North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Melissa Kacalanos <mijwiz@yahoo.com>]

I dredged up this old email, which intrigued me at the time. I'm guessing 
that this large-fruited plant is a different species. I want to try it now. 

Sent from my iPhone (pardon my brevity). 

> On Oct 31, 2009, at 3:53 PM, John S <swim_at_svc@yahoo.com> wrote:
> 
> 
> This link has a picture showing the dried fruit.  However, I found it 
> puzzling as the size of the fruit is much larger than I expected.  I'm 
> wondering if the fruit shown in this link, identified as igde, might be 
> dried jujube.
>  
> http://harikaszaza.blogspot.com/2009_04_01_archive.html
> 
> 
> 
> --- On Sat, 10/31/09, Lee Reich <lreich@hvc.rr.com> wrote:
> 
> From: Lee Reich <lreich@hvc.rr.com>
> Subject: Re: [NAFEX] russian olive, elaeagnus sp
> To: "Hector Black" <hblack1925@fastmail.fm>, "North American Fruit 
> Explorers" <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
> Date: Saturday, October 31, 2009, 12:08 PM
> 
> Hi Hector,
> 
> I remember that many years ago you sent me a small bag of dried igde from 
> Turkey via one of your local store. I thought they were pretty good, for 
> nibbling, at least, sort of like sweet talcum powder. I should have saved 
> and planted the seeds. I will check into that plant at UMass; I get there 
> each summer for the organic farming and gardening conference in early 
> August.
> 
> Lee
> Lee Reich, PhD
> http://www.leereich.com/
> 
> Books by Lee Reich:
> A Northeast Gardener's Year
> The Pruning Book
> Weedless Gardening
> Uncommon Fruits for Every Garden
> Landscaping with Fruit
> 
> 
> 
> 
>> On Oct 31, 2009, at 12:01 PM, Hector Black wrote:
>> 
>> Hello Lee,
>>      We had a lot of trouble with dieback on our King Red and it 
>> eventually died, but there was a tree on the campus of U. Mass. at 
>> Amherst.  I remember it from student days and it was still there, near the 
>> greenhouses when we had a NAFEX meeting there some years ago.  Really a 
>> beautiful plant.  Never thought much of the dried berries on the market in 
>> Turkey. I thought the problem with growing in this area was humidity which 
>> encouraged fungus diseases.  Hector Black zone 6 middle tn
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: Lee Reich
>> To: North American Fruit Explorers
>> Sent: Friday, October 30, 2009 5:46 PM
>> Subject: Re: [NAFEX] tree gooseberries (and grafting)
>> 
>> Oh well. It seems that King Red is not suited to this part of the world. 
>> Too bad. It's fairly tasty and I'm sure is very beautiful with its red 
>> fruits and silvery grey leaves.
>> 
>> Lee
>> Lee Reich, PhD
>> http://www.leereich.com/
>> 
>> Books by Lee Reich:
>> A Northeast Gardener's Year
>> The Pruning Book
>> Weedless Gardening
>> Uncommon Fruits for Every Garden
>> Landscaping with Fruit
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>>> On Oct 30, 2009, at 3:18 PM, John S wrote:
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Lee,  I guess I must be lucky as my King Red lasted 5 or 6 years.  It 
>>> thrived the first couple of years, then picked up a disease of some sort. 
>>>  It rapidly went from a foot or so to about 6', then went into decline.
>>>  
>>> John
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> --- On Fri, 10/30/09, Lee Reich <lreich@hvc.rr.com> wrote:
>>> 
>>> From: Lee Reich <lreich@hvc.rr.com>
>>> Subject: Re: [NAFEX] tree gooseberries (and grafting)
>>> To: "North American Fruit Explorers" <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
>>> Date: Friday, October 30, 2009, 2:59 PM
>>> 
>>> Hi Jim, 
>>> 
>>> Any chance that I could get a half-dozen or so seeds of igde from you for 
>>> planting? Years ago I got some from the USDA but they never germinated. 
>>> 
>>> In my book about uncommon fruits, I wrote that the seeds did not 
>>> germinate readily, often waiting until the second season unless they were 
>>> nicked, soaked in acid, kept warm and moist for a few weeks, cracked out 
>>> of their seed coats, or washed for 6 days to leach out inhibitors. Sounds 
>>> like you found none of this to be true. (Maybe I read my own book too 
>>> closely about how hard the seeds are to germinate!)
>>> 
>>> If your seedlings are growing well, you're probably home free. Whenever 
>>> I've put in plants of King Red, they've always collapsed before the end 
>>> of their first season, something Hector Black, in Tennessee, also noted.
>>> 
>>> Lee
>>> Lee Reich, PhD
>>> http://www.leereich.com/
>>> 
>>> Books by Lee Reich:
>>> A Northeast Gardener's Year
>>> The Pruning Book
>>> Weedless Gardening
>>> Uncommon Fruits for Every Garden
>>> Landscaping with Fruit
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>>> On Oct 30, 2009, at 1:44 PM, <jelie@new.rr.com> <jelie@new.rr.com> wrote:
>>>> 
>>>> John,
>>>> 
>>>> I have been hearing about the die-back issues with King Red Russian 
>>>> Olive for years so last fall I purchased some Eleaegnus orientalis seeds 
>>>> from a Middle-eastern grocer and after a dormancy period close to that 
>>>> of apple seeds I now have about thirty seedlings growing in the yard.  I 
>>>> haven't noticed any issues with them as of yet.  Our typical snow cover 
>>>> should get them through the winter if the mice leave them alone.
>>>> 
>>>> The seeds are sold from Persian grocers as "senjed" or "sencet" and from 
>>>> Turkish grocers as "igde" (pronounced "e day").  There are some nice 
>>>> pics online of the igde fruit on flicr, if I am not mistaken.
>>>> 
>>>> I do also have the two varieties of Trebizond Date which I purchased 
>>>> from from One Green World a couple years ago. I haven't had a problem 
>>>> with die-back but growth has been steady.
>>>> 
>>>> I don't know how seriously you would like to get Russian Olive but 
>>>> growing from seed is an easy, albeit, much longer option.
>>>> 
>>>> Take Care,
>>>> 
>>>> Jim Elie
>>>> Green Bay WI
>>>> z4/5
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> ---- John S <swim_at_svc@yahoo.com> wrote: 
>>>>> Lee,  I have a couple of attempts going now. ......
>>>>> I've been focused on trying to graft my dying King Red Russian Olive to 
>>>>> autumn olive rootstock (your excellent book mentions the problems 
>>>>> keeping King Red alive), but so far none of the grafts have taken - 
>>>>> don't know whether its my technique or an incompatibility.  I think the 
>>>>> King Red finally failed this fall.
>>>>> Raintree sells standards of gooseberries from time to time.
>>>>> John
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>>