Juneberries and Cedar-Apple Rust

Wiese Acres Juneberries

Juneberries are a prized fruit in North Dakota, made more precious by the fact that is one of the few lusciously sweet, North Dakota native fruits that can be enjoyed straight off the shrub, with no extra sugar or special processing.  They are delicious just as they are, but are even better with a little cream and sugar; or made into pies,  kuchens or other wonderful desserts; jams and jellies, or even dried.  Berries can be frozen or canned for use throughout the year.

In addition to tasting great, juneberries are a nutritionally excellent food.  They are high in fiber and in anti-oxidants, as well riboflavin and biotin.   They are an excellent source of manganese, as well, providing 70% the daily minimum requirement in just one half cup serving.

Scientifically known as Amelanchier alnifolia,  juneberries are commonly known by many names.  Our neighbors to the north call them "saskatoons" and thought so highly of these delicious berries that they named the city of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan after them (or so they claim).  They are also known as serviceberries, shadbush berries, and pigeon berries.  They grow in most of Canada and western and north central United States.

Juneberries grow on a shrub or small tree, sometimes reaching as much as 20 to 25 feet tall in the wild.  The shrub suckers freely, so if planting it in a domestic setting, it needs to be given plenty of  room to spread.  In early spring, the entire shrub bursts into a mass of creamy white blossoms, and here in North Dakota, we hold our breath, hoping for no late frosts to nip the buds and prevent fruit set.

Once the fruits are set, it requires vigilant watching to protect the ripening berries from birds, who know all about the taste and nutritional benefits of eating juneberries.    As soon as those fruits are set, the robins, cedar waxwings and orioles begin to watch them carefully.  When the berries begin to turn the least bit pink, they send out the word "dessert buffet in the juneberry patch" and fruit eating birds from miles around come and clean those bushes slick as a whistle in one afternoon.

 Now, I wouldn't begrudge them a berry or two, but they are just plain hogs!  They don't want to leave a single berry for me to enjoy.  And then, they leave the evidence of their gluttony all over my outdoor furniture, the concrete driveway, the rocks around the pond - anywhere they pass by.  And that bright purple juneberry dye is some potent stuff to try and wash away!

 So, I try to outsmart them each year but putting bird nets around the bushes.  Similar to keeping birds out of the strawberry beds, you need to weave an ingenious and intricate webbing of net to keep them from pecking their way through, or from finding their way under it.  We place multiple layers of netting in different directions and tack them solidly to the ground using landscape staples.  This is usually pretty effective, but every once in a while a persistent little  bugger finds its way through, gorges itself, then goes crazy trying to find its way back out.  They are smart enough to get in, but never remember where they found that opening so they can get back out.  Luckily for them, my husband takes pity on them and loosens the net to let them out.

We leave the nets on until the majority of the berries are ripe enough to pick.  Once we remove the nets, all the berries we want need to be picked, because if we leave for an hour, the birds move in  and clean up the rest.

In spite of being called "june" berries, they rarely ever ripen in June here.  Generally, I expect to be picking juneberries right around the 4th of July.  This year, it was a two and a half weeks
later before they were ready to pick.

I was disappointed to find that the cool, wet springs we've had the last two years have had some negative effects on my juneberry bushes.  Juneberries are members of the same family as apples and are vulnerable to the same diseases.  This year, there was evidence of cedar-apple rust on my juneberries.  Cedar-apple rust is a Gymnosporangium  fungal disease that manifests itself on juneberries with "furry" growths on the berries, beginning at the blossom end and eventually consuming the entire berry, making it unfit for eating.

Cedar-apple rust begins on the trees of the cedar family and is evidenced by galls,  round, bumpy swelling on the stems, which develop over the course of two growing seasons.  The fungus is not spread until the gall develops "telial horns", long, orange,  jelly- like tendrils that emerge from the indents of the gall.  The spores only spread when the temperature is between about 50 and 85 degrees  farenheit.  Cedar-apple rust infection doesn't particularly harm the tree but spreads readily to plants in the apple family and interferes with production of the fruits.  It can be spread from trees up to a mile away, so while there is no evidence of galls on my juniper and cedar trees, it could be coming from trees anywhere within a mile or so from Wiese Acres.

If I find any galls on my trees in the future, I'll plan to prune them out in the late winter.  The key is to prune them out and destroy them before those telial horns develop, as the horns are where the spores are released.  The problem is that even if I prune the galls out of my trees, if the trees within that mile or so radius aren't also trimmed, I could still develop infections in my juneberries and apples.

So, I'll begin a fungicide spraying regime that I will continue every two weeks from now until the shrubs are dormant.    Then I'll begin it again in the spring, starting at blossom time and continue it  every two weeks .  Some of the fungicides effective against cedar-apple rust are chlorothalonil, mancozeb, triadimefon, propiconazole and myclobutanil.  Captan, which is an often recommended fungicide for use on edibles, is not effective against cedar-apple rust.  Based on the research I've reviewed, it appears that myclobutanil, marketed as Immunox, might be my best bet.

 So, one of these evenings, I'll don my protective spraying clothing, get my fungicide sprayer loaded up and douse those shrubs to the point of run-off.  With all fungicides, it's critical to get complete coverage of all the foliage and bark to eradicate the infection.  That won't be too much of a challenge on my juneberry bushes, which are only about 6 feet tall, but when I'm done with that, I'll need to inspect my apple trees for the tell-tale yellow spots on the top surface of the leaves.  And if they show up, I might need to call in a professional to reach the tops of the 25 to 30 foot tall trees.

That might have been a good reason to plant only dwarf varieties....but in the meantime, I'm going to enjoy eating those juneberries.