As an update, I have started all of the breeding projects and added a few additional ones, though I have cut back on the scope of all of them.
Project 1: Cornelian cherry - I planted Sunrise this past spring and think that I will be able to plant Alyosha this coming spring. From what I could find online, I think that Sunrise is Korralovy and will have 9.1% sugars and 1.5% acids. Contrastingly Alyosha will have 12% sugars and 1.5% acids. Alyosha is a yellow type and Sunrise likely will have an orangish or light red color. I plan to try to cross these two varieties and then will try to bud graft the seedlings back to the parent trees. Both are somewhat low acid varieties and Alysoha is a somewhat high sugar variety. I also wonder if the pigments might be interesting with new yellow or orange varieties being a possibly. My Sunrise has shown signs of leaf disease, so it remains to be seen if cornelian cherry will grow well in my location.
Project 2: Plums - I found old experiment station documents that I provided links to in a separate post Interesting Reading Material on Plums - General Fruit Growing - Growing Fruit. It is pretty clear in those old reports that both European and Japanese plums were much more susceptible to rot than the native plums to the point that many recommended only growing the native plums. I suspect that brown rot will still be present along with curculio pressure, but those old reports really raise the possibility that native genetics could allow for no spray options at the cost of fruit quality. I am curious enough to try it, so I have put in orders for two plum varieties that are likely around 50% native plum: Toka and Pamela. Toka is reported to be a cross between Prunus americana × Prunus simonii and Pamela is reported to be a seedling of Prunus americana found when a rootstock was allowed to fruit. Both have semi freestone to freestone traits which seems valuable for a processing plum and both are noted to have sweet flesh. There isn’t much on Pamela outside of the Fedco description and one comment from @ztom from 2019 in a wild plum thread Wild plums - small commercial - General Fruit Growing - Growing Fruit noting that it is a tasty variety. I also saw notes that Toka is resistant to black knot. As a wild card element, I also put in an order for Lavina because I saw on the forum that it has a unique taste, good resistance to black knot, good resistance to cracking, and low levels of rot Lavina Plum - General Fruit Growing - Growing Fruit. Lavina also seems to have genetics involving wild prunus cerasifera which might have useful survival genetics that contributed to the above characteristics. Lavina is advertised as being semi freestone but I did see a recent post suggesting it is cling so I’m not sure about what I will end up with (maybe there are sports being sold). My plan will be to use those three varieties as my starting trees and then I will try to source wild goose plum scion and either beach or dunbar scion. I will observe the bloom times of the three cultivars relative to the wild types. If they don’t overlap, I will need to try to collect the pollen of the cultivars and will attempt manual pollination (from what I can see Toka and Lavina might be earlier blooming than the wild type which would allow me to collect and refrigerate pollen until needed). The idea is that I will grow out seedlings of the wild plums hoping that they were open pollinated with the three cultivars which would result in an approximately 75% wild type plum that could have better resistance from the wild types. The other possibility is that the seedlings will be fully wild type if the pollination fails but that would still give potentially interesting seedlings. I will then graft those seedlings back to the three original trees. I also put in an order for the NY9 European plum because I read that it is a self-fertile fairly resistant prune type and figure I will be able to see rot and curculio pressure on that tree to gauge if success or failure was environment related (for example if the seedlings do well and the prune plum is devastated that would be a sign that the varieties have some resistance). I also plan to grow out St. Julien rootstock out of curiosity and see how that does overall because I wonder if a less selected for European plum can be grown with less care. If it fails due to pest and disease pressure, I can use it as a rootstock, so I think won’t be a huge waste of space.
Project 3: Goumi - This past spring I planted 2 Tillamook, 1 Sweet Scarlet, and 1 Red Gem. I also plan to plant Sunrise Ruby in the future and will see if I can graft other varieties. I haven’t tried goumi yet, so currently I will trial what I was able to source and figure out if breeding further makes sense.
Project 4: Citrus - I read about hardiness trials with citrus hybrids involving trifoliate orange and decided to give it a go. Last spring I acquired rootstock seed for African Shaddock x Rubidoux Trifoliate and X-639 (Cleopatra mandarin X trifoliate). I germinated the seeds indoors and ended up with at least 2,000 seedlings. I then planted those outside in early summer and have left them to fend for themselves. They are currently a bit overrun with weeds in some areas, but I am certain that at least 400 are still clearly alive. I will see if any make it through the winter as only zygotic seedlings should have enough hardiness to survive in my zone. Given how sloppily I implemented this project and the fact that citrus has a significant level of nucellar seedlings, my odds of success are rather low. This just was something I wanted to try given that I couldn’t start any of the other projects yet. The goal would be a cold hardy citrus that is in some way more useful than trifoliate orange (less bitter, larger, or more ornamental).
Project 5: Aronia - I read that aronia is low maintenance and has high levels of antioxidants. I have on order three seedling aronia and one raintree select aronia. I found a YouTube video of someone rating the taste of various cultivars Which Aronia to Grow: Comparison of Viking, McKenzie’, Autumn Magic, Raintree Select Aronia Bushes (youtube.com). In the video, raintree select ranked the best. My plan is to grow out the three seedlings and raintree select and then see how they compare. If a seedling is better, then it might be worth sharing with others.
Project 6: Apples - Last year I bought a number of apples for an apple tasting Apple Tasting Notes (bought from farm stand) - General Fruit Growing - Growing Fruit. I took all of the apple cores from the tasting and put in two pots with potting soil then covered the cores with a bit more soil. The plan was to see what would grow if I just left those two pots outside and didn’t provide any additional support. Currently, I have around 14 seedlings in the two pots. I have ordered M26 rootstock for next spring and will graft on the seedlings that have shown the most vigor/healthiest growth. My plan is to grow these in pots for a couple years to evaluate which ones have the healthiest looking growth and will then plant those in the ground to evaluate long-term. This will be a good way for me to get grafting experience and with apples there is such large genetic diversity that I might get something interesting. All of the seed parents were interesting apples.
I’m largely doing all of this because I find it exciting to explore the possibilities. I know that the numbers involved aren’t high enough to expect any real results but there is always the chance of getting lucky and it will be cool to see what happens.