North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Louis Pittman <lpittman@murraystate.edu>]

Donna,
I know Chionanthus is *supposed* to be monoecious - but my solitary tree
makes fruit most years - and the only other plant that I know of in the
neighborhood is easily 2 miles away, as the crow flies.
Received mine in a trade with someone in FL - can send scions if you want
'em, for genetic diversity, but you may or may not want 'Southern'
germplasm.

I've never had any success getting fruits from mine (or another bagful that
somebody sent me one time) to germinate.
Somebody sent me some seed, several years ago, that were supposed to be the
Oriental species, C.retusus;  I thought the seeds were a little small - and
looked vaguely familiar - when I planted them.  Got close to 100%
germination, and something just never looked right about 'em - leaf/bud
shape was not right.  About the second season, it struck me, when they put
on a fantastic fall color display - they were blackgum (Nyssa sylvatica)
seedlings.
Nice, in their own right, but not what I was hoping for at the time.

Lucky Pittman
Hopkinsville, KY

On Sun, Mar 3, 2013 at 11:32 AM, Kieran <holycow@frontiernet.net> wrote:

>
>
> I've gotten another bee in my bonnet.  First I got interested in
> intergenetic crosses to produce hardier citrus.  BIG problems with that
> one, as a few living experts can tell you after nearly 120 years of
> attempts.  The bad taste genes seem closely linked to the hardiness
> genes, though recent crosses may have taken them apart. I refer to US
> 119, though it seems there was some inside dirt about that one.  I'd be
> curious how Nafexer's specimans have done over the last couple decades.
>      Anyway, the latest bee concerns a couple of native genuses that are
> pretty closely related to Olea and are a lot hardier.  What's more they
> make little fleshy berries that are probably fairly high in oil.  One
> could mess around with Spicebush which already runs 50% oil, and see if
> there's a way to extract it and whether the flavor, phytochemicals, etc
> are of use for humans.  Maybe a supplement, maybe for food.  But the
> neat thing about Fringetree and Swamp privet is that they are
> dioeceous.  Fringetree can be grafted on ash, and I have a dozen
> volunteer seedlings scattered around that could work.  Nobody seems to
> know much about the swamp privet, Forestiera acuminata, or better yet
> the upland version, F. ligustrina/, /which supposedly grows in our
> county/,/ Z6.  On the other hand, Fringetree seems to be good to minus
> 30F, and likes acid soils and will grow in our clay.  All I really need
> is a few grafts from female trees (a female growing in town I heard of)
> and then either branches or a small potted tree of a good pollinating
> olive.  I've been looking at olive vars online, Arbequina is probably
> the easiest to get hold of and beg the local nursery to keep in the
> winters for me.  Pendolino is the best long season pollinator, more
> likely I could get it to overlap the Fringetree bloom time.  There are
> no fringetrees around me, so if I got fruit it would be crosses.
>      Any notions on this idea?  Anyone familiar with theses plants or
> the fruit thereof?  Even if the fruit is worthless, if graft compatible
> it could make it possible to grow olives in soils with poorer drainage
> or more acid soil.  Osmanthus is also related, but no hardier, though
> some species will take swampy soils.  Since I can't grow them here, they
> are out of the running for me. Donna /
> /
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