Hardy fruit tree recommendations

Nothing earth shattering here, just a short article on fruit tree varieties for the far north. I kind of feel like I'm a cold-climate kind of guy, but in reality the places I've lived for the last seven years probably haven't had a month worth of frosts between them in that time. Which might explain why I don't know a thing about some of these varieties.

Hardy Fruit Trees (Star Tribune)

Blogged with the Flock Browser

A short blurb on Dennis Werner...

This isn't an incredibly in depth article, but I'm always pleased to be supportive on those rare moments wwhen the mainstream press recognizes the work of fruit breeders. My exposure to Werner has been more in his role as an ornamental breeder, but there's no question that he's made considerable contributions to peach breeding as well, and he seems like a genuinely nice guy.

Professor's Work Is Just Peachy (News & Observer, Raleigh)

New Peach from Italy, 'Ghiaccio'

I have to confess that I don't keep quite as up on what's hot and new in the Prunus world, so this may have been out a little while, but I noticed a link to this article on a new peach cultivar, 'Ghiaccio', and I was absolutely struck. That's just about the whitest peach I've ever seen. I have no idea how the thing tastes, but that's a pretty cool-looking peach. (They also mention a flat nectarine in the article, which I've never seen before, although I suppose it'd be easy enough to breed, as both flatness and nectarine-ness (?) are single gene traits). Any one know when we can expect to see this in the U.S.?

I also think it's interesting and a bit odd that this is really three cultivars, Ghiaccio-1, Ghiaccio-2, and Ghiaccio-3. What's the story behind that? It's hard to tell from the article. They appear to be differentiating by ripening time, and it's a major difference--over a month between #1 and #3! Are these clonal variations, or did they just choose three very similar siblings and release them under the same name (I suspect this is the case)? If it really is a matter of clonal variation, a mutation that results in a month's difference in ripening date may have interesting breeding implications down the road sometime!

Anyway, I don't have any thing official, but I'll put 'Ghiaccio' over in the new cultivars list on the side. At some point I'll have to start taking things off, before it takes over the whole sidebar...

Private Peach Breeding Programs

Most fruit breeding is a costly, time-consuming endeavor, and as such has mostly been the realm of either government researchers or hobbyists working on a small scale. That's why I was surprised to note (in discussions on the NAFEX mailing list), that there are at least two signficant private peach breeding programs in this country, Paul Friday's Flamin' Fury Peaches, and Fruit Acre Farms Stellar Series of peaches. Both are located in Michigan, and both seem to have gotten good reviews from growers and researchers. As strongly as I feel that governments ought to be supporting fruit breeding, the reality is that funding for such things continues to dwindle, and programs like these will be needed to pick up the slack. I hope breeding continues to be a profitable and rewarding enterprise for them both.

Anyway, I'd heard of both series before, but I guess I'd never thought about where they came from. I'm curious to know if there's some connection between them...there's clearly a rivalry there, and if you read a bit you'll notice that the Fruit Acres' breeder, Annette Bjorge, says her father, who started the program, was named James Friday. Seems like a big coincidence, but maybe there are just lots of Fridays running around growing peaches in Michigan?

I'll be back home and back to work tomorrow, and hopefully I can arrange for some interesting posts inspired by the new books. I've been enjoying my new copy of Janick and Moore's Advances in Fruit Breeding while watching TV tonight.

Update: I was sufficiently excited to learn about two private peach breeders I didn't know about that I forgot a couple I did:

Zaiger Genetics. Actually, they do a whole lot more than just peaches. I find all the goofy names they give their various interspecific hybrids a little obnoxious, but it's hard to deny that they've been productive, and that some of the results are pretty good (though to be honest I've only tasted a handful of their many, many releases).

Sun World, who both breed and produce a range of fruit crops, also has developed some peaches. I tend to think of them more in terms of grape breeding, particularly the 'Sugraone' (aka 'Superior Seedless') grape.