Blackberries are producing every day for the last 2 weeks. and still going strong. The blueberries have slowed to 2 fruits.. but then, i have only one producing the other is just planted.. The strawberries did ok this year. I did not get too many fruits this year. the figs are still green.. I am waiting to them to ripen.. the sour cherries.. The birds and the deer get them before i can get to them. the apple , peach and pear and plum are resting in eternity...:-(. the raspberries I just got from Ralph at the swap.. I got 4 berries from them... I am assuming it will grow bigger and produce more.. Ralph, could you tell me which cultivar it this one.? I am planning on getting a thornless one too. Still trying to decide which one.. I bought the box store ones.. Bad idea.. nothing grew even after a year. Tammy, Lisianthus, you mentioned a great place to me for buying fruit trees for less. Could you message me with the contact... address / ph # or email ..." please Thanks in advance

Hi all, After much corespondence with different people, we now believe this Citrandarin is a tissue-cultured clone of US-852. It took a while to investigate all this. US-852 was apparently developed at the Univ. of Cal - Riverside. Budwood was sent to Florida to a Tissue-culture lab. It was hoped this would be a good rootstock for the Florida citrus industry. For numerous reasons, they decided against it -- one being that its seeds are highly zygotic and produced maybe only 50% true clones. Tissue culture was apparently not cost-effective. So, the tissue-lab unloaded its plants and several retailers bought them up to sell as a hardy citrus novelty. I purchased the plant from Stan McKenzie (McKenzie Farms). Panama John has been growing it. Last year it had 3 fruits. This year around 15. I have not actually tasted a ripened fruit from this yet so I can't really comment on the taste of it, but my sense is it's much better than most citranges with very little trifoliate off-flavor. Even though the plant itself is quite hardy, it does take at least until the end of November to mid-December for fruits to fully ripen. By that time frost threatens. So it's beneficial to have it in a microclimate. Amazingly though, fruit seems to be able to take at least mid-20s without damage. I suppose one could maybe throw a blanket over the fruit on especially cold nights. However we will also be experimenting with Thomasville Citrangequat. I have tasted many of those and love them! Sweeter than lemon and with edible skin. We already know what Mr. Texas will say -- 'anything with trifoliate in it is not worth growing.'

Last year, my Viking aronia produced ~300 clusters of fruit -- about 6 quarts. The tannins and other antioxidants are best preserved by boiling-extraction with citric acid laced water (the acid preserves the good antioxidants, and suppresses the tannin solubility), then freezing the extract until use. That way, you have ready-made astringent+tart+colored additive to jazz up apple juice, etc. We have intense rust pressure here in suburban NJ: I successfully treated numerous apple-cedar-hawthorn rust attacks by removing individual swollen berries, and scraping golden rust "fingers" from individual leaves. It tends to leave a small hole in the leaf, but gets rid of the rust. C-A-H rust attacks Rosaceae variously; aronia a little, serviceberry a lot.

Very nice gfinnil, I like how you think. consider adding some muddled mint into your glass next time. If you are into the spicy cocktails, there's a few threads on this forum on infusing spirits with hot peppers. cheers, E