To: "North American Fruit Explorers" <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>, "gardenwriters-on-gardening" <gwl-g@lists.ibiblio.org>
Cc: Cheryl Long <clong@motherearthnews.com>
Subject: [NAFEX] New Cherries
Date: Wed, 24 Nov 2004 11:13:14 -0600
This is from The Avant Gardener, a print newsletter that covers
horticultural news. Unfortunately, it's not available on the Web. I
paraphrased the article and did not lift it verbatim.
Doreen Howard
--------------------------
The Pacific Agri-Food Research Center in British Columbia has introduced
three self-pollinating sweet cherries. 'Sandra Rose' produces heavy crops
of crack-resistant cherries and is more flavorful than 'Bing.' 'Skeena'
bears huge cherries, stores well, and 'Sweetheart' is a heavy-bearing cherry
with bright red fruit. 'Sandra Rose' and 'Skeena' are open branching, while
'Sweetheart' requires spring and summer pruning for light penetration and
easy picking.
The University of Saskatchewan is releasing five new sour cherry hybrids
with two special virtues: they are hardy to Zone 2, and they grow only to 8'
tall.
All the new Canadian cherries will be available from Adams County Nursery
(Box 108, Aspers, PA 17304) and Raintree Nursery (391 Butts Rd., Morton, WA
98356).
Also, the USDA has found that 'Gisela' rootstock decreases tree size greatly
and promotes early bearing of sweet cherries. The agency's experiments also
show that eating cherries may lessen the severity of inflammatory diseases
such as arthritis and gout.