Hello Im really new in this. I have never tasted haskap and I have never seen it in any stores.
I live in north norway. I,m wondering to plant 30-40 plants to try how it will grow here.
But Im wondering wich berry is the best in taste…
Generally I like sweet berrys. So wich berry would you recomend? To have the sweetest best berry taste…?
The strains I have to choose between is : boreal beauty, beast and blizzard. Aurora,Vostorg,Blue rock,Blue banana late,Candy blue,Giants heart,Blue treasure,Strawberry sensation.
if i also had to pick one it would be aurora and i also have most of the others. honey bee is heavy yielding and is a great pollination partner for aurora. its berries are great for processing. indigo gem is a sweet berry and good pollinator for aurora but not as productive.
the boreal’s are good producers as well but not as sweet as aurora. i dont have any east european plants and strawberry sensation isnt yet producing for me.
Assuming you want to eat honeyberries fresh, Aurora is almost universally considered the best tasting. Boreal blizzard, beast and beauty are also excellent but most recommend Aurora over them. Blizzard, beast and Aurora tend to ripen their berries a bit later than Aurora. With that being said Aurora does have a bit of a staggered harvest and can actually overlap quite a bit with their ripening times. Vostorg is not available in the USA as far as I know so I can’t comment on that one. I’ve read strawberry sensation is quite tasty as well but I’ve read less about this variety as less members currently grow it. I’m sure in the coming years their will be more reports about them.
If you have never tasted them, I would recommend starting with fewer bushes than 30-40. Also be aware you will probably need to net them if you hope to ever get anything from them. I have around 40 bushes in many varieties, but don’t see much difference in flavor of most of the varieties. It is nice to have a range of ripening times, though. Blue belle and Berry Smart Blue are small and sour, so I leave them unnetted for the birds.
A fully grown Aurora haskap can yield 3+ kilograms per plant. Is 90~120+ kilograms of fruit and all the work that netting and harvesting all those bushes what you are after?
It will be a litle trial project in the countryside have to see how and where they will thrive best. but it’s good to start with some varieties that taste good.
hopefully they will bear a lot of berries🤞
Glad to help. I usually recommend indigo gem for an Aurora pollinator. It is also pretty tasty and productive but is a floppier bush. If you’d prefer a more upright bush (that still tastes good but not as good as indigo gem) then I recommend borealis (different from the boreal series blizzard, beauty, beast).
As long as your idea of a lot of berries (and the work they entail) is well over a hundred kilos I’m sure you’ll be happy. For most of us that amount would be overwhelming.
Haskaps have a shallow root system and prefer not to have grass growing under them.
yep. mulch is your best friend esp. the 1st 3 years until they are established well. then they will shade out most weeds. i only give compost once they start to flower. she’s going to need alot of netting and a harvester for all those berries!
I also have indigo gem, beauty, beast and blizzard. Indigo blooms first and the other 3 are later. Aurora is right in between all of those. I enjoy all of them fresh eating but tge fla or of Aurora is special. You will want to pick at least 2 varieties for cross pollination so keep that in mind.
aurora is partially self fertile but you will get a heavier fruit set and bigger berries if you plant 2. i believe aurora is the only one that’s like this.
I got about a dozen berries off mine. They had a strawberry-ish flavor. Blizzard/Beast/Beauty are the other three I have, they were sweeter tasting than Beauty. Or less acidic? I don’t have any objective measurements. edit: It is the second year in ground, the berries were smaller than I was expecting, so I’m not sure if it’s just that the plants were young and they had a rough first year, I didn’t water enough, or my size expectations were off. The larger of the bunch pictured (Beauty) were about what I anticipated.
Im really new in this. I have never tasted haskap and I have never seen it in any stores.
have to see how and where they will thrive best. but it’s good to start with some varieties that taste good.