You are obviously doing it right for your area and birds. Here, white mulberries went untouched except by flies, tart cherries are never bothered by birds, sweet cherries juneberries and blueberries are wiped out. I posted a year ago because my blueberries started out normal and as they got closer to maturity they were the size of bbs. I discovered that was because they were being eaten well before ripe. The birds love the red mulberries but they also love everything else.
I tried the tulle netting this year but winds took it out in one day. I am going to try the American nettings but it is too late for this crop.
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Im sorry to hear that @txpanhandle1 it seems we all have those years of loss until we figure out what works. At times it makes you want to take up hunting with falcons .
Im wondering if this might be my issue, anyone have experience with this?
Brown Fruit Rot (Mummyberry)
Attacks berry which will turn brown and eventually mummify
Berries will remain on the stem and may or may not fall off in winter
Humid weather favours development@TheDerek
Very few of us grow juneberries and ive not seen diseases here. My juneberries are about the only ones i know of in my part of the state. I was told they grew here once and the weather killed them all.
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Hereās my couple contributions to the topic.
They get cedar apple rust pretty bad where there are cedar treesā¦(and I wonder if any cultivars are immune).
The world record sized tree is located in Daniel Boone National Forest, McCreary County, Kentuckyā¦ā¦.with a trunk 28" in diameter! (I have a neighbor who has one that is 14" in diameter and 73 feet tall).
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I followed your advice about cleaning them and then put them in with some damp potting soil. Every couple of weeks I checked, and sure enough in early November the first ones started to germinate. In mid-November I planted them in cheap potting soil and I got 100% germination, or very close to it. Easiest thing Iāve ever germinated from seed. I hope to get some fruit from them in 3 or 4 years and hope that itās as tasty as the mother tree.
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they have beautiful foliage and flowers as well. bees love them. they grow pretty quick in good sun.
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wow! thats huge! the ones we have here are maybe 10ft. max. what type of juneberry are they? ours are the eastern canadian juneberry.
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The biggest ones are Allegheny serviceberries (Amalanchier laveis) 15 to 45 feet, normally.
Apple serviceberries have the biggest fruit and fairly good sized trees ā¦ are a cross of downy serviceberry and the Allegheny.
(Princess Diana and Autumn Brilliance are examples of hybrids frequently used in landscaping in zones 4-8).
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very nice! ive got some that were germinating in water in my fridge so i planted them about a week ago. here is a pic from today. maybe we can have a competition of sorts, see whos get biggest before spring. these are Martin varietyā¦
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i planted a apple serviceberry i got as a 12in. freebie in a order i placed 2 yrs. ago. its now about 4ft. tall. how big do the berries get on apple serviceberry? how big is the tree before i get fruit?
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Apple service berry is a generic sort of name. The crosses are variable seedlings (but no where near the variableness of apples). But, Iāve seen many bear fruit with one inch caliper trunk and six feet tall. But, age is part of it, about 4 years old and you can start looking for swollen fruit buds that are bigger than leaf buds. Some 4 year olds may not be a foot tall, others may be 6 feet, they grow pretty slow, especially in woodland/native setting.
The fruit is larger than most other serviceberries, but still not as big as many of the selected blueberry varietiesā¦although bigger than many wild blueberries.
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I have Northline (Amelanchier alnifolia) and itās more a shrub. Produced fruit itās 2nd year at one foot tall. Slow growing has not grown much. Now 3rd leaf i expect about 20 berries. Itās still a little thing. Last year I added Honeywood. Itās in a different location. Would these produce more fruit of they had 2 trees together? Berries are the size of medium sized blueberries. Not large but not small either.
edit: read this on the honeyberriesusa site.
Pollination: Self-pollinating. Planting multiple varieties increases fruit set marginally but increases fruit seediness.
Disease: Susceptible to woolly elm aphid and fire blight. Usually more of a problem in orchard settings than in home gardens.
i have a wild one growing out from my row of spruces not 10ft. away from where i planted this one. they should cross pollinate each other. berries on the wild one are about med. blueberry size and pretty tasty. i like them slightly under ripe.
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I have yet to taste mine. Two years in a row the birds got them. They seem to love them. Nets are in short supply here, and I didnāt want to protect for a few berries. I will this year. Even though berry count will still be low. I want to try them!
I tried Northline onceā¦it ended up with mildewā¦and died from something or other in a year or two. Basically, amelanchier alnifolia, is a plant for N. Dakota and Saskatchawanā¦.(they donāt call them āSaskatoonsā for nothing). Still, itās fun to experiment, and I would do it again if I had the inclination. The Utah Service berry apparently tolerates alkaline soils?
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Yeah itās best to grow cultivars that work best. Northline looks to be doing fine here. It will be nice to add another berry to the harvest once mature. Berries are my favorite fruit.
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The LACK of bird interest in the berries around here is one reason Iām interested . They fall on the ground here, where they continue to be ignored. It must have something to do with which species of birds are here in Georgia compared to where you are. This is so unlike my blueberries, where they birds get all of them, which is thousands, most years.
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An item related to the birds eating fruitsā¦not only the bird numbers and types,
but the availability of berries in other yards and fields,
and also preferences.
(Mulberries often get the most attention, and blueberries and juneberries may be spared in some locations at least in some years.) Gooseberries and honeyberries to a somewhat lesser extent. (Iāve noticed mourning doves love Pixwell gooseberries in particular.)