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Post by philip on Jul 27, 2014 7:31:04 GMT -5
I am interested in working with the true service tree. A little-known member of the rose family these beautiful trees are slowly disappearing from our countryside. They can get 600 years old and bear edible fruit. If bletted they taste good.I think it is the biggest plant in the rose family. The timber from this slow-growing tree is among the most expensive of all european trees. There are big differences in fruit size,shape and taste. I have searched for trees in brittany and found several. The goal is to breed new types with bigger and tastier fruit. Unable to propagate itself naturally this tree depends on human help for its survival Attachments:
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Post by papabearjay on Jul 27, 2014 11:37:14 GMT -5
Philip, where are you? If you are in the U.S. I can send you some Sorbus sp. seed to work with. Would you be interested?
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Post by nicolas on Jul 27, 2014 11:40:37 GMT -5
That is *big* seeds
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Post by papabearjay on Jul 27, 2014 12:12:22 GMT -5
Nicolas, I believe those are actually the dried fruits. The seeds are actually crescent-shaped and much smaller, or at least those that I have seen. A google image search would help here. |
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Post by philip on Jul 27, 2014 12:21:06 GMT -5
I am not in the U.S. I live in brittany, france. The picture shows true service tree fruit from two different trees the largest next to the two euro coin measuring at 42mm diameter. From what i have read sorbus domestica doesn't hybridize with other sorbus species. Unfortunately breeding for bigger fruit truly is a long_term project since a tree grown from seed can take 20 years before it makes any fruit.  |
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Post by papabearjay on Jul 27, 2014 12:32:52 GMT -5
Best of luck, let us know how we might be able to help you.
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Post by philip on Jul 27, 2014 15:11:17 GMT -5
I grew young service trees from seed this year. The fruit needs to be soft. You take the seeds out and remove their protective "shell" Then you stratify them for 100 days in moist sand in a fridge at 2-4 degrees celsius and they germinate easily. The young seedlings should then be grown in jiffypots that are then, when the roots start to grow through, planted into bigger pots. This causes the roots to develop differently and increases the success when the trees are planted out. In nature these trees almost never manage to reproduce by seed and if they do faster growing trees smother them or they are eaten by deer. The fruit in the picture is a brown apple-shaped type that is quite rare, usually the fruit is pear-shaped. A study of the fruit done in hungary found twice the amount of minerals and vitamins than apples or pears. I tried fruit from several different trees and some were better tasting than others. Once the bitter chemicals fade away through bletting the fruits have a sugar content between 30-40%(glucose,fructose,saccharose and sorbit together), compared to 17% for the sweetest apple (Karmijn de Sonnaville)
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Post by nicolas on Jul 28, 2014 1:19:12 GMT -5
Oops, i wanted to say *fruits*
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Post by MikeH on Jul 28, 2014 4:46:52 GMT -5
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Post by nicolas on Jul 28, 2014 5:16:14 GMT -5
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Post by MikeH on Jul 28, 2014 14:45:43 GMT -5
Did the seeds germinated ? Got one to germinate.  Also one of the Pyrus seeds you sent.  |
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Post by nicolas on Jul 29, 2014 7:05:36 GMT -5
Great ! But i dont remember sending seeds of pyrus, but instead of a small wild prunus whose taste as reminiscence of mango
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Post by papabearjay on Jul 29, 2014 9:21:40 GMT -5
Did the seeds germinated ? Got one to germinate. Also one of the Pyrus seeds you sent. That does look like Prunus and not Pyrus. Pyrus tends to have more obvate leaf morphology and tends to be smaller in size. |
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Post by MikeH on Jul 29, 2014 13:18:02 GMT -5
Great ! But i dont remember sending seeds of pyrus, but instead of a small wild prunus whose taste as reminiscence of mango You didn't. I looked at the tag again and it says prunus. It's a good thing that everything I grow is tagged although the leaves would make this a very strange pyrus. LOL Yes, I remember you saying that the taste reminds one of mango. The seedling has done well so perhaps it will yield fruit in a few years. Thank you for the seeds of both plants. |
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Post by philip on Oct 19, 2014 17:50:14 GMT -5
 I collected some more true service tree fruit for seed from my favourite local tree this weekend. They taste nice, a bit pear-like, creamy and sweet. If eaten unripe however they are disgusting. From what i understand this fruit was already consumed in ancient times before there was bred apple trees. In Germany around Frankfurt the juice of tst fruit is added to cider to ameliorate it's taste and keeping qualities. In France the gears and parts of the old cornmills were made of service tree timber it being one of, if not the hardest of all native types of timber along with boxwood. It is the biggest plant in the rose family and can live up to 600 years. Want to plant one? It could without worries be grown outside of europe because it is the opposite of invasive. Left to their one devices these trees would probably die out. A forgotten interesting tree. Very researched by woodworkers timber for wood veneering is sold for over 6000 Euro per cubic meter. Don't think about planting them for that though cause you ll be dead before they reach that size. In order to germinate the seeds they need to be stratified for 100 days in slightly moist sand at 2-4 degrees Celsius (fridge) They can be sowed in jiffy pots which influences their root development positively so a higher percentage of young trees planted out will succeed There are many different types of fruit mostly either pear shaped or apple shaped. They can be yellow, red-green or brown like these ones. These fruit average 35 mm in diameter which is quite large. Hardly visible there is a 2 Euro coin in the middle of the picture that is 26 mm in diameter. |
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