Sugar maple guild?

S Bengi wrote:Below is what I have growing by my maple tree:
1) Blackberry
2) Raspberry
3) Elderberry
4) Hazelnut
5) Honeyberry
6) Cornelian Cherry
7) Juneberry
8) Goumi
9) Artic Kiwi[/i]
10) Dwarf Mullberry
11) Garden Violet
12) I also have things in the mint family, garlic family and celery family

Greg Martin wrote:I would add pawpaws to the list.

Marisa Lee wrote: From what I've read, pawpaws will grow in the southern third of Wisconsin, but I'm on the northern border / Lake Superior. I wonder if there is a variety that can hack it up here.

Greg Martin wrote:

Marisa Lee wrote: From what I've read, pawpaws will grow in the southern third of Wisconsin, but I'm on the northern border / Lake Superior. I wonder if there is a variety that can hack it up here.

Might be a struggle up there regarding rippening time.  If you try you'd want the shortest season varieties possible, and maybe full sun.  Here in southern Maine, on a zone 5 slope that extends my season, so far I've gotten ripe fruit off my NC-1 and Pennsylvania Golden, with the later ripening earlier.  Still waiting for other varieties to reach fruit bearing.  Does being near the lake extend your season significantly?  I usually pick mine in October.

R. Han wrote:I think the standart approach would be to go into your local (natural) forrest and see what grows alongside the most healthy maple trees.

I suppose some nitrogen-fixing trees should not hurt.

Marisa Lee wrote:

Greg Martin wrote:
From what I've read, pawpaws will grow in the southern third of Wisconsin, but I'm on the northern border / Lake Superior. I wonder if there is a variety that can hack it up here.

Good point.

You might get away with "Allegheny" or another cold-hardy variety. However, wind is also an issue with pawpaws, since they will drop their fruit in heavy wind. If you're near Lake Superior, I would only plant a pawpaw in a warm, sunny corner that is protected from wind. This may seem counter-intuitive but, while pawpaws should be started from seed in the shade, named varieties are grafted from branches and have already been exposed to the sun. They don't require shade at all and, in your situation, the more sun the better! You might get away planting it under a maple if the spot is sunny after the leaves fall, but you might be playing your edge a little too close. ;)

Good luck!

Marisa Lee wrote: I don't get how people are growing food under shade.

Marisa Lee wrote:I don't get how people are growing food under shade....

R. Han wrote:

Marisa Lee wrote: I don't get how people are growing food under shade.

Only few things will set fruit in shade, mostly its the leafes that are eaten then.
The Ribes genus is one of those rare plants that also sets fruits in some shade and i have not seen it in the above list.

Regarding the N-Fixers, i have read that most of them need full sun to fix nitrogen, this is why i would rather go with a n-fixing tree than a shrub.
Maples produce quite dense shade to give their seedlings an advantage over other plants.
(The maple trees "feed" their seedlings with exucades until they get enough sunlight)

Karl Treen wrote:

Marisa Lee wrote:I don't get how people are growing food under shade....

I hear that! It was really surprising to me when I began to investigate shade-tolerant foods a few years back. Where I am, in zone 6b, we actually have a good number of options for 3/4 shade or even full shade. Aside from the aforementioned pawpaws, we can also grow hosta (which are delicious as spring shoots and as unopened flower buds), Solomon's seal, several legumes, some cane fruit, and many, many greens. I might also include black birch, though it will struggle a bit in the shade and is only used as a flavoring. I am sure I could come up with others if I set my mind to it.

Here is just one of the shade gardens I have recently incorporated into my own yard including hostas, pawpaws, Solomon's seal, and daylilies under a dogwood tree. It is only about a year old and still needs to fill in a bit. I have, in the past, scattered lettuce seed under here, which does OK but isn't a big fan of the woodchip mulch in combination with the near total shade. I've also planted pole/runner beans, with a trellis to get them up to the branches. They like to climb into the tree for additional sunlight and eventually become quite impossible to harvest fresh. So, planting storage beans is a better option than green beans!