno.com> wrote:
> 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 a
>  nd 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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