Fruit Trees (and shrubs) for Cold Climates:

New Cold Hardy Fruit Cultivars

The University of Saskatchewan has been doing a great job in introducing hardy fruit for the prairies.

Two areas where this is of particular benefit to us (in zone 5 in the city and 4b in the country) are the

hardy cherries and the haskaps (or honeyberries). The only downside to the new hardy cherries is that

they call them "sour" cherries. Every one of them has a sweet taste but they are derived from hardy

"sour" stock.

Carmine Jewel is a great producer and grows as a 6' tall shrub. The Romance series (Juliet, Romeo,

Crimson Passion, Valentine and Cupid) all grow as tree forms and each has unique characteristics (taste,

size, storage, harvest times) that make it worthwhile to sell (and own).

Haskap or Honeyberry is a type of Honeysuckle that is found in northern regions all around the world.

This is an easy to grow (ph 5-8, most soils, no pests), nutrient rich (anti-oxidants, vitamin c and more),

great tasting small fruit. It blooms early (flowers hardy to -7C) and fruits around strawberry time or

earlier. Most of the new cultivars are crosses between Russian, Japanese (where it is revered) and wild

Canadian varieties.

In the honourable mention categories are several plants tested at (and some developed by) the

University of Saskatchewan including the chums (cherry/plums) Opata, New Oka and Sapa and the

plums Pembina, Brookgold and Brookred. All very hardy for our area and good producers. Other plants

worth noting are the newer Currants that will not transmit Pine Blister Rust, new blueberry cultivars that

can handle higher ph, Pink Lemonade Blueberries (pink fruit), Crimson Cranberry-amazing producer in

drier conditions and a raft of newer hardy grapes.

The University of Minnesota (Minnesota Landscape Arboretum has been responsible for the

introduction of several hardy grape varieties and the beginnings of a wine producing (6 vineyards and

200 growers so far) industry in Minnesota (a climate very similar to our own).

Other hardy fruit trees of note include Scout Apricot (late flowering so not as likely to lose your crop to

frost and beautiful fall colour); several pears including Flemish Beauty, John, Phillip, Ure and Luscious;

many varieties of plums such as Stanley, Mont Royal, Italian and the afore mentioned Brook Red and

Brook Gold; many hardy sour cherries including Montmorency, Meteor and Northstar; several hundred

types of Apples (we carry 30 varieties that work in zone 4).

For peach lovers Reliant Peach is zone 5 hardy and should work in a sheltered location in zone 4b. We

are currently testing Casino Apricot (reportedly hardy to zone 3) and should have more information in a

couple years.

www.fruit.usask.ca

www.makeitgreen.ca

Planting Fruit Trees:

^the snow has melted). If the hole doesrt dra ̂ f „ „ "̂ 'Wa" * 'Mst 2 Weeks after

rootb nfe h°le 7 deePer than the tree " the P0t and d°n/t add an* «>.-» over the top of the

V°U "e " ' 3 bare'r°0t ̂ then make SUre that the ̂ ft « at *»* * '"eh abovero nd w a e ̂ « at *»* * '"eh aboveground We recommend adding mycorriza, fungi when you plant. As you refi,, your ho,e you should

press the so.l down gently but firmly with your foot. Pretend you are checking to see if you broke your

ankle and you should have the right amount of pressure. Water well (a pencil thin stream for 45min toIhr should do.

Selecting Fruit Trees:

When buying fruit trees there are several easy things to check to make sure you have a happy tree.

Make sure that the graft is above ground and that it has been cleanly pruned. Ideally, there should be no

oozing of sap. Amber coloured sap can be an indication of especially severe problems. Occasionally on ahot day in spring or early summer or if a recent pruning has been done then you might see a bit of sap.

Then you have to decide if you fully trust the place where you are buying from. Recent sap is clear and

older sap is black - AMBER SAP IS BAD. Check the tree for sunken areas, poorly pruned off branches

(stubs), cracked bark and ingrown ties. You should never buy a tree with sunken areas (canker) - its very

hard to get rid of. Cracked bark is usually an indication of canker underneath. If the store allows you to

do so you should spray the trunk with water (even though the tree looks good) and see if any areas are

discoloured - an early indication of canker. Poor pruning can be a conduit to disease but you can

probably fix up the pruning cuts unless they are old (most fruit trees sold are only 2 or 3 years old).

There is still a somewhat increased risk that you will have problems down the road. Ingrown ties on

branches that you are going to remove anyway don't matter. Ingrown ties in the trunk might be walled

off and "absorbed" by the tree or they might cause you grief down the road when disease enters and

the weakened area causes your tree to fall over in a windstorm (poor pruning cuts can do the same

thing).

Pruning Fruit Trees:

There are a lot of different ways to shape a fruit tree to increase yield. If you don't care about yield then

just treat it like any other tree and prune out limbs which are touching other limbs and limb-up the tree

if desired Your yield will not be optimized but you will likely get more fruit than you can handle anyway.

If you want to optimize fruit production then the most common method is to prune out all branches

except (3 or) 4 major branches which are roughly spaced equally around the tree. You must make sure

the leader is cut off. The result of this "butchering" is that you will force the tree to grow equally

amongst the four branches and stress it enough to make it worried about life and it will be encouraged

to reproduce more. At Make It Green we are currently experimenting with staking the four branches to

put a curve in them and force them straight up. This method has been around a long time and gives the

tree just a little more stress and therefore greater production as well as confining the space it can grow

in - much higher yields per square foot of land. We are also trying another old technique of curving thetree trunk into an S shape which is supposed to give even higher yields (pictures will appear on the

website as the experiment progresses). PLEASE DISINFECT YOUR PRUNERS! Rubbing alcohol takes 20

seconds to kill bacteria and fungi on your pruning tool and stops the spread of disease.

After Care:

Fruit trees don't like a lot of water. Once established they rarely require a drink (last summer they wouldhave liked 3 or 4 maximum over the course of the drought; we didn't water any of ours with no ill

effects). While they are getting established a 45 minute watering from a pencil thin hose stream once

every week to 10 days will suffice if it hasn't rained (if you have sandy soil you will need to water more

often). Test the soil dryness by sticking your hand down into the soil near the edge of the planting hole if

you are unsure. Cherries and plums get especially grumpy if overwatered. Many plums and related

plants (such as choke cherries) get blackknot when stressed by too much water (or infected by poorpruning practices) as the spores are airborne and looking for a home.

If you are planting your trees in shallow soil (<3') or if the area has been used as a farm for an extended

period of time then you may need to fertilize them after they have been in the ground 2 years (no

synthetics please - especially spikes). Most trees require little fertilizer and fruit trees are no exception.With mycorrhiza added the tree will go looking for nutrient and do a better job with what it finds. A

yearly addition of kelp meal will give the tree most micronutrients that it may be lacking and improve

the taste of the fruit at the same time that it helps ensure the tree's immune system is working well.

Organic methods exist to deal with all of the potential pest problems your fruit could have to endure.

Cherries, pears, apricots and plums are much less prone to fruit issues than apples.

Mycorrhiza fungi are not new - they are at least 450 million years old and appear to have evolved at thesame time that plants started to colonize the earth. These root-attaching fungi form a special

relationship with 90% of all plant species by attaching themselves to their root systems and bringing in

nutrients and moisture in exchange for carbohydrates produced by the plant. They can form very large

structures that extend a plant's effective root system up to several times the actual root system

diameter produced by the plant alone. Some types are very good at colonizing multiple plants or

cooperating with other Mycorrhiza colonies to form large areas of shared nutrient and moistureresources.

The two main types are Endomycorrhiza and Ectomycorrhiza.

Endo penetrate cell walls and attach themselves directly to the cell membranes anywhere along the root

allowing for a fast exchange of nutrient. They will go far afield gathering nutrient and moisture.

Ecto cover the root tips only and tend to form smaller colonies. They tend to break down and make

available nutrient found in forms that plants can't consume and can be found in soil and leaf litter. Some

fix nitrogen from the air and others lure insects and kill them for nutrients.

There are tens of thousands of types Mycorrhiza and only a few hundred have been studied.

Unfortunately for us urban gardeners (and rural farmers for that matter) cultivation, construction,

synthetic fertilizer and chemicals have drastically reduced or destroyed their populations.

We do sell a product called Myke which you can use at planting time (ideal) or even on an established

plant which will colonize your plant and help it live the way nature intended. When you use Myke you

get a five year warranty on your tree or shrub. We have been selling Myke for 11 years at Make It Green

and in the first 7 years we had one warranty claim (we sold enough Myke to plant 12000 average sized

trees).

www.usemyke.com

Make It Green is located at 5200 Flewellyn Rd (at Eagleson), Stittsville. 613 599 3419