Honey Queen raspberry

It’s hardy there? I was finding zone 5/6

Its a floricane fruiting variety. I just put mine in this spring…it was very hard to find previously…but seems that it will become more available in the coming years as it is in many nurseries now.

It was developed in Alberta Canada by Robert Erskin so its bred to be cold hardy. Not much info on ripening in warmer climates as it is fairly new to US. In Z3 Canada of course it will ripen in summer.

Its one of the few rasps that will do well in shady areas.

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havent seen any damage over the last 3 years so i guess it must be.

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@krismoriah @steveb4 where did you get your plants from? Sounds like I need both now.

think i got mine from Jung or Park seed.

I got mine from Bay Laurel Nursery and they were very nice plants 2 y/o dormant canes with nice roots from Dave Wilson Nursery $7 each. Order them in Sept for delivery 2024.

One Green world has tiny plants now for $13 each but probably will be closing their shipping season very soon.

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is Honey Queen a floricane or a primocane?

One Green World (and Raintree) says it is everbearing
Scenic Hill says it is a floricane

@krismoriah did you get a primocane crop last fall?

thanks

I would prefer a floricane since SWD is becoming a problem and Cascade Gold has a big question mark for me with cold hardiness (although @steveb4 is growing blackberries and other z6 stuff in z4 so he makes me look like a namby-pamby); so not sure what yellow floricane to add

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cascade gold survived and fruited for me 2 seasons until a wet summer caused root rot that killed it. it was a large berry and very tasty. Jungs had it listed as z4 hardy. not a huge producer but worth growing. pense sent me a double gold by accident. it also survived and fruited on land i managed, for 3 years. then the landowner sold the property. very good flavor as well.

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There’s tons of mixed info. It seems like everytime you go to a new site it’s the opposite of the last one. I found a few Canadian sites say it was floricane so I went with that assumption. I got a plant from OGW last year. So, if it lives through the winter I’ll let you know if it tries to flower this summer.

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Victor grows them in Alaska and he said that they are floricanes.

One of the only videos that i have seen on Honey Queen.

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Cascade Gold cannot take wet conditions as it is in my experience extremely susceptible to root rot. If you get one I suggest amending soil to make it super well draining.
Honey queen is a floricane. At least mine is.
I crossed cascade Gold with Honey Queen although I’m not positive other pollen helped too as it was exposed to other pollen. The offspring is resistant to root rot. Extremely hardy and grows well producing a ton of fruit in the shade. Very vine like too. In full sun it produces upright canes in partial shade it produces trailing canes. Very strange! I love it as it is the most prolific yellow I have grown. Flavor is not as good as Cascade Gold though. Still having a well producing yellow is quite pleasing.
It’s a floricane too but it produces for most of the summer and into the fall.
The longest fruiting period I have ever seen.

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Theres alot more to root rot than just amending soil… but you make an excellent point and i agree. I am going heavy on sand and pine fines and all seems to be doing very well compared to my first attempt of mixing in ‘pro mix’ with the soil. Which led me to lose alot of my first plantings due to my clay content. Regular free river sand goes in all of my plantings and for rasps i try to plant in mounds several inches above the soil line. I would like to go higher eventually but for now all seems well. I did some test pots of rasps in just river sand and manure and they really thrived… so i may go that route more.

Most of the breeding of plants that are resistant to root rot come from Latham which i mentioned in the other thread as being pretty much ‘bulletproof’.

More that you care to know about root rot and all that is involved… im just a hobbyist so i probably wont do the fungicides and chemicals. YMMV.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07060661.2021.2011420

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That article discusses phosphorous acid (there are many other articles as well)

That is a much safer middle ground, I think

They are considered a “soil amendment” and can easily be applied as a foliar spray but are very effective anti-fungals

Phosphite kills oomycetes “highly effective” (per this article and others) and over time is converted into phosphate so it is a nutient as well

these seem better that traditional anti-fungals and soil sterilizing agents (e.g., methyl bromide)

Effective Anti-fungal and soil amendment and not a random chemical but simply phosphorous acid/phosphite; phosphite is not used initially by the plant but over time it slowly converted into phosphate that will be used

I am going to use it in the spring and of course it will work better in raised beds that minimize water pooling

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im not really into chemicals myself. Im mixing wood ashes in my compost heap now to go on alot of stuff im growing…which may have the stuff u mentioned naturally for me. YMMV

I really love this explanation from 1894

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yes I hear you - wood ashes are a soil amendment and I view phosphorous acid the same way except I know it kills oomycetes and will be used by the plant later in the form of phosphate

I will never use anti-fungals like metalaxyl (ridomil gold) or oxathiapiprolin

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I got most of my motivation from Viktor then i found that the old timers really used the heck out of it. I have 2 neighbors saving me all of theirs from their hardwood burners in trade for berries and fruit… otherwise the wood ash is ‘waste’ to them.

I guess the one or two downsides of wood ash: it is alkaline and will increase your soil’s pH (not ideal for blueberries and maybe honeyberries, who might prefer slightly acidic soil) and since wood is enriched with heavy metals, adding this wood ash will increase them into the soil

if it works for you, it works

to me it is another soil amendment and I will try phosphorous acid this spring

I had mine planted in a 12in. mound of promix and compost. was fine the 1st 2 years then just starting to go down hill until it croaked.

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It’s is a floricane, but the owner of the nursery I bought it from claimed the canes could survive the winters. I’d been growing it for decades and never saw that happen, but 2-3 years ago when I was pruning out the dead canes in spring, I thought about what she’d said and as soon as it crossed my mind, I laid eyes on a cane with shriveled berries from the previous year that was starting to leaf out again! But that’s the only one I’ve ever seen. Down in the Matanuska Valley (where I bought it) and in other climates milder than mine, it might occur more regularly. But it’s definitely a floricane; the one that resprouted had already fruited once.

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Honey Queen is definitely a floricane. Bred by Robert Erskine from Rocky Mountain House, Alberta. Seller stated canes can survive winter, but that’s after they’ve fruited. I’ve only observed that happening once in Fairbanks, but it may happen more regularly in a milder climate (I bought them about 300 miles south of us). It’s a great cultivar; berries fat and prolific and very mild, and they’re super hardy.

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