Do any of you grow Haskaps, which are also known as Honeyberries?

They are a blue, roughly cylinder shaped berry, native to the cold parts of Russia and China. They are supposed to taste somewhere between a blueberry and a raspberry, with some of the domestic varieties having superior flavor to both. The wild types can take temperatures down to -55F. The larger, domestic varieties can take down to -45F. You need two or more varieties, that bloom at the same time, to produce a high berry yield. Haskaps do not need acidic soil like blueberries.

I just traded 6 of my Remembrance elderberry clones and an Amorphophallus konjac for 43 Blizzard and 41 Beauty Haskap bushes. I am going to order some more varieties.

Remembrance

Blizzard

Beauty


I'm potting the Haskaps plugs in 1 gallon pots and hope to plant them in an orchard this Fall. The plugs are very easy to to re-pot. Hopefully they do well.

Keith

The ones I had were a little tart. Very good in pancakes.

Do you know what varieties of Haskaps you had? The first introductions to the US and Canada were supposed to be more tart than the new varieties. They apparently turn blue a couple of weeks before they are fully ripe. The ripe Haskaps easily shake off the bushes.

There's some new varieties of Haskaps being released that should be able to handle shipping fresh to grocery stores. Currently, the ripe Haskaps are mostly frozen immediately after harvest.

Keith

We are going to get our first serious crop from the dozen assrtd varieties we planted. They seem very prolific and hardy. Flavor/sweetness varies with variety that are improving as fast as they can create them. They need little care.

How old are your Haskaps bushes?

What are your favorite varieties for taste?

Keith

I don't. They were frozen before I got them. Someone from work gave them to me.

Borealis and Tundra are two of our better, Aurora is also good but smaller. Our Yezberry Maxie is fruiting its first crop(largest Berry). Like many suits flavor varies year to year it seems especially depending on amount of rain. Planted two bushes a year for a few years now and each year a new "better" hybrid was available. They are still advancing leaps every year in quality as their popularity grows. Like them fresh from bush and will freeze them to add to mix with apple sauce and pear sauce we make come fall. They are also very good in bake stuff.

Were yours started from seeds, or cuttings?

I just checked quick with some online nurseries and prices seemed high for even 1 year plants....

My Haskaps are clones started from a tissue culture. You can make literal millions of clones from tiny amounts of plant tissue that way.

You can pay relatively small amounts of money per clone of any plant you want to have cloned, when buying large numbers of clones. I first learned about it from Beaverpeeler, Carl. I've learned a lot from him.

Thanks Carl.

Keith

Thanks. I am planning on getting those three too.

Keith

Except for the Yazberries that came from a school plant sale. All our honey berries came from end of season clearance box store nurseries(1 gal pots) - 50-75% off whatever variety they had left. Each year they had different varieties. Interestingly I didn't see many even at beginning of season at those stores this year. Don't know why.

I just noticed your hardiness temps and I don't know if you forgot the the minus sign because ours have survived many -30 F nights here over their three to four years so far with only on loss out a couple dozen plant (which was a very poor looking end of season plant when planted and not watered well going into winter). And even it has a single sprout returning this year after thinking it was dead. I don't really have the time at my age to be planting seedling of any fruits but if it is trying that hard I'm not going to pull its plug. I respect a fighter.

Thanks for catching that. I fixed it.

Keith

Sadly we are located just too North in Hardiness zones for most of the tastier fruit to survive reliably for the length of time most fruits need to mature and produce good crops. Even when the plant tag says zone 3 I think they are fudging a little. We are N of even many of the UMN developed fruits. And then how in all the new disease and insects, loss of pollinators and it is a battle to have a hobby Orchard. Honeyberries are one of the least needy for us along with Saskatoons(juneberry), currants. Our northern Bush cherries are just starting to fruit as well. Tried Elderberries twice but no luck, only native red ones that aren't good for much..