Subject: spots on/in Mutsu

From: [email-masked] (rbh)
Date: Thu, 29 Aug 96 13:08:31 GMT

In the UK there is a condition (not disease)
called `bitterpit'.  It is associated with
a calcium deficiency.  But now things get
difficult.  Because the calcium deficiency
may be, but need not be caused by a calcium
deficiency in the soil.

For instance, drought conditions can cause
calcium deficiency.  And (I'd have to look this
up) an excess of ?potassium can lock up calcium
so that the plant can't use it efficiently,
even though the calcium will show up in a soil test.

Consult an expert. S/he might suggest a spray with
calcium nitrate or some such. But don't do it
on my say-so.  It's almost certainly too late for
this season.

Mutsu is commonly called Crispin in the UK.  At
one point it was planted commercially, but the
fruit turned out, even without thinning, to be
too big for the market.  I had several on M9
in a line of cordons.  They showed bitterpit
when other varieties in the same line showed
none. And the taste, to my wife and me, was
sweetly insipid.  Grubbed 'em.  (Triploids, too,
which makes for fun in a line of cordons.)