-Lon Rombough
Grapes, unusual fruits, writing, consulting, more, at http://www.hevanet.com/lonrom
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From: Sam Brungardt <samb@pop.isd.net>
To: nafex@egroups.com, pinewoodel@hotmail.com
Subject: Re: [nafex] wet soil, highbush cranberry and archive homework
Date: Sat, Dec 23, 2000, 1:20 AM
to H. Dessurealt, thanks for the thorough reply, i didn't realize there
was a non-edible sambucus, but i'd like to try the black elderbery seeds.
Perhaps someone out here in nafex land knows about propagating sambucus from
seed or where info can be found. This sounds like the same tree i remember
as a child in northern California frying the florets in pancake batter, yum!
Our local soils and water district sells a conservation grade of
V.trilobum for $1.20 ea. I think to order 50 of them, but one year they
were very disappointing quality- anyone now of a wholesale source for
various versions of Viburnam?
Timbleberry. Any chance you know genus-specie on this plant? I lived a
couple years on the Oregon coast and what the locals called thimbleberry was
quite different.
Dewberry, i have found a rare one occasionally here in the understory with
a single berry or two, must be the lack of acid soil that keeps them back.
Wild blackberries. Two miles from our place the soil changes from clay- to
sand and jack pines. In the understory there are blueberry, raspberry, and
what i believe are wild blackberies. So far the ones i've transplanted to
our rich garden soil in the sun haven't fared well. But my memory of wild
blackberries on the west coast is that they grow uncontrollably on heavy wet
soil. This spring i'll try to get a positive I.D on them.
Domestic Blackberries- the only one that ive seen advertised as possible
in zone 3 is the severtson farms 'doyle'. Their fantastic claims of
productivity, cold tolerance, and the $18 per plant price tag.....well.....
anyone out there who can vouch for this variety and for its cold tolerance?
The other posibility i dredged up off the nafex archive is "triple crown"
Any zone 3 successes with it? Who sells it?
Del, I live in the Twin Cities, admittedly a sheltered zone 4. Two years ago I put in a half dozen plants of Illini Hardy blackberry and this year I had the first full crop from it. The plants bore so prolifically that I had enough to freeze and to make jelly and pancake syrup as well as to give to friends. The berries were nice size, too, some measuring well over 1 inch long, with a very good flavor. The plants grew about 5-1/2 feet tall and are very thorny. Picking them in restricted quarters was so bothersome that I've decided to take out a neighboring row of Royalty purple raspberry (which, while it makes terrific preserves, I find fairly unpleasant to eat fresh). I'm not acquainted with 'Doyle', but have become such an admirer of blackberries, that I wouldn't mind giving it a try. Can you please tell me who sells it?
My experience with 'Autumn Bliss' is that I do not like the flavor as much as that of 'Heritage', but I grow it because it's more likely to mature its crop before frost here in Saint Paul. Two 20-foot rows have yielded all the red raspberries I want. This cultivar definitely responds to the climate. This year we had a very early sping and I started picking the fall crop maybe 3 to 4 weeks earlier than I had the two previous years. Before first frost all the crop had matured, while this was not the case the two years before.
I think you may be able to get the fall crop to mature earlier if you do not try to grow 'Autumn Bliss' as a two-crops-in-one-year raspberry. Each spring I cut all the canes off to about 1 inch, and I think this results in the primocanes coming into fruit a little earlier. My theory (yet unproven) is that if you let the previous year's canes bear a crop, the development of the primocanes is delayed slightly. I'd be interested in other NAFEX members' observations on this.--Sam Brungardt, Saint Paul, Minn. (possibly zone 4b, depending on the winter).
An oregon berry researcher i've been comunicating with says hes heard of a
technique of training the laterals low to the ground so they can be covered
with snow. Sounds like a great idea! It relates to a Siberian method i
remember reading somewhere in an old Pomona on growing apples parrellel to
the ground for snow cover, another idea i hope to pursue.
Black raspberries, I'm delighted to hear they can possibly be grown in
zone 3. I presume these bear on the second year, whats the variety?
Autumn Bliss. I did a test planting of 25 of this primocane bearing red
raspberry. Delighted with the size, productivity, and flavor, but i'll
give them one more year before digging them up. They are supposedly the
earliest bearing of the 'fall type', but in two mild falls we've lost 3/4 of
the crop to normal mid september frosts.
thanks again! and happy holidays to you all minnesota del, Z2b
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