North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Jeffrey Boulier <boulierinasia@yahoo.com>]

I moved late last year into a new house, and then had a new seedling of my 
own to take care of, so this is it as far as general interest goes:

Bananas, Dwarf Cavendish:

I tried to overwinter the biggest one in my unheated garage, but its corner 
got a bit too cold. Lost the stalk, but the corm survived and sent up new 
pups. The smaller ones I'd potted up and overwintered inside the house have 
been growing fairly well. Much too small to fruit, but my wife has been 
picking off leaves for cooking (there are a large variety of dishes that are 
steamed/bbqed while wrapped in banana leaves). Deer ignore them.

Peppers:

This was the first year I tried overwintering a pepper in the house (one of 
the Thai Upright varieties), and then planting it out in the spring. This has 
worked out well, but the pepper did get awful  -- and repeated -- spider mite 
infestations during the winter.

Watermelon "Thai Baby"

Absolute stand-out. This is bred to be picked very young and cooked. It's 
been producing massive quantities for the last couple of weeks. 

Chinese Hawthorn (Shan Zha/Crataegus pinnatifida)

Whoever warned me about their susceptibility to disease wasn't kidding. It 
fruited -- or tried to -- and then promptly came down with at least two kinds 
of rust, fireblight, and what remained was almost chewed to the ground by 
Japanese beetles. It's still alive, but only barely.

Medlar (Nottingham, Dutch)

Just about murdered by the deer. Some Japanese beetle issues. No rust or 
other diseases.

Stern's Medlar 

Fruited for the first time, then the fruit got cedar-quince rust. Too bad, I 
was hoping that it would be resistant. Japanese beetles ate a few leaves, but 
liked the roses better.

Tomatoes 

Too cold  and too wet for them this year. Then the deer found their way into 
the back yard. 

Pumpkin

So far, five big ones "for free" out of the compost heap. Never grown them 
before; pleasantly surprised at the productivity given the lack of care.


--Jeff Boulier 
>From alandhaigh@gmail.com  Thu Sep  5 06:37:48 2013
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Subject: [nafex] harvesting prune plums
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I use a fungicide to stop them from rotting so that I can let them get tree
ripe.  Not the French but the several I grow, including Castleton and
Valor, the two I most recommend here in the southern NY area.  I would
never want to harvest any plum before it obtains full sweet richness of
tree ripe, that is what growing them should be about as far as I'm
concerned.  When people taste my plums they are amazed that such a fruit
even exists- it is that different from industrial plums picked hard and
sour.

I find I get adequate protection from rot here in the humid northeast with
something like Monterey Fungus Fighter (I use something packaged for
commercial growers called Indar) applied once about a month before fruit
begins to ripen.  That way I can't "taste" the fungicide but the tree
ripens without rotting.

Of course coons, birds, squirrels, wasps,etc love a truly ripe plum- who
wouldn't?  All can be excluded if you have the time and inclination.