[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
Re: [nafex] wet soil, highbush cranberry and archive homework
Title: Re: [nafex] wet soil, highbush cranberry and
archive h
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
eGroups Sponsor |
;) |