I am interested in growing blueberries, but I’ve heard good things about haksaps/honey berries as well. I’m zone 4b, are they all cold hardy. Are any easier to grow, have success with than others? Do they all like acidic soil like blueberries?
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In my experience, haskap are much easier an blueberries. No need for acid soil and they are not super picky about soil quality generally.
Even with careful acidifying I failed at blueberries. I read somewhere that they need a specific myc for their roots and I’d believe it. The bunnies also liked to eat them but don’t like most of the haskap.
I do have to net my bushes, but it works and the crop tends to be able to be picked in a single pass, after hanging for the 1-2 weeks to finish ripening.
They are less of a fresh eating berry than highbush blues but so easy to deal with! Easy enough to propagate as well, if you want to increase your patch. You do need different, compatible types for pollination.
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I second all of this. I gave up on blueberries after multiple tries as they need certain soil and moisture level to be happy and I was not diligent enough to maintain it for them. Haskaps are much, much simpler and easy to layer propagate. They are the first fruit I usually pick and I still have some hanging on one of the bushes outside.
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i grow both and have no problems doing so but Maine has both berries growing wild here. our soil is naturally acidic and we usually get plenty of rain. no pests bother either plant here. like was said honey berries are the easier of the 2 to grow if you don’t have the right soil. so far aurora and honeybee are my favs and they pollinate each other.
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