permaculture

[miekal and <dtv@mwt.net>]

From:          Hector Black <hblack@TWLakes.Net>
Subject:       sea buckthorn
To:            North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@cet.com>

I doubt that you will find them invasive, Mike.  We have a hard time
keeping them going here.  The do spread by underground suckers but
have never been invasive here or where I saw them in Russia.
     Saskatchewan has a bulletin about them.  They will be difficult
     to
harvest because of thorns, and we find the "flowers" (they just have
pistils on the females and small anthers - no petals) are wind
pollinated.  We've never had berries here.  They are widely used in
China and Russia and wonderfully loaded with nutrition.  Hector Black
zone 6




From:          "Lon J. Rombough" <lonrom@hevanet.com>
To:            NAFEX List <nafex@cet.com>
  Sea Buckthorn, unlike many of it's more prolific relatives in the
Eleagnus
family, doesn't seem to spread as well, and is more fussy about soil. 
Many strains of it are very susceptible to root disease, having
originated in rather dry soils.  I read the results of a world
conference on Hippophae rhamnoides which indicated that there were
many strains and races of it and that there is presently a need for
types able to grow in moister soils. Here in the Willamette valley,
Sea Buckthorn has not been nearly as adaptible as Autumn Olive. 
Unirrigated Autumn Olive continues to grow and bloom, but sea
buckthorn plants tend to die off unless well cared for. The conference
notes did emphasize the food value of the fruit, and it does seem
worth pursuing on that basis, but for now, it doesn't look like Sea
Buckthorn is apt to escape and be a weed, at least not to any degree
close to that of Autumn Olive. -Lon Rombough Grapes, unusual fruits,
writing, more, at http://www.hevanet.com/lonrom