North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Dr. Lucky Pittman" <lucky.pittman@murraystate.edu>]

Just finished harvesting my best crop of mayhaw fruits yet.  

Several years ago, a classmate sent tiny little scions from some grafted
varieties she’d purchased, which I grafted onto native cockspur
hawthorn(C.crus-galli) seedlings.  They’ve been blooming and fruiting
sparingly for the last couple of years, but I managed to get a couple of
gallons of fruit this year, and made a nice batch of mayhaw jelly.

Early on, the fruits were nice and clean, but cedar(juniper)-hawthorn rust
has been hitting the later berries pretty hard;  I went ahead and picked all
that were left before they became big ol’ fungal fruiting bodies.

 

I’ve lost the IDs on all these plants, but had, at one time, if I recall
correctly, Texas Star, Big Red, Duck Lake, Royalty, and Turkey Haw(which, I
think, Travis Callahan told me, was a different species from the others).

Anybody else growing and fruiting mayhaws outside of the swamps of south
LA/MS/AL?   Or, have recommendations on other mayhaw selections that might
have a prayer at fruiting here in southern west-central KY, about 70 mi NW
of Nashville, TN?

 

It was also a good crop year for serviceberries here – don’t know if the
weather conditions were just right, the birds were occupied with eating
cicadas, or if I just happened to look at the right time.

Row-run A.x grandiflora seedlings we planted about 10 years ago had a nice
crop of big, tasty ½ inch berries, and my row-run Timm & Success
plants(either A.alnifolia or A.stolonifera), purchased from the defunct Bear
Creek Nursery in ’96 also had a nice crop of slightly smaller berries –
though my wife said she liked the T&S fruits best – they’re her new
‘favorite’ berry.  

As has been the case in the past, tissue-cultured named-variety Saskatoons,
like Regent, Smokey, Theissen, and the ‘Southern’ serviceberry, A.obovata
“Jennybelle”, were disappointments.  Although planted at the same time as
the T&S plants, in the same general area, they lack the vigor, health and
productivity of those cheap little plants I paid one or two dollars each
for. 

Probably encountered less than a half-dozen rust-infected berries in a
couple of weeks of picking.

 

Lucky Pittman