JUNEBERRIES

[NorthernWinos]

AKA...Service Berries, Saskatoon's, Shadbush....etc...depending on where you live....they are much like a Blueberry.


I grew up in Western Canada, we called them Saskatoon's and they made great pies...


So I planted a bush a few years ago......Every year the Juneberry bush flowers and sets loads of fruit...

The berries always get an orange fungus on them about the time they get ripe....This year I am planning on spraying the bush with a fungicide and hope to get a little bit of fruit...maybe a pie or a gallon of wine.


I have planted 4 little bushes and have great hopes of someday figuring out the fungus problem and making a nice batch of wine.


Anyone ever made wine with these berries????

 

[Wade E]

Never even heard of them NW but I hope you succeed in getting some good ones this year.

 

[Harry]

Hey Northern Wino where did you get that boot tree jus to the right of your juneberry bush, The boot tree might grow good here in Texas

 

[grapeman]

I don't know where she got it, but there must be a lot of dead cowboys around there. Maybe that is why everything grows so well there- .....oooops, did Itype that outloud?

 

[jobe05]

I have never heard of them much less ever made wine from them. I'm so jealous of you NW, and appleman for that matter. You guys have so much land to plant the things you want and enjoy them. I have 15 Aspagus roots coming this weekend and have to give 5 of them away due to lack of space.......... And I still don't know where I'm going to put the other 10........... And I'm not asking my wife..... I don't like where she told me I could put them

 

[Wade E]

Very funny Jobe! I have only .475 of an acre so I know how you feel there Jobe.


Edited by: wade

 

[NorthernWinos]

Some ranch's have old boots on fence posts lining their driveways...looks kind of neat....so we put our old ones on the posts of the raspberry row...it is along our driveway.


Last year a Wren had a nest in one of the boots.


I don't wear cowboy boots anymore....quit riding horses a few years ago...too many days in the hospital from two horse accidents....and 6 months in a wheelchair....We still have 2 horses [my husband had to keep 2 that were well trained]....they are our 'riding' lawn mowers for the machinery yard and they keep the pasture neatly trimmed....Edited by: Northern Winos

 

[Dean]

I've made lots of wine (50+ gallons) from saskatoons with my parents. It used to be a staple table wine around here. Makes great pies. One thing I found out about them is that they are actually related to the apple family! I love saskatoon jam, and saskatoon pie!

 

[NorthernWinos]

I remember Saskatoon pie as a kid...if my memory serves me right it was much like Blueberry pie....


Now if I can get these bushes to produce some nice clean berries might get a pie and some wine.


I had thought the fruit was funky because my bush didn't have a mate and hadn't pollinated right...now it has some young blooming buddies.


Maybe the straw mulch is harboring the fungus that grows on the fruit...? I have read that it might come from a disease on Junipers....we have wild Junipers around here and so far haven't had any diseases on our apples from the Junipers....


Hope that by spraying I'll get a few berries....also thatthere are some healthy bees aroundto pollinateall these fruit trees blooming out there.


For anyone interested...here is what the fruit looks like...

 

[kutya]

Around here they make Juneberry Soup. Sounds bad, but it's really good. It's pretty thick....

 

[NorthernWinos]

Sounds like that would be good on ice cream.

 

[kutya]

Never had it on ice cream, but it does sound good. jh

 

[Cracked Cork]

http://www.ext.nodak.edu/extnews/hortiscope/shrub/junebrry.htm

NW, We have planted a few too to see what the fruit would do here in WV, unfourtunately I have them interplanted with cedars, following your information about them being related to apples and your orange rust I think I am going to be SOL too having them interplanted with cedars. We havent had any fruit yet but cedar trees are like weeds around here. There are some apple trees suppposed to be resistant to cedar apple rust, some of our apples get it bad and some dont seem to be bothered much. Crackedcork

 

[NorthernWinos]

Thanks for the information....


We have wild Junipers growing around here...we have removed almost all of them as they were out in a pasture, however our neighbors pasture is covered with them


I did some reading on Cedar-Rust disease and see that

hawthorn is also a host to this disease, we have a plant we call Thorn Apple, that is everywhere...so that could be the culprit to the fungus that grows on our berries....The fungus looks like what is on this plant...kind of fuzzy.


I think that I am going to remove the mulch from under the big bush and spray with a fungiscide...by reading some information a rose fungicide is listed, maybe grape fungicide might work too.





Here is some info on Cedar-Rust...
http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/3000/3055.html


Disease resistant apples...looks like most of the ones we have planted are less likely to be infected.
http://www.extension.umn.edu/projects/yardandgarden/ygbriefs/p222cedarapple.html


Interesting reading here...
http://www.gardenline.usask.ca/fruit/rust.html


http://www.gardenline.usask.ca/trees/Saskatoon-JuniperRust.html


I have native Juneberry plants that came from the county nursery to be planted for wildlife...I see that catalogs are offering hybreds...wonder if they are more disease resisitant....I imagine you bought from a nursery, so maybe yours will not be disease suseptable...Good luck and keep us Posted on how they do.


Love your Elderberry WebSite....

Edited by: Northern Winos

 

[NorthernWinos]

Well...first thing this morning...after reading about Juniper-rust I went out and cleaned up underneath my biggest bush..... guess like grapes that are susceptible to fungus...sanitation is important. I sprayed with a fungicide and see a few little black fungus knots on branches, will go and cut those off.


Maybe this year that nice crop of berries will not go to waste.

 

[NorthernWinos]

Juneberries appear to have pollinated well, lots of little fruits...now if I succeed with a spray program will get some fruit for a gallon or two....