Archive for January 1991
Blueberry Recipes
Blueberry Bavarian Cream 1 pkg (6 oz) red gelatin (raspberry, strawberry, cherry, etc.) 168 g 2C boiling water 480 mL 1C pineapple juice (from crushed pineapple; if not a cup of juice, 240 mL add water to make up difference) 2-2 ½C crushed pineapple (unsweetened, drained) 480-600 mL 1 C blueberries 240 mL…
Read MoreMARKETS FOR WILD BLUEBERRIES
Many creatures, large and small, feast at the vast dinner table of Alaskan wild berries. Our indigenous Alaska blueberries are naturally delicious, nutritious, aromatic, low in calories, tangy, luscious to the taste buds, and can be enjoyed in any form from morning to night. The Alaska Division of Agriculture provided funding to the Agricultural…
Read MoreSWEET CHERRY OBSERVATIONS
One June 16 I visited the IR- 2 Repository at Prosser, WA Agricultural Research and Extension Center of Washington State University. The IR-2 sweet cherry collection contains 59 varieties. The fruiting season was just beginning; on many cultivars the fruit was red but not ripe. We were highly impressed with the flavor of ‘Salmo’, a…
Read MoreFRUIT TREE SURVIVAL RECORD, WINTER 1989 -1990 FAIRBANKS ALASKA
My coldest temperature was -46°F in late November, 1990 when we had very little snow cover. The following plant showed no winter injury: Apples: Antonovka, Battleford. Centennial, Chinese Golden Early, Dawn, Dolgo, Duchess of Oldenburg, Gravenstein Red. Heyer 12, Heyer 20, Lords Seedling, Morden 363, Norcue, Norda, Noret, Norson, Norland, Orenco, Oriole, Parkland,…
Read MoreCHARLES H. ANWAY. A HAINES ALASKAN PIONEER, MINER AND HORTICULTURIST. 1857 -1949
In 1988, NAFEX member Robert Henderson of Haines submitted an article about Charles Anway to the Newsletter. At that time, Robert told me he was going to write a book about Anway, and he successfully completed that project in 1990. This well-researched book is filled with interesting facts about one of Alaska’s, earliest horticulturists. Robert…
Read MoreSERVICEBERRIES
The serviceberry has always been one of my favorite landscape plants. It has nice fall color, beautiful white flowers and a delicious purple/black fruit. I was completely surprised to learn that serviceberries are being grown commercially for their fruit. Lloyd Hausher with the Alberta Special Crops and Horticulture Research Center in Brooks shared slides…
Read MoreBACK FROM SIBERIA
Cathy Wright and I returned from a trip to the USSR on August 25. We visited horticultural research stations in Novosibirsk (Vasknil Agricultural Institute and the Soviet All Union Academy of Science), Barnaul (The Lisavenko Research Institute), Gorno-Altaisk and Chimal (Mountain Experiment Station) and the Moscow Botanical Garden. We collected nearly 150 different species of…
Read MoreMORE THOUGHTS ON STAKING
The June 1990 issue of ANN contained an article about the importance of staking young fruit trees. I would like to correct two errors I made in the article. First, the subject of the staking efforts was not pear trees, but ‘Blushing Gold’ apple trees. Second, the poles which the Sundquist orchard foreman. Gene…
Read MorePruning Raspberries
I just finished pruning my raspberries. If there is one job I hate more than anything else in my garden, it is pruning raspberries. Invariably, I pick the hottest day in spring so I am constantly debating whether the discomfort of a few scratches from the raspberry prickles would be worse than the streams of…
Read MoreRUSSIAN EXPEDITION PLANNED
Cathy Wright of the Alaska Plant Materials Center and Pat Holloway of the Agricultural Experiment Station will travel to Siberia on a scientist exchange, August 5-25. They will be visiting research stations and botanical gardens in Novosibirsk, Lake Baikal and Yakutsk. They will establish contacts with fellow horticulturists and fruit growers, and hopefully bring back…
Read MoreEFFECTIVENESS OF READILY AVAILABLE ADHESIVE TAPES AS GRAFTING WRAPS
A variety of materials have been recommended as tape for wrapping grafts including grafting tape, polyethylene strips, parafilm and masking tape. A researcher at West Virginia University conducted a comparison test to determine the usefulness of several tape materials on Golden Delicious’ apples whip grafted onto Antonovka seedling rootstocks. The tapes tested were grafting…
Read MoreSTAKING BENEFICIAL FOR FRUIT TREES
While at the Washington State Hort Association meeting last Dec., I read an article entitled “Reasons for Tree Staking” by R.L. Norton, Extension Associate in the Cornell University Pomology Dept. The article made some points relevant to growing fruit trees in Alaska. Dr. Norton mentioned that when trees are staked, better growth…
Read MoreTHE YORKSHIRE GREENING APPLE
According to Lawrence Clark, a Yorkshire Greening’ apple has been growing in Anchorage for more than 20 years. It produces one of the largest apples of all the cold- hardy varieties growing in Alaska. Scionwood from this cultivar was offered in the grafting workshops this past April Below is a description of this cultivar taken…
Read MoreTree census 1991
Since this is the year of the census, why restrict the counting just to people? NAFEX member Ruth Edmondson answered her own question by planning a “Back to our Roots” census adventure for Sunday, May 20. Volunteers will make a block-by-block count of flowering fruit trees in the Anchorage Original Townsite and Elderberry Triangle as…
Read MoreTIPS ON GARDENING AND JUMP-STARTING AT THE MARCH MEETIN
Sue Adamas-Green had the following advice for starting your garden this spring. Study your microenvironment, and make your plants compatible. For instance, sweet soil varieties should be grown with other sweet soil varieties. Some fruits like lots of sunlight, others thrive in partial shade. To minimize weeds, try raised bed plantings. Flowers, fruits and vegetables…
Read MoreGROWING RASPBERRIES? WHICH WAY SHOULD YOU ORIENT YOUR ROWS?
When you plant a row of raspberries, should the row run north to south so that each side of the row gets approximately the same duration and intensity of light? Or should the row run east to west so that there is a definite north and south side? Does it make any difference in fruit…
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