2009 Mother/Father Tree Update

Brasstown Bald

On  July 9th, 2009 Joe Nicholson, in a little over 2 hours, finished the pollination of GAUN3 on the Brasstown Bald Mountain service road with the help of the Blueridge Mountain EMC bucket truck driven by Dillard.  The pollination was identical to 2007  - pre-bag June 26 and pollination on July 9.  We had 77 pre-bag, less 7 control, and less 21 aborted flowers by pollination time, so we pollinated 49 bags (more than 65 burs since some bags had two and three female flowers per bag). Of the 49 bags, two were pollinated with Emory Chinese pollen, two were pollinated with pure American pollen (GAMU2) and the other 45 bags were pollinated with BG37 pollen from Meadowview.Brasstown Bald '09 Pollination

Springer Mountain

At Springer Mountain area, the Fowler tree is still alive and in the process of generating a few catkins, all male as far as could be seen. Three other of Marty Cipollini's trees along the Springer Mountain parking lot road were still alive and generating male catkins. These trees, at about 3000', should be ready about 7 to 10 days earlier than those at 4300'.

Layfaette

Matt Summerlin and Reid Poppel report the Meyer trees have been pre-bagged and pollinated.

Oat Mountain, Harris County

Pollen was collected from the Oak Mountain tree. Randy Callaway has located a tree on his property West of Callaway Gardens which he believes is pure American.

Meadowview Father Trees

Paul Sisco select mother trees at Meadoview and Alabama and Georgia teamed to get the pre-bagging and eventual pollination done in early July.  the team from GA consisted of Ronnie Camp and Joe Nicholson with Berry interns Matt Summerlin and Reid Poppel.  Meadowview-09

Help, Help, Help

Now, the really big question: Who can volunteer to assist in this work for the fall harvest?

Please send me e-mail or call Ronnie Camp (770.476.5382) so he can compile a list of who can work on what days in what part of the State. Please include your telephone number. We will do our best to schedule the work on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays, and Mondays where possible. Now is the time to line up volunteers for October!