The list he published is something I wish more of because it gives us interest groups much more choice compared to nursery sales people. Sam of Raintree, who was more than just a salesman, that as a journalist was one of the first of those that I grew accustomed to who listed everything in his catalog as what to look for, such as disease resistance. 

Here are a few things I think nobody ever lists that I think could. For example we know through our own personal experiences that pears have less instances of codling moth damage than apples. But the thing is, both pears and apples vary by cultivar in incidents of this pest, and it would be nice to see a list compiled into how each cultivar stacks up in these attributes. 

For example one of the things suggested to me once were that malus fusca had codling moth resistance, which isn't even true because having seen codling moth in wild fusca. As I further investigated this I was finding that pears and apples that have the seed core in the center of the fruit rather than closer to the end, the infections were almost absent. Pears are generally more protected in that regard as the travel distance from the end to the core of seeds is greater. 

However I think the strategy of having fruits with the core in the middle only works when surrounded by trees of the type that are easier for the codling moth to achieve more success with. I think this is true because at the Rombough tree observatory in Aurora Oregon that I have access to, the chinese quince trees have fruit as hard as wood, and yet I found a couple of fruits having had entry by codling moth. The seeds were also very hard coated, unlike soft pear or apple seeds, and had still been consumed. This happened there due to an insufficient amount of easy prey from the codling moth, so over time they evolved to chinese quince. 

The Rombough's did have several pear trees and the odd apple. but they were too far on the other end of the property to have halted this evolution that I am imagining.

Hopefully the topic of currently " missing publications from Ted Swensen " will yield some results for us. With enough knowledge from those with degrees, and especially like Ted in the PDX area, (even though he's gone now) we could rebuild (repopulate) the HOS main page again.

Kat,

I forgot to ask:

"I bought my first fruit tree from Raintree. It arrived wrapped up like a mummy in brown paper. No box. I still laugh when I think of the package. Tree was just fine, though."

May I ask just what year that was?  It musta been quite early on.

Reinettes.

John S.,

I'm still waiting for some insightful replies and input from our friends, '30 tacos' and 'Tentjest'.  ...I recently got an unexpected email -- out of the blue -- from "Your long-lost cousin" who, amazingly, told me that '30 tacos' had started a multi-billion dollar business that I should invest in....  But, still no word on 'Tentjest', other than a Wino, laying next to a sidewalk in downtown Portland, who told me that 'Tentjest' had given up on orcharding and was trying to push a new "cryptocurrency" to passers-by on street corners....

John:  A good harvest to you this year, my friend.  There are a lot of good people on this site.  Nice to have you keeping your eyes open to the ever present fraudulent sorts....

Appreciations,

Reinettes.

Rooney, Thanks for uncovering the links, I had been lamenting their loss.

BTW there are some twenty articles written by Ted housed there. Of course not all are the extensive researched list compilations ... none the less.

Grape articles, particularly instructive to the Pacific NW climates, by the late Lon Rombaugh.

Timeless Treasures.