Featured Fruit — Blueberries

Blueberry –Vaccinium spp.   Related to azaleas and rhododendrons, blueberries need a highly organic, cool, moist, well drained soil with a pH between 4.5 and 5.5.  Tiny, urn shaped white or pink flowers decorate the plant in spring, followed by green berries that turn blue when ripe.  Roots grow very near the soil surface, so…

Read More

Did You Know?

  Several of our members were featured in an article in the Frontiersman that later appeared in the Anchorage Daily News? See the article at: http://www.frontiersman.com/articles/2005/09/13/news/news2.txt Debbie Hinchey found an informative web site:  www.treesofantiquity.com.   They are in California and sell organic fruit and/or trees. Dan Elliott got the Grand Champion prize for the outdoor…

Read More

Nutrient Requirements of Fruit Production

By Tami Schlies   Bob Purvis observed some nutrient deficiencies in fruit trees during his visit here in September and was kind enough to share with all of us some of his knowledge on these issues.  I have also investigated some other common deficiency symptoms and expanded on his advice in this article.   We…

Read More

Hardy Plums

By Debbie Hinchey (Edited by Bob  Purvis)   At the apple pressing hosted at Dan and Miriam Elliott’s home on September 8, 2005, we were treated to delicious greenhouse-grown apples by Bob Boyer and plums grown by Bob Purvis (at his Minnesota orchard.)   The plums were ones that Purvis thought might do well for…

Read More

Spindle Galls on Local Tree

By Tom Marshall   In July strange growths were found on the underside of some of the leaves of my four year old native American plum tree. Each one looked like a little cigar shaped dark green tubular leaf on a small lighter green stem.  They ranged in length from1/4 to 3/4 inches.  I brought…

Read More

From the Editor’s Garden 2005

Fall blew in on a windstorm this year, the normal mode up here, but this year it seemed to be nearly a month late.  I usually have a killing frost by the end of August, and it was the beginning of October before frost finally took my beans, squash, and pumpkins.   The winds blew…

Read More