ANOTHER VISIT TO THE WHITEHORSE GARDENS
At the end of June, I made a very quick visit to the Whitehorse Botanical Garden. I did not have an opportunity to visit with the owners, but made some quick notes between drenching cloudbursts on the status of the fruit crops growing in their raised beds. The plants were poorly labeled, so I’m…
Read MoreSOME INTERESTING PUBLICATIONS
Susan Brook, NAFEX member from Gustavus, sent some information on 2 publications that might interest Alaska readers. The first, A Grower’s Guide to Pruning Highbush Blueberries is a manual available in VHS format ($27.00 plus $3.00 shipping payable to Oregon State Univ.). Although highbush blueberries do not grow well in Alaska, the information might be…
Read MoreSOME PEAR POSSIBILITIES
Two Eastern European pears, distributed by the US DA Germplasm Repository in Corvallis, OR are now available for American orchards. ‘Ubileen’ from Bulgaria, is a very early ‘Bartlett’ -type that bears fruit with a red blush. From Belgrade, Yugoslavia comes ‘Shipova’, a cross between mountain ash and pear. Its mountain ash parentage seems to give…
Read MoreBlueberry 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…
Read MoreWILD CHOKECHERRIES TAMED
The sour chokecherry is looking sweeter these days. The demand for chokecherry jelly and syrup is good, so prices are premium for the wild fruit. Now Colorado has the first cultivated chokecherry orchard in the nation. The research project was conceived and developed by the private sector and paid for by industry and interested…
Read MoreTHE HAINES FRUIT SEASON
We had an excellent fruit-growing season in Haines, with an early and warm spring. By the time the apples were in bloom, insects were active and did an excellent pollinating job. Many of my trees bloomed for the first time, including my ‘Summer Crisp’ pear and ‘Mt. Royal’ plum. Since my other pear tree, Hudar’…
Read MoreSWEET CHERRY OBSERVATIONS
(article continued from October) It is worth mentioning the cherries – which were not ripe. ‘Stella’ which is self- fertile, was not ripe, and neither were ‘Yellow Glass’ or ‘Gold’, two extremely hardy yellow sweet cherries. ‘Hedelfingen’, an old German Variety, was barely ripe (it ripens ahead of ‘Stella’). The tree of ‘Lapins’ in…
Read MoreHARDY PEARS – COMMENTS AND OBSERVATIONS
By Bob Purvis While visiting the Saanichton Plant Quarantine Station on Vancouver Island, B.C., September 10, 1990, I tasted some of the hardy pear varieties recommended in times past to members of the Alaska NAFEX. Because Whitney’s 0 & N has been propagating these for Alaska NAFEX members, I was anxious to see what…
Read MoreMOOSE PROBLEMS?
If you have not covered or protected your fruit trees from the moose, you may want to do so immediately. Deep snows and scarce moose feed has already created problems in Anchorage and the Mat-Su Valley. For a quick solution it is advisable to cover fruit trees less than 5 feet tall with landscape cloth…
Read MoreYUKON GARDENS
I visited Yukon Gardens in Whitehorse, YT this past summer, and I would recommend it to anyone who happens to be in that area. Yukon Gardens has a significant planting of fruit trees including apples, cherries, plums and pears. The trees are planted in a large L-shaped raised bed facing south and west, backed by…
Read MoreVISIT TO ST. LAWRENCE NURSERIES
On Nov 20-21, 1989 I visited St. Lawrence Nurseries near Potsdam New York. Bill and Diana MacKentley own and operate the nursery. We discussed problems related to propagation of nursery stock. He had an unusually large number of failures in grafting new trees of Nova’ pear onto Pyrus communis rootstocks from Lawyer Nursery this past…
Read MoreSUMMARY OF FEBRUARY MEETING (1990)
At the February 8 meeting, Helen Butcher introduced Josephine Jureliet, a long-time Alaskan from Haines. Jo gave a fine slide presentation on her trees and garden in Haines Jo has successfully grown Yellow Transparent’ (her favorite), ‘Northern Spy’, ‘Early Gold’, ‘Bing cherry’, ‘Black Tartarian’ cherry (the earliest to bear fruit), and unknown crabapples. With the…
Read MoreSURVIVAL OF FRUIT TREES IN DELTA JUNCTION 1988-89
Below is a summary of the survival of our fruit trees after the winter of 1988-89. We experienced about a week of temperatures in the -60 F range with a low of -68 F. They were protected by 18 inches of sawdust in a 12 inch diameter metal cannister and a snow cover of about…
Read MoreSUMMARY OF JANUARY MEETING (1990)
Wayne Vandre from the Cooperative Extension Service spoke to our chapter on how to provide a favorable growing environment in a greenhouse for those of us who desire an improved environment to grow better fruits and vegetables. He presented an extensive slide show of greenhouses in Alaska and discussed the advantages and disadvantages encountered with…
Read More1988-89 WINTER HARDINESS REPORT: Purvis
By Robert A. Purvis The winter of 1988-89 was a “test winter” in both Southcentral Alaska and in the Interior, with temperatures dipping into the -30 to -40°F range in Southcentral and into the -50 to -70°F range in Fairbanks and vicinity. As such, this past winter can provide valuable information on how…
Read MoreMAY MEETING FEATURES JAMES AND RILEY
By Robert Purvis The May 10, 1989, meeting of the Alaska Chapter, North American Fruit Explorers (NAFEX), attracted 28 people, who enjoyed a presentation by Dr. Herb James on the growing of asparagus and Julie Riley’s discussion of raspberries and strawberries. Herb obtained unnamed Canadian varieties of asparagus, which have done well for him…
Read MoreALASKA FRUIT CALENDAR
BY ROBERT A. PURVIS Feb, 15-April 15 – Harvest scionwood from trees which you want to propagate, Store scions at temperatures under 40°F, in a waterproof plastic bag. Keep moist but not wet. April 15-30 – Remove dead canes from raspberry bushes. April 30 – Prune apple and other fruit trees. Prune…
Read MoreSWEATING IT OUT WITH TOKA
By Robert Purvis On the first of May, I spoke with Lawyer Nursery about problems that chapter members were having with the Toka plum trees they’d shipped to us. Dan Lawyer, one of the officers of the corporation, spoke about a condition called “overdormancy” into which pear and plum trees sometimes slide, in which…
Read MoreCANADIAN COMMENTS
By Robert Purvis In February, I received a letter from Doug Woodard, 208 Russell Ave., St. Catharines, Ontario L2R 1W8, Doug is an active member of NAFEX and had much valuable information to share with me, which may be useful to other members of the Alaska Chapter of NAFEX. I’ve sorted out the information…
Read MorePROSSER: VIRUS-TESTED PROPAGATING MATERIAL
By Robert Purvis Recently, I sent for and obtained a listing of the virus-indexed fruit-tree scions in the IR-2 repository of the Ag Research and Extension Center at Prosser, Washington, Among apricots they have all the Har- series from Canada, Manchu, Scout, Goldcot, Puget Gold, and about 25 others. Among the hardy plums I noted…
Read MoreFRONT AND CENTER: CLAIR LAMMERS
Chapter member Clair Lammers has been in touch with me a few times over the past two months and has written down some of the things he is testing in a very favorable microclimate close to Fairbanks. During the nine years he has kept records, it has yet to go below -32 F at his…
Read MoreSTRAWBERRIES WORLDWIDE
Strawberries are grown in most temperate regions with world production approaching 2,000,000 metric tons. The U.S. is the world leader in strawberry production with 20-25% of the total world market. California produces approximately 80$ of the U.S. crop, and consequently the most important cultivars are ‘Douglas’, ‘Chandler’, ‘Tufts’, ‘Pajaro’, ‘Aiko’ and ‘Selva’. These cultivars…
Read MoreALASKAN APPLE-TREE CENSUS RESPONSE FROM JERROLD KOERNER OF KETCHIKAN
One of the most interesting census reports received so far was from Jerrold Koerner of Ketchikan. He is growing 262 varieties of apple, of which 25 are producing. His variety list is reproduced below; it includes a number of English varieties. The oldest trees are now ten years old. His favorite three varieties…
Read MoreEditor's note — Lingonberries
Every bit of the lowbush cranberry (lingonberry) that is produced in Scandinavia – many, many tons – is harvested from the wild. Seeds may be extracted by placing whole berries into a blender with water. Run the blender for 10-15 seconds, then allow the seeds to settle. The pulp and bad seeds rises to the…
Read MoreNews from a half-high blueberry grower
I ordered about 200 plantlets of the half high blueberries from Minn-Viho and they arrived May 1. To say I was shocked at their appearance would be no exaggeration. I had prepared two raised beds filled with about a 50-50 mix of top soil and peat moss with two or three bags of cow manure…
Read MoreLingonberry Cultivation
Another group of individuals who attended the International Vaccinium symposium was an enthusiastic European contingent of lingonberry producers. The individuals from Finland were emphasizing wild stand enhancement rather than field cultivation because the wild stands were so abundant and productive, that the additional effort was unnecessary. Finns gather ample supplies for the fresh market and…
Read MoreA few comments on half-high blueberries
In August, I had the opportunity to attend the International Society for Horticultural Science’s symposium on Vaccinium culture. The meeting was attended by researchers from all over the world including Dave Wildung from the North Central Experiment Station, Grand Rapids Minnesota. The half high blueberries, ‘Northblue’, ‘Northsky’ and ‘Northcountry’ were developed at the U of…
Read MoreA plum tree in Interior Alaska – 1988
Vic Johnson, a Fairbanks NAFEX member, was perusing the fruit exhibits at the Alaska State Fair in Fairbanks this summer when he spotted an entry of ripe plums! He got the name of the entrant from the tag and called Roxanne Braban who lives at 6.5 mile old Richardson Highway, North Pole. Roxanne told Vic…
Read MoreOverwintering Fruit trees in Alaska 1988
During the winters of 1986 and 1987 and 1987 to 1988 I overwintered in pots, a number of apple, pear, plum, apricot, and sweet and tart cherry trees. The decision to grow things in pots was based on these considerations: First, a black plastic pot provides a warm environment for growing new roots on bare-root…
Read MoreA few Baccata facts
Did you know (or ever want to know?) that malus baccata was first introduced as a cultivated plant in 1784 by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Q, Richmond, Surrey, England. It grows wild in North Eastern Asia to Northern China. It has been hybridized with at least four other Crabapple species and the list of named…
Read MoreNews from Fairbanks, 1988
I picked a single fruit off my “Yellow Transparent” apple tree this summer. It was slightly unripe on September 9th. The apple was smaller than the “Hyer 12” at the Experimental Farm. I have been doing a lot of research this summer into possible rootstocks for the Fairbanks area. The Peking cotoneaster and the American…
Read MoreArborgards — better than burlap
After some bad experiences this past winter with bark rotting caused by wet burlap applied originally to my apple trees for sun scald protection, I found an alternative: Arborgards. Arborgards are white spiral perforated tubes, 24 – 40 inches high, made of durable, springy plastic. Used by professional landscapers to protect trunks of newly planted…
Read MoreApple tasting 1988
The Alaska chapter held its fourth annual apple tasting party at the October meeting. 32-35 people attended, including photographers from the two Anchorage newspapers. Lawrence Clark opened the meeting by passing around an unknown apple, but no one correctly guessed its identity to win $5. The apple was “Kerrybrook”, a Canadian cultivar. A total of…
Read MoreRock Powder is the Basis for Soil Fertility
Gardeners at Venetie, Alaska traditionally gather river silt to apply on their gardens, with good results. The same practice was discovered at an archaeological dig in Canada, by the Nation River north of the Yukon River. The Hunzacuts use it on their apricot trees in a desert type climate zone. Their health and longevity are…
Read MoreTriploid Apples
From The Fruit Blog http://thefruitblog.blogspot.com/2005/03/triploid-apples.html March 20, 2005 Triploid Apples posted by Evil Fruit Lord @ 12:59 AM Like most higher organisms, apples generally have two sets of chromosomes. This is a useful arrangement, providing each gene with a backup, and allowing such helpful features as sexual reproduction. (This ought to be a review…
Read MoreApple Allergies …
Apple Allergies … Submitted by the Boyers Hi Tami, Bob wanted me to forward this info to you. Perhaps you would be interested in including it in the newsletter. Marianne From: apple-crop@virtualorchard.net [mailto:apple-crop@virtualorchard.net] On Behalf Of Jonathan B. Bishop Subject: Apple-Crop: Spraying and food allergies Hello all, I just had an inquiry…
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