America's Cranberry Craving

The cranberry harvest is wrapping up in North America. The ruby red berries are a fixture of holiday feasts in the U.S.A., from Thanksgiving Day through Christmas. Seven years ago, cranberry growers were pushed to the brink by a crash in wholesale prices.

But now cranberries are again a hot commodity, and here's a safe prediction: diners who sit down for an American Thanksgiving meal will have a tart side dish. Nine out of 10 Thanksgiving dinners include cranberry sauce, according to market researchers.

The cranberry is one of the few fruits that's native to North America. It grows in wet lowlands called bogs. Today, Wisconsin, Massachusetts, and the Pacific Northwest are the main cranberry producing regions, and practically all of this year's crop has now been harvested by farmers like Bob Quinby. He says he's enjoyed working the land since he was kid. "It's a lifestyle. You're your own boss. You're outdoors. You get to do different things in the spring, a different job in the summer. Harvest is different than the rest."

Quinby is a second-generation cranberry grower. He farms near Grayland, on the Washington State coast. Earlier this month [October], you'd have found him walking behind a harvester machine, a straw hat shading his face. The picker-pruner contraption separates the cranberries from the low-lying vines and funnels them into burlap bags.

Quinby says he picks his fruit when the bog is dry so that it keeps better for the fresh market. "We get a premium for the fresh fruit berry. But they need to be dry harvested and we're set up for dry harvesting." Berries destined to become juice or sauce tend to be skimmed off a flooded bog. That's considered more efficient.

Quinby survived a shakeout in his industry in the late 1990's. Cranberry prices crashed seven years ago, losing 80 percent of their value. The primary culprit, he says: over-supply.

"Because the price had been high for quite a while, there was some over-planting that got ahead of sales. A lot of the independents outside of Ocean Spray planted more than what they could sell and then they started dropping the price of concentrate in order to sell more." He recalls having to cash in his retirement savings and sell a life as golf caddies at a nearby luxury resort.

Wholesale prices have steadily rebounded. A big investment by the world's dominant processor, Ocean Spray Cranberries, signals even better times ahead.

The sounds and smells of construction replace the sweet aroma of cooked cranberries in a wing of the Ocean Spray plant near Aberdeen, Washington. Plant manager Rick Hole says the cooperative is spending tens of millions of dollars to expand and renovate this factory and sister plants in Wisconsin and Massachusetts. "Since 1999, this the brightest future I think we've seen for a long time," he says. "We're definitely tickled about the huge investment."

Most of the new spending is to add packing lines for sweetened, dried cranberries. Surging demand for these so-called "craisins" has been a major factor in boosting profits. Hole explains, "These craisins are sold as an ingredient. They're appearing in over 1,000 different food types like yogurt, energy bars. A lot of people use them on their salads, and cereals, muffins."

The tasty topping is also said to be especially good for your insides, according to a string of medical studies that Rick Hole eagerly touts. "We've done a lot of work on the healthy aspect of the cranberry. I think that's been important." Medical researchers found that cranberries suppress "bad" bacteria in the digestive tract. They help the body ward off urinary tract infections, stomach ulcers and gum disease. Not something you want to think about at the dinner table perhaps, but the kind of news a grower calls "cran-tastic."

Source:
VOA News Service
Author: Tom Banse
First published: October 30, 2006

How Many Fruits & Vegetables Should You Eat?

Now it's easy to find out with the online fruit and vegetable serving calculator at 5ADay.gov. Just enter your age, gender, and level of physical activity and it'll provide you a suggested number of servings per day.

A growing body of research shows that fruits and vegetables are critical to promoting good health. To get the amount that's recommended, most people need to increase the amount of fruits and vegetables they currently eat every day.

Fruits and vegetables contain essential vitamins, minerals, and fiber that may help protect you from chronic diseases. Compared with people who consume a diet with only small amounts of fruits and vegetables, those who eat more generous amounts as part of a healthful diet are likely to have reduced risk of chronic diseases, including stroke and perhaps other cardiovascular diseases, and certain cancers.

Fruits and veggies come in terrific colors and flavors, but their real beauty lies in what’s inside. Fruits and vegetables are great sources of many vitamins, minerals and other natural substances that may help protect you from chronic diseases.

To get a healthy variety, think color. Eating fruits and vegetables of different colors gives your body a wide range of valuable nutrients, like fiber, folate, potassium, and vitamins A and C. Some examples include green spinach, orange sweet potatoes, black beans, yellow corn, purple plums, red watermelon, or white onions. For more variety, try new fruits and vegetables regularly.

Learn more about the specific nutrients provided by fruits and vegetables with this Nutrient Guide.

Source:
5ADay.gov

Orange Oil: Cholesterol Fighter?

Oil from orange peels contains compounds that lower blood levels of the "bad" LDL and VLDL cholesterols, studies with laboratory hamsters have revealed.

Researchers from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Canada's KGK Synergize found the cholesterol-fighting effect in tests of peel-based natural chemicals called polymethoxylated flavones, or PMFs.

Hamster feed containing one percent PMFs lowered the animals' blood LDL and VLDL levels by 30 to 40 percent, the scientists report in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry (volume 52, pages 2879 to 2886). Followup studies will determine whether PMFs have the same effect in humans and, if so, may lead to a profitable new use of juice-processing leftovers.

Source:
U.S. Department of Agriculture

Fruits and Berries

The following posts cover topics related to planting, cultivating, processing, preserving, and consuming fruits and berries.

• 2000-Year-Old Date Palm Seed Sprouts into Sapling
  
• Advice on thinning fruit
• American Red Raspberry
• Common Persimmon Fact Sheet
• Cranberries: A Little Fruit With Big Appeal
  
• Popular Banana Variety At Risk
• Highbush Blueberry Fact Sheet
• Evergreen Huckleberry Fact Sheet

Cherries

• Cherries Boast Anti-Inflammatory Benefits
• Wild About Cherries
  

Currants

• Golden Currant Fact Sheet
• Growing currants from cuttings
  

Grapes

• New Muscadine Grape Offers Improved Flavor, Health Benefits
• New "Scarlet Royal" Seedless Grape Variety Makes Its Debut

Strawberries

• Beach Strawberry Fact Sheet
• Wood Strawberry Fact Sheet
• Why are strawberries called strawberries?

Popular Banana Variety At Risk

In recent years, some concerns have been raised about the health of the world’s banana plants. A number of media reports have said that bananas may completely disappear. Some claimed that this could happen in as little as ten years. Such fears are disputed, however.

Bananas are one of the world’s most important food crops. They are also one of the most valuable exports. Bananas do not grow from seeds. Instead, they grow from existing plants. Bananas are threatened by disease because all the plants on a farm are copies of each other. They all share the same genetic weaknesses.

For example, the Cavendish banana is most popular in North American and European markets. However, some kinds of fungus organisms easily infect the Cavendish. Black Sigatoka disease affects the leaves of Cavendish banana plants. The disease is controlled on large farms by putting chemicals on the plant’s leaves. Farmers put anti-fungal chemicals on their crops up to once a week.

Another fungal disease is more serious. Panama disease attacks the roots of the banana plant. There is no chemical treatment for this disease. Infected plants must be destroyed. Panama disease has affected crops in Southeast Asia, Australia and South Africa. There is concern that it may spread to bananas grown in the Americas. This could threaten an important export product for Central and South America.

The International Network for the Improvement of Banana and Plantain supports research on bananas. The group has headquarters in France and other offices in the major banana-growing areas of the world. The group says that more research must be done to develop improved kinds of bananas.

The group says that fungal diseases mainly affect only one kind of banana. In fact, there are five hundred different kinds of bananas. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization has said that the Cavendish banana represents only ten percent of world production.

The U.N. agency says farmers should grow different kinds of bananas. This protects against diseases that affect only one kind. Experts warn that disease may cause the Cavendish banana to disappear. This happened earlier to another popular banana because of its genetic weakness against disease.

Source:
VOA News Service
Author: Mario Ritter
First published: September 19, 2005

Wild About Cherries

There is something hard to resist about cherries. The small red fruit is a popular seasonal food around the world. In northern areas, cherry trees are just beginning to produce flowers.

The cherry is a member of the same family of plants as the rose. It is closely related to the plum. Like cherry trees, plum trees also flower in early spring.

Cherries are thought to be native to western Asia. There are two major kinds of cherries harvested in the world: sweet and sour.

Sour cherries are not eaten fresh because they contain little sugar. Instead, they are processed to make prepared foods like jellies and pies and to make alcoholic drinks. The United States is a major producer of sour cherries. Among the states, Michigan is the top producer.

Russia, Poland and Turkey are other important cherry-producing nations.

Sweet cherries contain much more sugar than their sour relatives and are usually eaten fresh. Washington state is the biggest American producer, followed by California and Oregon.

The United States, Iran and Turkey are major producers of sweet cherries. In the United States, production fell by twenty percent last year after a record harvest in two thousand four.

Fresh cherries do not store well. They must reach market as soon as possible. So they cost more than many other kinds of fresh fruit.

Farmers produce different kinds of cherries through the process of grafting. They take cuttings from existing trees and join them to related trees, known as root stock. The cuttings, called scions [SY-uhnz], grow into the root stock, so the two kinds of trees grow as one.

Cherry trees are also valued for their springtime blossoms.

Cherry blossoms are popular in many parts of Asia and Europe. But Washington, D.C., has some of the most famous cherry trees in the world. Japan gave the United States three thousand cherry trees in nineteen twelve as a gift of friendship. There were twelve different kinds of cherry trees, but most were a kind called Yoshino.

Years later Japan gave another gift of three thousand eight hundred trees. In the early nineteen eighties, the United States provided Japan with cuttings from the Yoshino trees in Washington. These cuttings helped replace Japanese trees lost in a flood.

Related topic: Cherries Boast Anti-Inflammatory Benefits

Source:
VOA News Service
Author: Mario Ritter
First published: March 27, 2006

New "Scarlet Royal" Seedless Grape Variety Makes Its Debut

If you love sweet, firm grapes, you'll want to try Scarlet Royal red seedless from Agricultural Research Service (ARS) grape breeders in California.

Young vines that will yield this delicious, oval-shaped grape already flourish in sunny vineyards in California, the nation's largest producer of fresh-market, wine and raisin grapes. And though Scarlet Royal vines won't be ready to harvest for another few years, their luscious grapes are well worth the wait.

That's according to ARS horticulturist David W. Ramming and colleague Ronald E. Tarailo, who developed Scarlet Royal and tested it for 10 years before determining, in 2005, that it was ready for commercial vineyards. They received a U.S. patent for the grape in January 2006.

Ramming and Tarailo are with ARS' San Joaquin Valley Agricultural Sciences Center at Parlier, Calif., about 200 miles north of Los Angeles.

Scarlet Royal grapes have attractive, dark-red skin and translucent, pale yellow-green flesh. By ripening in mid-August, the grapes help fill the gap between the earlier-ripening Flame Seedless, America's favorite red seedless grape, and the later-ripening Crimson Seedless.

Scarlet Royal, Flame Seedless and Crimson Seedless have all resulted from ARS' grape-breeding program in California, now in its 83rd year.

One of the newer grapes from the team, Scarlet Royal likely wouldn't exist were it not for an exacting laboratory procedure called embryo rescue. Ramming pioneered the application of this technology for breeding seedless grapes.

The approach requires excising the tiny, wisp-like embryo from inside a promising seedless grape, then nurturing it with special nutrients, in petri dishes, to form a little seedling.

In nature, when two seedless grape plants are chosen as parents—as was the case for Scarlet Royal—their offspring usually produce grapes with embryos so minuscule that they can't survive without the help of embryo rescue procedures.

Source:
U.S. Department of Agriculture
Author: Marcia Wood
Photo: Stephen Ausmus
First published: April 7, 2006

New Muscadine Grape Offers Improved Flavor, Health Benefits

For those who love the unique flavor of muscadine grapes, there's good news. Stephen J. Stringer, a USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) geneticist at the Southern Horticultural Laboratory in Poplarville, Miss., is working toward developing new, healthful cultivars of this natural treat.

Growing wild from Delaware to the Gulf of Mexico, and as far west as Missouri to Texas, muscadines come in varying shapes, sizes and colors. Most wild types have a thick, tough skin and a pulp that yields less juice than other grapes. Their aroma is often described as slightly musky.

Muscadines are grown commercially in the southeastern United States, where they are often called scuppernongs and are used primarily in juices, wines, jellies and preserves. They are valued for their high yields (8 to 12 tons of grapes per acre) and for resistance to pests such as phylloxera and nematodes, fungal diseases, and the bacterium that causes Pierce's disease.

Stringer is breeding cultivars with thinner skins, a crisp and melting flesh, high sugar content and increased concentrations of nutraceuticals, specific chemical compounds found in foods that may prevent disease.

Muscadine grapes (Vitis rotundifloia Michx) are extremely high in total phenolic content. Phenolic compounds have antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and anticlotting properties that may translate to cardiovascular health benefits. Muscadines contain other beneficial compounds, such as gallic acid and ellagic acid, not commonly found in high concentrations in other grape species.

Stringer is working toward a joint release later this year, with the University of Florida, of a new fresh-market muscadine grape cultivar that offers excellent flavor, high yield potential and extraordinarily high concentrations of ellagic acid. Other advanced lines with high concentrations of total phenolics are showing promise for release in the near future.

Stringer is also looking at production practices, such as determining the efficiency of growth regulators to develop bigger and seedless varieties of muscadines.

Source:
U.S. Department of Agriculture
Author: Jim Core
Photo: David Nance
First published: April 11, 2006

Scientists develop method to grow fruits and vegetables in extreme climates

In a growth chamber in Antarctica, lettuce, tomatoes and cucumbers are being grown alongside flowers. Lane Patterson, of the University of Arizona, runs this chamber at the United States South Pole station and has already spent nine months there. He says all the plants, including the flowers, are edible -- in compliance with an international treaty. He also says South Pole Station personnel, who are isolated at the base for eight months a year, appreciate the chamber for more than just the food.

"Coming to a place that's green, pleasant, warm and has high humidity is also something that is very beneficial to the crew there at the South Pole," he says

Mr. Patterson says keeping the chamber that way depends on a lot of lights. The 1,000 watt bulbs are kept in special, water-cooled jackets that prevent them from burning the plants, and keep the lights cool enough to touch.

"This is a proven technology. It is relatively inexpensive and it is rugged,” says Mr. Patterson. “At the South Pole there is no re-supply during the winter, so if bulbs burn out faster than what you thought, then there is no re-supply, no vegetables."

Lane Patterson is due to return to Antarctica soon, to refine the system, which scientists hope could someday be used on the Moon or Mars.

Source:
VOA News Service
Author: Amy Katz
First published: January 10, 2006

Sustainable Wine Maker Harvests for Future Generations

The United States ranks as the 4th largest wine producer in the world. While California is the nation's leader, every other state supports a wine industry. In the Pacific Northwest state of Washington is a fertile pocket of vineyards where the combination of climate, soil and sustainable farming practices are helping to produce some of the country's best wines.

Every morning at dawn, Jean-Francois Pellet walks into his fields at Pepper Bridge Winery in the Walla Walla Valley of Washington State to check on his grapes. It is the end of the growing season this year, and the vines are heavy with bunches of small dark red grapes ready for harvest.

"The main thing is flavors. I usually I take two berries - one for my bag and one for my mouth," Mr. Pellet says before putting a grape in his mouth. "You can taste it. And, I look at the seed, too, to make sure it is very ripe." He notes that he is pleased with the flavor of this year's harvest.

Mr. Pellet is a third-generation winemaker from Switzerland whose talents as a vintner brought him to Walla Walla, whose high dry plateau provides an excellent climate and good soil for wine grapes. Mr. Pellet says he welcomed the opportunity to develop Pepper Bridge as a model for sustainable viticulture, which he says, is a question of balance.

The winemaker says sustainable viticulture is more than a set of farming practices. He says it is a common-sense approach to agriculture that follows a strict set of environmental standards that also makes economic sense. "Stewardship of the land is really our biggest mission," he says. "I have two young children and I think my goal in life is to return the land the way I got it or maybe in better shape. Our goal is also to make quality grapes, to make really fine wine."

In pursuit of that goal, says Mr. Pellet, many of the region's wine makers have adopted basic sustainable farming techniques. "We encourage all the growers not to spray if they see one bug or little fungi in the vineyard," he says. "But you evaluate. If you say, 'Okay, I have 5% or 10% or 15% disease maybe at that time you can spray. But it's really trying to understand your soil and your plants and do things very conscientiously and not spray or do things that you don't have to."

The Pepper Bridge Winery also employs drip irrigation to conserve water. Shrubs and trees planted throughout the vineyard encourage biodiversity and composting helps to enrich the soil. Jean Francois Pellet gets his compost at a facility located on a former wheat field not far from the vineyard.

The old farm is lined with dark, earthy-looking and clean-smelling windrows - each as long as a football field. The mounds consist of discarded logs, yard waste, cow manure and vineyard debris. They cook naturally into a nutrient-rich, disease-free fertilizer in about ten weeks. Travis Trumbull runs the business.

Jean-Francois Pellet comes for a look around. "The compost is basically what will keep food and microbiology in our soils," the winemaker says. "Some of those soils have been farmed for 80 years and they have been totally depleted. So, we have to re-enter this to replace the humus."

Travis Trumbull nods his head. "It is helping out Mother Nature," he says. "We've taken all we can from the earth and it's time to give back. And, I think that everybody that is involved in it and using it on their produce or on their wine grapes or on their apples -- or whatever the crop is -- will reap the benefits."

Jean-Francois says this compost is a food bank for his soil. It may take a decade or more to enrich the land, but he says it is worth the wait, because it will ensure that his vineyard will produce better grapes and better wine for generations to come.

Source:
VOA News Service
Author: Rosanne Skirble
First published: November 15, 2005

Common Persimmon

Diospyros virginiana

Alternate Common Names

Eastern persimmon, possumwood, American ebony, white ebony, bara-bara, boa-wood, butterwood

Description

General: Ebony family (Ebenaceae). Native trees growing 5-12 (-21) meters tall; mature bark dark-gray, thick and blocky. Leaves are deciduous, simple, alternate, ovate to elliptic or oblong with smooth edges, 3.5-8 cm long, with an acuminate apex and rounded base, the lower surface usually lighter-colored, especially on young leaves. Flowers are either male (staminate) or female (pistillate), borne on separate trees (the species dioecious) on shoots of the current year after leafing; pistillate flowers solitary, sessile or short-stalked, bell-shaped, ca. 2 cm long, the corolla creamy to greenish-yellow, fragrant, usually with 4 thick, recurved lobes; staminate flowers in 2-3-flowered clusters, tubular, 8-13 mm long, greenish-yellow. Fruit is a berry 2-5 cm wide, greenish to yellowish with highly astringent pulp before ripening, turning yellowish-orange to reddish-orange and sweet in the fall, each fruit with 1-8 flat seeds. The common name, persimmon, is the American Indian word for the fruit.

Variation within the species: variants have been described but are not generally formally recognized.

Var. pubescens (Pursh) Dipp. - Fuzzy persimmon

Var. platycarpa Sarg. - Oklahoma persimmon

Var. mosieri (Small) Sarg. - Florida persimmon

Distribution: Primarily a species of the east-central and southeastern U.S., with the southeast corner of its range in Texas, reaching northeast to New York and southern Connecticut, westward through southern Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois to Missouri and southeastern Kansas. It does not grow in the main range of the Appalachian Mountains nor in much of the oak-hickory forest of the Allegheny Plateau.

Uses

Common persimmon is sometimes used as an ornamental for its hardiness, adaptability to a wide range of soils and climates, and immunity from disease and insects. Moist, well-drained soils provide best conditions but the plant will tolerate hot, dry, poor soils, including various city conditions. The species is rarely sold commercially, however. The leaves are glossy and leathery and may be yellow or reddish-purple in the fall. Several cultivars have been selected primarily for fruit color, taste, size, and early maturation; several are seedless. Budded or grafted trees are a sure way of getting a desired type. Common persimmon sends down a deep taproot, which makes it a good species for erosion control but makes it difficult to transplant.

The wood of common persimmon is hard, smooth, and even textured. The hardness and shock resistance make it ideal for textile shuttles and heads for driver golf clubs. The heartwood is used for veneer and specialty items, but most of commercially used persimmon is reported to consist of sapwood.

Unripe fruit and inner bark have been used in the treatment of fever, diarrhea, and hemorrhage. The fruits are used in puddings, cookies, cakes, custard, and sherbet; the dried, roasted, ground seeds have been used as a substitute for coffee. Flowers produce nectar significant for bees in honey production. Leaves and twigs of common persimmon are eaten in fall and winter by white-tailed deer. The fruit is eaten by squirrel, fox, skunk, deer, bear, coyote, raccoon, opossum, and various birds, including quail, wild turkey, cedar waxwing, and catbird.

Adaptation

Common persimmon grows over a wide range of conditions from dry, sterile, sandy woodlands to river bottoms to rocky hillsides. Growth is best on terraces of large streams and river bottoms with clays and heavy loams; usual sites in the Mississippi Delta are wet flats, shallow sloughs, and swamp margins. It thrives in full sun but also is shade-tolerant and can persist in the understory. It is an early pioneer on abandoned and denuded cropland and is common on roadsides and fencerows. Common persimmon often is seen as thickets (derived from root suckers) in open fields and pastures. This species flowers in March-June and fruits in September-November.

Establishment

Fruit may be produced by 10-year-old trees but optimum fruit-bearing age is 25-50 years. Good fruit crops are borne every 2 years. Seeds are dispersed by birds and animals and by overflow water in bottomlands. Persimmon is slow growing and usually does not make a large tree, although it may reach 21-24 meters tall on optimal sites. Trees have been reported to reach 150 years of age.

Management

Common persimmon usually is considered undesirable by growers of closely managed timber stands. It has been controlled by prescribed burns but is also known to decrease with fire exclusion. Roots and rootstocks are killed by severe fires that char the soil; less severe fires top-kill the plant. Vigorous sprouts are produced from the root collar following top-kill by fire or after cutting. Deer occasionally browse the sprouts but cattle usually avoid them. Thickets from root suckers and collar sprouts in pastures may be problematic. Various herbicides are used to kill the plants.

The principal natural defoliators of common persimmon are the webworm (Seiarctica echo) and the hickory horned devil (Citheronia regalis). Small branches severed by a twig girdler (Oncideres cingulata) are often encountered – these wounds allow entry of a wilt fungus, Cephalosporium diospyri, which kills many trees in the southeastern US. An infected tree lives 1-2 years after the wilting appears. Diseased trees should be burned and bruises on healthy trees should be covered with pitch or wax to prevent entry by wind-borne spores.

View persimmon photos

Source:
USDA, NRCS, National Plant Data Center & the Biota of North America Program

Golden Currant

Ribes aureum


Alternate common names

Buffalo currant, fragrant golden currant, golden flowering currant, clove currant, spicebush

Description

General: Currant family (Grossulariaceae). A native shrub 1-3 m tall, spineless, with numerous, erect-arching branches forming an irregular crown up to 6 meters tall or more; bark gray to red-brown; rhizomatous. Leaves deciduous, light green and glossy, alternate or clustered, orbicular or cuneate-ovate with 3-5 rounded lobes, (0.6-)1-2.5(4.7) cm long and wide, cuneate to subcordate at base, glabrous or sometimes lightly hairy beneath. Flowers in short racemes of 5-10(-15), with the fragrance of cloves; long-tubed (from fused sepals) and trumpet-shaped, with 5 yellow sepal lobes spreading at the top, with 5, short, reddish petals inserted at the top of the tube. Fruit a berry 6-10 mm diameter, globose to ellipsoid, ripening from green to yellow to red and finally black to dark purple, with numerous seeds. The common name pertains to the conspicuous, golden flowers; “currant” is the general name for Ribes fruit.

Variation within the species: Ribes odoratum, often considered a distinct species, recognized by its considerably larger flowers, has been placed (re-placed, as var. villosum) as the eastern segment of the broader species.

Var. aureum – (golden currant)

Var. gracillimum (Coville & Britt.) Jepson – (golden currant)

Var. villosum DC. – (fragrant golden currant, buffalo currant, clove currant). Synonym: Ribes odoratum H. Wendl.

Distribution: Var. aureum is widespread in the western US and southeastern Canada, with populations in Ontario and perhaps Quebec, as far south in the US as trans-Pecos Texas. Var. gracillimum is endemic to California. Var. villosum in the central US, from western Texas to Montana and eastward to New York and Vermont; it is absent from the Atlantic seaboard. The species is naturalized in Europe from garden escapes.

Uses

Wildlife: Fruits of Ribes species, including the golden currant, are a valuable food source for songbirds, chipmunks, ground squirrels, as well as numerous wildlife species and other animals.

Ethnobotanic: The sweet and flavorful fruits are full of seeds but are popular for making jam, jelly, pie, and even ice cream. Some western Indian tribes used currants (Ribes species) for making pemmican. The Kiowa Indians believed that snakes were afraid of the currant bush and used it as a snakebite remedy. Other tribes have used the fruits to color clay pots.

Conservation: The fragrant (clove odor), golden-yellow flowers of spring, yellowish to red fall foliage, edible fruits, and wide ecological range make golden currant a valued ornamental shrub for a variety of natural landscapes. Golden currant is easily cultivated from seed or cuttings.

Adaptation

Golden currant grows in grasslands, coniferous forests and woodlands, and riparian and mountain shrub communities. It occurs on floodplains, along streams, in ravines and washes, by springs, and on mountain slopes, at elevations of about 800–2600 meters. It is generally an early to mid-seral species in western coniferous forests. Var. villosum occurs on cliffs, rocky slopes, ravines, bluffs, open hillside, and thicket margins, often in sandy habitats. Golden currant is somewhat shade tolerant and may grow in open, scattered, and dense pine stands, but it is usually suppressed by a denser canopy.

Flowering (March–)April–June, just after appearance of the leaves; fruiting (May–)June–August.

Establishment

Plants of Ribes generally begin fruiting after 3 years. Seeds may remain viable in the soil and duff for many years. Germination is enhanced by scarification, but relatively good germination of golden currant seeds was obtained by stratification at -2.2–2.2 degrees C for 60 days without scarification.

Golden currant transplants well and forms suckers. Plants can also be grown from cuttings. It reproduces vegetatively by rhizomes, sprouting after cutting and fire.

Management

Golden currant can be used to re-vegetate roadsides and disturbed areas, such as mine spoils and rangeland. It is rated mostly good in initial establishment, growth rate. persistence, germination, seed production, ease of planting, and natural spread. It tolerates shearing and may be used on dry, exposed sites in a range of soil types, and it is a good soil stabilizer.

Golden currant is an alternate host for white pine blister rust (Cronartium ribicola); this and other species of Ribes have been targets of various eradication efforts where white pine is of commercial interest.

Fire top-kills golden currant, but it can survive low- to moderate-severity fire by sprouting from rhizomes. Such fires also scarify soil-stored seed and enhance germination. Severe fire probably kills golden currant and may destroy soil-stored seeds.

Cultivars, Improved and Selected Materials (and area of origin)

Golden currants are readily available from commercial sources. One cultivar (‘Crandall’) has been referred to as "the North Country's answer to Forsythia." Other horticultural selections have been made for hardiness, flower color and density, and fruit taste and size.

Related topic: Growing currants from cuttings

Source:
USDA, NRCS, National Plant Data Center & the Biota of North America Program

American Red Raspberry

Rubus idaeus


Alternate Names

raspberry, grayleaf red raspberry, red raspberry

Description

General: Rose family (Roseaceae). American red raspberry is a native, deciduous shrub that grows up to 1.5 meters high with biennial stems. The leaves are pinnately compound, with three to five leaflets. The flowers are white to greenish white, drooping, single or in small grapelike clusters. The fruit is a red raspberry, rounded, two centimeters long and broad, maturing between July through September.

Distribution: American red raspberry is a native North American species that grows across northern Europe to northwestern Asia.

Uses

Ethnobotanic: A tea was made from the leaves and used in the treatment of diarrhea and as an aid in childbirth. The tea has also been known to relieve painful menstrual cramps. Externally, the leaves and roots are used as a gargle to treat tonsillitis and mouth inflammations, sores, minor wounds, burns and varicose ulcers. Europeans in the 17th century regarded the raspberries as an antispasmodic and they made a syrup of the juice which they employed to prevent vomiting. In the 18th century physicians and herbalists deemed the berries useful as a remedy for heart disease . Red raspberries are eaten fresh or in jams and jellies, or added to pies and other baked goods, candies and dairy products to add flavor. Purple to dull blue dye was obtained from the fruit.

Wildlife: American red raspberry provides food and cover for many wildlife species. Grouse, birds, raccoons, coyotes, squirrels, skunks, and chipmunks eat the fruits. Raspberry thickets provide shelter for rabbits and squirrels and service as a nesting spot for many birds.

Adaptation

Rubus idaeus ssp. strigosus is frequently found along the edges of swamps and bogs and is especially commonly found after burnings, clearings, or other disturbances. This species grows good in well-drained loamy soil in a sunny location or in a semi-shaded area. It tolerates a wide range of soil pH texture and requires adequate soil moisture.

Establishment

Propagation by Seed: American red raspberry seeds are best sown in the early autumn in a cold frame. Stored seeds should be stratified for one month at 3ºC. When the seedlings are large enough to handle place them into individual pots and grow them in a cold frame. Plant seedlings in their permanent position in the late spring of the following year.

Propagation by Cuttings: hardwood cuttings can propagate American red raspberry. Cuttings should be propagated in a site out of full sun and sheltered from drying winds. A slow release fertilizer should be added to the rooting medium where the cuttings will stay for a year before transplanting.

Source:
USDA, NRCS, National Plant Data Center

Advice on thinning fruit

As the proprietor of a small loquat, fig, and lemon orchard (totalling 4 trees - well, the lemon's more of a shrub at this point) I was wondering about the best way to ensure the trees produce good-sized fruit. The loquats in particular tend to yield bunches of many small fruit with are largely filled with pits surrounded by a thin layer of flesh, and as a result aren't much fun to eat. I knew thinning was the recommended way to improve fruit size and quality, but wasn't sure how to go about it.

Fortunately I was able to find this article by Alice Ramirez from a 1997 issue of Flower & Garden Magazine, appropriately entitled "Thin That Fruit." The article notes that in addition to yielding a harvest of larger fruit with a better ratio of flesh to fruit, thinning wll also improve fruit flavor (those loquats have been pretty bland lately) and improve the health of the tree, since it's less likely to be overburdened by too many fruit and lose branches as a result.

It also recommends removing all the fruit from a small, developing plant, causing it to channel all its energy into developing the root and branch systems that will allow it to bear productively in future years. (I've just done this with a blueberry bush I planted recently - it wasn't exactly fun, since I love blueberries, but hopefully I'll be amply repaid next season.)

Other benefits of thinning include reducing the likelihood a tree will bear in alternate years, and the risk of "June drop," when summer heat stress causes a tree to drop all of its crop at once.

While most fruit trees can be thinned when the fruit is in the very early stages of development, Ramirez notes that loquats should be thinned at the flower stage by removing every other flower cluster. So that's at the top of my list for next growing season - until then, I'll just make do with gnawing on these pint-size loquats. (The birds and the squirrels certainly don't seem to mind them - maybe I'm just too picky.)

Growing currants from cuttings

I recently had the good fortune to be given a few cuttings from a Golden Currant (Ribes aureum), a handsome berry bush native here in California. Since I'd really like to establish one or two of these shrubs in my backyard, and hopefully enjoy a bountiful currant harvest in the not-too-distant future, I've been carefully trying to get the cuttings to take root.

To figure out the best way to root my cuttings, I consulted the California gardener's bible, Sunset's Western Garden Book. The first step was to obtain some rooting hormone, which you should be able to find at any good nursery. After lightly wetting the stem of each cutting, I dunked it in the powdered hormone until it was thoroughly coated. I then dug a two inch deep hole in a container of damp potting soil I had on hand for the purpose. I inserted the first cutting in the hole, gently pressed the soil in around it, and then did the same for my other cuttings, spacing them a few inches apart in the container.

After lightly watering the cuttings in their new soil bed, I covered the pot with a plastic bag that I secured around the top with a rubber band. According to the garden book, this will help maintain humidity and keep the cuttings moist. Following Sunset's instructions, I've also been removing the bag for a short period each day to give the cuttings some air, and have also been setting them out in the sun in the backyard, on the principle that plants like sun. (A shocking idea, I know.)

It's been a little over two weeks and my cuttings are just beginning to show signs of new leaves emerging. Apparently the emergence of leaves coincides with the growth of roots, so once a few full-fledged leaves have appeared I should have baby currant plants for the garden. I expect it'll be at least another couple weeks before I know for sure if they've put down roots...as you've probably guessed by now, this whole rooting process takes quite a bit of patience. So until I have thriving golden currant plants in my backyard, I'll just have to make do with admiring a photo:

Golden Currant
Ribes aureum

Photo courtesy of the US Department of Agriculture

Related topic: Golden Currant Fact Sheet

Beach Strawberry

Fragaria chiloensis


Alternative Names
Pacific beach strawberry. This species is recognized as having four subspecies: chiloensis, lucida, pacifica, and sandwicensis. Frageria chiloensis ssp. sandwicensis is known as the Sandwich beach strawberry.

Use

Ethnobotanic: This strawberry produces many more fruits than the wood strawberry and has a great flavor. It was gathered and eaten raw by the Makah, Quileute, and Quinault of western Washington. It was also harvested for its fruit by the native peoples of Alaska and coastal British Columbia. The Wiyot, Pomo, and other tribes in California savored the fruits. The plant is also used medicinally by the Quileute by chewing the leaves and spitting them on burns.

Wildlife: The Portola woodrat and the valley quail eat the fruit and leaves of wild strawberries.

Description

General: This herbaceous perennial plant spreads by seed and also by short rhizomes and leafless stolons. The toothed leaves are leathery, basal with a petiole generally 2-20 cm. They appear in leaflets of 3 and are glabrous (not hairy) above. The flowers have 5 white petals that are 10-18 mm, with numerous pistils and 20-35 stamens. The five bractlets are unlobed. The red fleshy fruit is covered with achenes.

Distribution

This plant is found below 200 m, in dune and grassland communities of coastal California. It is found from Alaska to coastal South America and Hawaii.

Establishment

Dig up plantlets or runners and plant them in pots in summer. Be sure to cover the stems and roots with soil. Place the pots in a hothouse to establish good, strong roots. Water the plants or runners and keep them moist. Plant the plants outdoors in the ground in the fall or winter after the rains have started. They should be planted in full sun in a light, loose soil, about ten inches apart. It will not take long for the plants to make a complete ground cover. Lightly fertilize the plants during the growing season. Note that those plants that have bigger flowers usually have less fruit and those with smaller flowers have more fruit. Protect the plants from gophers, deer, squirrels, raccoons, and other wildlife.

Management

Keep the runners pruned back because they can be invasive. It is necessary to divide the patch every three to four years and start a new patch for increased vigor. Younger plants are more vigorous and produce more berries.

Cultivars, Improved and Selected Materials (and area of origin)

Seeds and plants of selected Fragaria cultivars are available from many nurseries. It is best to plant species from your local area, adapted to the specific site conditions where the plants are to be grown.

Wood Strawberry

Fragaria vesca


Alternate Names

Woodland strawberry; California strawberry

Uses

Ethnobotanic: The fruit was gathered by native peoples throughout the United States and Canada. Such cultural groups include the Micmac, Huron, Potawatomi, Creek, Blackfoot, Iroquois, and many other groups. The fruit was eaten raw and not preserved by California Indian tribes including the Coast Yuki and the Karok. Furthermore, a tea was made from the leaves by the Upriver Halkomelem and Sechelt of British Columbia, the Cowlitz of Washington and the Micmac of the maritimes.

Wildlife: The Portola woodrat and the valley quail eat the fruit and leaves of wild strawberries.

Description

General: Rose Family (Rosaceae). This herbaceous perennial plant spreads by seed, short rhizomes and leafless stolons. The toothed leaves are thin and basal with a petiole generally 3-12 cm. They appear in leaflets of 3 and are sparsely hairy above. The flowers have 5 white petals with numerous pistils and 20-35 stamens. The five bractlets are often 2-lobed. The red fleshy fruit is covered with achenes.

Distribution

The wood strawberry is found in northwestern California, the Cascade Ranges, the Sierra Nevada, central-western California, San Bernardino Mountains, Peninsular Ranges, to eastern North America, and south to Baja California and also Europe.

Establishment

Adaptation: This plant is found below 2000 m in partial shade of closed-cone pine, evergreen, mixed conifer forests, and chaparral and has a very wide distribution.

Planting: Dig up plantlets or runners and plant them in pots in summer, make sure to cover the stems and roots in soil. Place the pots in a hothouse to establish good, strong roots. Water the plants or runners and keep them moist. Plant the seedlings outdoors in the ground in the fall or winter after the rains have started. They should be planted in full sun in a light, loose soil, about ten inches apart. It will not take long for the plants to make a complete ground cover. Lightly fertilize the plants during the growing season. Note that those plants that have bigger flowers usually have less fruit while those with smaller flowers have more fruit. Protect the plants from gophers, deer, squirrels, raccoons, and other wildlife.

Management

Keep the runners pruned back because they can be invasive. It is necessary to divide the patch every 3 to 4 years and start a new patch for increased vigor. Younger plants are more vigorous and produce more berries.

Cultivars, Improved and Selected Materials (and area of origin)

The wood strawberry is somewhat available through native plant nurseries within its range.

Source:
USDA, NRCS, National Plant Data Center

Evergreen Huckleberry

Vaccinium ovatum


Alternate Names

California huckleberry, shot huckleberry, huckleberry, winter huckleberry, evergreen huckleberry

Uses

Ethnobotanic: Tribes in British Columbia and western Washington use the berries of evergreen huckleberry. These tribes include the Sechelt, Comox, Straits, Halkomelem, Lower Nlaka'pamux Salish, Nuu-chah-nulth (Vancouver Island's West Coast), and the Quinault of Washington. Evergreen huckleberries were well liked and people often traveled great distances to obtain them. The berries ripen late in the year, around October or November. They are the last fruits to be gathered in the season round and are said to be even tastier after freezing. The berries are eaten fresh, usually with oil. The berries are also sun or smoke dried, partly mashed, pressed into cake form, and wrapped in leaves or bark. Today they are made into jam or used in cooking.

The leaves and berries are high in vitamin C. The leaves and finely chopped stems contain quinic acid, a former therapeutic for gout said to inhibit uric acid formation but never widely used because of mixed clinical results. The leaves have been widely used to lower or modify blood sugar levels. Many herbalists maintain that huckleberry leaf tea may be useful in stabilizing blood sugar levels in cases of diabetes, and medical research has shown that consumption of the leaf extract decreases blood sugar levels shortly after administration. Taken on regular basis, huckleberry tea will gradually help alleviate both glycosuria and hyperglycemia and appears to have a beginning, but useful effect as an adjunct treatment to diabetes mellitus. The leaves are believed also to stimulate appetite, and have astringent and antiseptic qualities that are useful in urinary disorders.

Horticulture: Evergreen huckleberry is an excellent horticultural choice due to its beautiful, glossy, evergreen foliage and tolerance of a wide range of light levels. The foliage is often used in flower arrangements.

Wildlife & Livestock: The foliage of evergreen huckleberry is browsed by elk and deer. Flowers attract butterflies. For several species of grouse, huckleberries are among the most important summer and early fall foods. Berries are eaten by chipmunks, black bear, mice, scarlet tanagers, bluebirds, thrushes, and other songbirds. Deer and rabbit browse freely on the plants. Because of their food value to wildlife and their dense shrubby growth, evergreen huckleberry is worthy of inclusion in hedgerows.

In some localities goats and deer crop evergreen huckleberry rather closely, utilizing 30 to 40% of the leafage and current twigs. Sheep crop it somewhat less closely but it enters into their diet to a considerable extent in late summer and autumn. The browse rating is fair to poor for sheep, goats, and deer; poor to useless to cattle; and useless for horses.

Description

General: Heath Family (Ericaceae). This erect, evergreen shrub is stout, from 0.5-3 m tall. The glossy green leaf blades are 2-5 cm, ovate, leathery, serrate, with glandular hairs on the lower surface. The umbel-like inflorescence emerges from the leaf axils. Urn-shaped flowers are bright pink. The berries are 6-9 mm, purplish-black. Evergreen huckleberry does not generally root easily.

Distribution

Evergreen huckleberry grows from the west side of the Cascades in Washington to the coast of British Columbia, to the redwood area of California. It is sporadic south to Santa Barbara, California and in the coast ranges to the central Sierra Nevada Mountains.

Establishment

Adaptation: Vaccinium ovatum grows in edges and clearings of coniferous woods, at elevations from 3-800 m. Evergreen huckleberry can also be found near beaches in the salt spray zone. This huckleberry grows in moist to slightly dry soils. It will grow in full sun to full shade, although the plants prefer some shade.

Propagation: Evergreen huckleberry can be difficult to propagate or transplant, but it is available in some nurseries. It can be grown from cuttings, from seed, or by layering. Huckleberry cuttings should be taken while the plant is dormant, from November to April. Their rooting success is fairly sporadic.

Evergreen huckleberry requires excessive drainage and acidic soils to become established. It does best in full or partial shade; it may tolerate morning and winter sun.

Live Plant Collections: Evergreen huckleberry is propagated by cuttings from fully matured shoots taken in fall and winter, when the plant is dormant. Cuttings made from the previous year's growth taken the third week in April rooted 100% (Vancouver, B.C.). Application of 0.3 to 0.4% IBA talc to the freshly cut stem surface and basal heat (21°C; 70° F) to potted plants will enhance rooting.

Young plants can be salvaged, but they should be transplanted when they are less than one foot tall. Frequently, these small plants will turn out to be new shoots of a mature plant reviving from deer browsing or logging, and will die from lack of roots.

Seed Collections: Berries should be collected when they are ripe (from August to September or later). The blue-black fruit is easily collected by hand picking or by beating the bush over a large bucket. Following collection, chill the fruit at 10°C for several days. Clean seeds by macerating and floating off the pulp and unsound seed. Clean seeds carefully; they are minuscule, so you may want to use pantyhose or cheesecloth to strain the seed from the pulp.

Seeds dried at 15-21°C for two days can be stored in a refrigerator for up to 12 years. Fresh seeds not planted in the fall may germinate better if cold stratified for 1-3 months. Stored seeds germinates well when exposed to alternating temperature and light regimes of 28°C light for 14 hours a day and 13°C dark for 10 hours.

Fresh or stored and cold-stratified seeds can be sown directly into flats or small pots (a salt shaker can be used for sowing). Plant in a mixture of sand and peat moss. Seedlings will begin to emerge in a month and will continue to emerge for a long period thereafter. Transplant seedlings into larger pots 6 to 7 weeks after emergence. Plant outside after the first growing season. Seedlings are slow growing, and it may take 2-3 years for a nursery-sized plant to develop.

Management

This plant grows very rapidly in moist, shady conditions. If summer drought occurs, the plants should be watered so roots are kept fairly moist.

Traditional Resource Management: This includes the following: 1) occasional burning to stimulate new growth; 2) pruning the branches after picking the berries to stimulate new growth and fruit production the next growing season; and 3) ownership of red huckleberry shrubs provides the basis for careful tending and sustainable yield of valued resources.

Cultivars, Improved and Selected Materials (and area of origin)

This species is readily available from native plant nurseries within its range.

Source:
USDA, NRCS, National Plant Data Center & Oregon Plant Materials Center

Highbush Blueberry

Vaccinium corymbosum


Alternate Names (for several highbush species)

Northern highbush blueberry, southeastern highbush blueberry, Maryland highbush blueberry, black highbush blueberry, American blueberry, New Jersey blueberry, rabbiteye blueberry, swamp blueberry, tall huckleberry, mayberry, whortleberry

Uses

Fruit production: V. corymbosum, highbush blueberry, a native North American shrub cultivated throughout the country, is the major blueberry-producing species in commerce. More than 50 cultivars have been developed, primarily for commercially valuable fruit characteristics and seasonality.

Landscaping: A few selections are used in landscaping, especially as plantings in wet areas or to attract wildlife.

Food: Highbush blueberries are eaten raw, smoke­dried, sun-dried, boiled, and baked in a wide variety of culinary settings. They have one of the highest concentrations of iron of the temperate fruits.

Wildlife: Blueberries provide important summer and early fall food for numerous species of game birds, songbirds, and mammals.

Description

Highbush blueberry is a native, upright, 6-12 feet tall, crown-forming shrub. The common name refers to the relatively tall stature of these plants. Twigs are yellow-green (reddish in winter) and covered with small wart-like dots. Leaves are deciduous, alternate, simple, elliptic or ovate, 1 to 3½ inches long and slightly waxy above with pubescence (hairs) at least on the veins beneath. The white or pink-tinged flowers are small and urn-shaped with 5 petals, and occur 8 to 10 per cluster. Flowering occurs February to June, sporadically in the southern portion of its range; fruiting occurs April to October, about 62 days after flowering. Fruits are ¼ - ½” blue-black berries with many seeds.

Adaptation and Distribution

Widespread in eastern North America, the highbush blueberry has been introduced outside of its natural range for commercial berry production. The most common native habitat is in moist or wet peat of moderate to high acidity – in and around marshes, swamps, lakes and flood-prone areas. V. corymbosum also occurs in drier areas such as dunes and barrier beaches, rocky hillsides, oak woods, and pinewoods.

Establishment

Highbush blueberry produces abundant fruit every year. Highbush blueberry (V. corymbosum) is self-fertile, but cross-pollination increases fruit set and results in larger, earlier berries with more seeds (Agriculture Western Australia 2000). Other species of the complex are partially or completely self-incompatible. Bees are the primary pollinators. The seeds may be widely dispersed by birds and mammals, but germination can be reduced up to 15% after passing through an animal gut. In the southern portion of its range, highbush blueberry seeds have thick seed coats and require cold stratification before germination. Those from northern regions produce thinner seed coats and germinate in the autumn after dispersal.

Plants of highbush blueberry can be propagated by seeds or cuttings.

Occasionally sprouting has occurred from root-crowns after top kill by fire or disturbance. Plants have also been noted to produce root sprouts that emerge 1-2 meters away from the parent plant.

Management

Ideal soil for cultivation is moist, high in organic matter, highly acidic (4.5-5.5), and well-drained. The plants grow in full sun to partial shade, but those in open sites produce more flowers and have brighter fall foliage color.

Pests and Potential Problems

Insects, diseases and wildlife pests need to be controlled in commercial production.

Cultivars, Improved, and Selected Materials (and area of origin)

Improved varieties for commercial berry production are readily available. Non-selected materials for conservation use are also available from nurseries.

Source:
USDA, NRCS, National Plant Data Center & the Biota of North America Program