Advice Re: Feeding and Pruning Amelanchier (Saskatoon)

[koonaone]

I have 5 1/2 juneberry bushes (Chakm here) in my yard.

Does anyone have tips on fertilization and pruning them.

I have already wacked the tops to about 15 feet and barbered them up but I have no experience. The deer browseline them to about 6 feet.

They are my only tree fruit, any suggestions of others for a place with deep cold winters on occasions, but decent growing season?

douglas

Hah! Peak oil? Try Peak water, and Peak Land at the same time. Overgrazed is more like it.
https://www.alternet.org/water/93170/?page=entire

[MaineDesigner]

Do you know what species of amelanchiers you are growing?
Please tell me more about your climate and maybe I can come up with some suggestions for other fruit trees or shrubs.

I'm a little concerned about your comment re: "...wacked the tops" as topping woody plants is rarely a good strategy. I'm aware that the commercial orcharding industry commonly makes drop crotch cuts on trees to control height but they are also usually viewing their trees as a disposable commodity with a maximum productive life of thirty years, sometimes much less. If you look at the late Dr. Alex Shigo's work you'll see that trees generally can't effectively compartmentalize cuts to the terminal leader.

Precision pruning is part of what I do for a living although my work is primarily with ornamental species I do some pruning of pears and apples, usually rehabilitative pruning of older, neglected trees. With fruit trees I try to strike a balance between productivity and aesthetics and long-term tree health.

[Solveig]

In my earlier garden I also had a Saskatoon, Amelanchier alnifolia, but I don´t know exactly what variety of Saskatoon it was. Anyway, it was an easy and nice plant with tasty berries. The only difficulty was to be quicker than the birds when the berries were ripe.

[koonaone]

Thanks for the replies.

MaineDesigner

Do you know what species of amelanchiers you are growing?

Likely they are Amelanchier cusikii, they are common natives (but see below)

Please tell me more about your climate and maybe I can come up with some suggestions for other fruit trees or shrubs.

Continental, warm dry summers, reasonably long growing season, cool winters. Pronounced rainshadow effect. Mean annual temp ~ 1.6 - 9.5 deg C. Average temp above 10 deg 3 to 5 months. Mean precip 300 - 750mm. Substantial growing season moisture deficits are common, and frost can occur at any time. Soils are gray luvisols on well drained loamy lakustrine deposits, derived from basalt parent material. Humus forms are mormodors.
There are a few older type apple trees and some sour cherries in favorable sites in the neighbourhood.

I'm a little concerned about your comment re: "...wacked the tops" as topping woody plants is rarely a good strategy.

Well the growing environment of the bushes changed as a result of the neighbour removing trees and consequent improved light availability. They were striving upwards between 3 foot diameter D fir trees so had a growth form up and not horizontal. A couple are also in the center of a vegetable garden so have to be managed for their own role in light deprivation. The topping was 2 years ago and doesn't seem to have reduced vigour.

Solveig

but I don´t know exactly what variety of Saskatoon it was. Anyway, it was an easy and nice plant with tasty berries

The science world is far behind the indians here in the classification of many useful plants. The natives identify 6 or 7 varieties of chakm based on taste, sugar content, how well they dry on the tree, whether they have big seeds or not and likely other features as well. A lot of folks think chakm is a second class fruit but I find if they are cooked and preserved they are as good as anything.
By the way, I keep my eye on events in Finland and it looks to me like you have one of the most sensible and user friendly govenments I have heard of. Maybe being stuck between russia and sweden has something to do with it. We are stuck between the usa and china, well and greenland too.
We have another shrub, Shepherdia canadensis, (Hooshum here) that while it is certainly an aquired taste, makes a syrup I love, and that sells for 20 dollars per mickey bottle among the old natives.

douglas

[Solveig]

We are stuck between the usa and china, well and greenland too. We have another shrub, Shepherdia canadensis, (Hooshum here) that while it is certainly an aquired taste, makes a syrup I love.

Interesting location! I googled Lac La Hache and the scenery there looks gorgeous! The conditions for cultivation seem quite similar like here, as we have Shepherdia canadesis too. We also have a relative to Shepherdia, Hippophaë rhamnoides (called tyrni in finnish).

[koonaone]

Yes Solveig BC is interesting and varied and is rich in scenery.

I suspect Finland is lacking in "rainshadow" effect, where the upwind mountains extract the incoming moisture and create dry landscapes in their lee? I could be quite wrong in thinking that. This is one of the things that create diversity here. And scenery.

Is there a tradition of boiling down shephardia juice as a tonic there, perhaps among the Somi? (sp) Here it is a rare white man (shamma) that has aquired this taste, I'm one of those rare ones.

Hippophaë rhamnoides apparently will grow here but I haven't seen it and it isn't native. Are the fruits edible?

What part of Finland do you live in?

douglas

[Solveig]

Well, I suppose you are right. We don't have much of mountains here, the landscape is relatively flat. I have to clarify that the Shepherdias actually aren´t native here, but some species are cultivated. I haven´t heard of any use of the berries though. However, the Hippophaë rhamnoides grows here naturally in the coastal regions and the berries are much appreciated, because they are known to be very beneficial for the health. The most common way to use the berries is like a juice; in the same way you seem to use Shepherdia.

I live in the south-western part of Finland, quite near the sea, and I have about seven Hippophaës in my garden. The berries usually ripen in late August and it is very time-consuming to collect them, as the berries sit tight and have to be picked one by one.