North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Bob Bors <bob.bors@usask.ca>]

HI Douglas,

All our pure sour cherries including 'Fruchtbare von Michurin' are only a
few feet high because of continual die back, usually to the snow line. Those
trees are 6 years old.
Under those conditions I can't make much comment. 
We are using it as a male parent in breeding on the advice of Bill Lay who
sent me 10 varieties that he thought I should be using in my program.
But we get -40 C almost every winter with -35 C guaranteed. 

Regarding the U of Sk cherries, I do wonder how they will do for disease
resistance in warmer areas.  We have little disease pressure for any of our
fruit crops due to the short growing season and usually dry conditions.  Our
apples which are practically scab free here often get it in more humid
areas.  Michigan is putting in a large trial of our two varieties that have
been virus-free certified: Carmine Jewel and Crimson Passion.  We should
know much more about their adaptability in a few years.  

Cheers,


Dr. Bob Bors
Head of  the Fruit Breeding Program
Dept. of Plant Sciences
University of Saskatchewan
51 Campus Dr.
Saskatoon, SK  S0K 3A0
Canada
Program website:   www.fruit.usask.ca
Bob.Bors@usask.ca




-----Original Message-----
From: Douglas Woodard [mailto:dwoodard@becon.org] 
Sent: June-10-11 11:31 AM
To: bob.bors@usask.ca
Subject: Cherry Fruchtbare von Michurin

Dr. Bors, I notice from your posts to the NAFEX list that you have
Fruchtbare von Michurin in your collection at Saskatoon. I would be grateful
if you could tell me how it performs for you, and how you rate the quality
and usefulness of the fruit.

The late Henri Bernard of Quebec had a high opinion of it. Ken Taylor on Ile
Perrot near Montreal told me that after the test winter of 1994-95 it bore a
full crop for him as it had for many years previously, although Meteor and
North Star were not only fruitless and damaged but had not recovered from
damage they had suffered in a previous milder winter; though I am not sure
they were in as good a position as his Michurin which was on a sandy hill
with excellent air drainage.

Vineland Station here tells me that the flesh tends to cling to the pit but
without personal experience I don't know how serious that would be for the
home grower.

I'm wondering whether it would be worthwhile to try to encourage small
nurseries supplying home growers and growers for local markets to propagate
Fruchtbare von Michurin, or whether your new dwarf cherries can fill all
requirements.

If you could reply to the NAFEX list on Michurin, that would be helpful. 
I believe Dr. Amy Iezzoni has it in Michigan, although I have never heard of
it being propagated by any nursery in the U.S., or any in Canada for that
matter since Ken Taylor dropped it from his Windmill Point list.

On other matters a few tidbits of doubtful usefulness have come my way; you
may be aware that the late Art Coutts who was Dr. Patterson's technician at
the University of Saskatchewan, later worked at fruit breeding at Unity for
many years. His son Jim continues the work and told me a couple of years ago
that he prefers to use a cherry JuneRed Montmorency which was sold by the
now defunct Bountiful Ridge Nurseries of Maryland, in breeding hardy
cherries in preference to Evans. If memory serves he crosses with the Kerr
cherries somewhat along the lines of your work. (Jim Coutts, Box 534(?),
Unity SK, S0K 4L0; phone (306) 228-3141).

Mr. Burke McNeill who used to be Frank Skinner's nursery foreman, is living
in retirement in St. Catharines after a career in the fruit and
horticultural industries in the Niagara Peninsula. He told me that they used
to use Prunus X dropmoreana as a rootstock for cherries,
sometimes(?)propagating it on a nurse root. He told me that P. X dropmoreana
was patented and the rights sold to a nursery in Iowa; though I expect the
patent has expired (Burke McNeill, 38 Cherie Road, St. Catharines ON L2M
6L4, (905)646-3981). I recall reading that the East Malling station did some
work in the 1970s with P. X dropmoreana as a rootstock for sweet cherries
but I never learned their conclusions.

Doug Woodard
St. Catharines, Ontario