| Ed, et al. I had never considered growing AQ despite having seen it in the old Leuthardt catalog decades ago. Then a few years back I was visiting a friend and she was showing me around her place. She had a pear espaliered to her garage and it was an Atlantic Queen. The fruit just happened to be ripe and we ate one on the spot. I thought it was wonderful. I took one to home to Cammy and she was equally pleased. I grafted it onto a Seckel tree at our place the following year. It has fruited for us and I'm still pleased with the fruit. I have not yet refrigerated any fruit - just eaten right off the tree. It may be that, like many other fruits and vegetables, AQ likes certain spots and dislikes others. Apparently it likes central Maine-or at least our area of western Kennebec and eastern Waldo counties. A friend in Massachusetts tells a story about growing Spygold. He had two orchards in the same town. In one, Spigold was delightful. In the other, it was awful. Different soils? Even a few miles can make a critical difference. Zone ratings are useful of course but they only tell a fraction of the story. When someone asks me what to grow in their town, the first thing I always say is, talk to fruit growers in your neighborhood and find out what has done well for them. Local local local. We do a great deal of experimenting and testing here-and often discover great new additions to the collection, but we always remain huge fans of the tried and true. Best regards, John Bunker Fedco www.fedcoseeds.com PO Box 520 Waterville ME 04903 207-873-7333 On May 9, 2009, at 10:00 AM, Ed Fackler wrote: John...and all NAFEX'ers..... |
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