I am wondering what is the best Sun / Shade ratio for Honeyberries. I know they don’t like heat.
I have two Honeyberry plants. Now two years old. I planted them in full sun here in Kentucky 6b. They lost most of their leaves in August due to the heat, but came back a little in the Fall.
I am planning to transplant them to shade or partial shade, but I am wondering how much sun they need to ripen fruit and if there is perfect mix that would allow them to keep their leaves through summer, but still produce the best fruit.
So based off my experience with them in Maryland 7b with mine in full sun. They don’t like direct sun/heat at all. I think it also has to do with humidity as well. Mine ALWAYS get mildew and drop their leaves by like July I think? Tundra is also flowering right now. This is their 3rd year and if I don’t get a berry this year I’m ripping my 3 plants out. If I knew what I know now. I would have never planted them.
My suggestion is try to figure out how to block the sun from probably 11am -2pm
Zone 6a, mine get full sun, and yes, by August or so they look pretty rough. They seem to be able to take it though, and have come back strong in the spring. When the trees around them get taller, they will have more shade, but for the time being they are unprotected.
7a/b outside Philly here. Mine are growing against a fence to their North with a bunch of 2-4 year old apple/pear trees South of them that block a decent amount of sun later into the Summer. This is their third year, they’re about 3.5-4’ tall plus or minus that in width depending on how upright the variety is. They look super crispy halfway through the Summer after they’ve fruited.
Growing them here I think they would do fine on the North side of my house. Rabbits will chop all the canes down by the way (ask how I know!), so plan for that if you have shitty rabbits. Six or so hours of less intense sun is probably enough for them, and morning sun to dry them off can help reduce potential mildew problems.
I do not have any pedigree plantings here; but I pick the wild ones every year. There are a few wild ones in my north side green belt.
They seem to be in the north side of hills or partially fond of wet shady creek flood plains. I see them abundantly while walking my dog. I always notice them because I think their berries look like shark eggs. Long before I knew what they were.
I always find them sharing ground with wild oso berries and salal. The shady and north areas are the only places I find them growing wild. They seem to not mind it and be loaded w fruit.
My zone, 9a, is oddly warm for being so far north in Oregon. Doesn’t matter than I’m around 45 degrees N latitude, they still get torched even with afternoon shade. I could only imagine what they would look like with all day sun. They are much happier in the early part of the growing season when it’s cloudy 80% of the days with frequent rain. Once the anual drought kicks in, around mid May, they really struggle. Fortunately they still make fruit.
I have fairly mild summers and mine also often lose their leaves early—around late July, about a month after the fruit changes colour. I’ve noticed it depends how dry it’s been. In a very wet year they might have leaves until late September, but in a dry year they’ll be gone by mid July.
Either way, they remain healthy and always fruit prolifically if I manage to net them before they bloom. As soon as the buds start to swell deer will eat them all if they’re unprotected. I have them planted against a fence, partly shaded by deciduous trees for a lot of the day. They leaf out so early that they get 4-6 weeks to start growing before the trees leaf out, so I don’t think they really need the late summer sun anyway.
Our native fly honeysuckle (lonicera canadensis) grows almost exclusively with its roots constantly in water. I think that’s the primary factor that allows them grow in full sun.
I would say hot zone 6b-7b (Midwest/east coast) plant for afternoon shade. 8a+ go full shade (eastern and southern) mine are in full shade and not super happy as they still defoliate early-mid summer and leaf out again in fall until midwinter. I know I am pissing in the wind trying to plant them here but I think you can have moderate success zone pushing with more shade. Hopefully this or next year I can get fruit to determine if I’m not going to remove them into pots and plant something else in their location (although the options aren’t vast for that spot)
@Gkight
This is the year for my 3 for the … “Produce or get evicted” 3rd year for them, haven’t gotten a Berry yet. I have such a small flower bed that gotta earn their keep.
I’m in a similar position the only reason they have a longer leash is due to their location that nothing I’d prefer can thrive there in full shade haha
Really appreciate all of the input everyone! That was fun and I wish you all the best with your honeyberries. Let’s all try to do a follow up after harvest.
My other question is about the quality of fruit from a plant that is only one or two years old.
We might get some fruit on a one or two year old bush, but wouldn’t you want to give the plant more like five years at least to produce good tasting quality fruit.
That is my plan. Give them at least five years and then see how they taste before making a declaration.
John in Kentucky
That sounds like a good call. I actually rooted a few cuttings this winter so I’ll be planting them in a full shade area and monitoring the difference. I’ve had success doing that same thing with a very sun averse red currant variety.
You guys know the russian lady that brought these plants to north america posts a lot of info on berries unlimited.
Anyway she lives near me and told me to just shade them during the summer, but anyone above 7A should probably do 60% shade cloth the entire summer. They only need full sun to produce berries which is end of winter - beginning of spring. After they are done you can throw shade cloth over.
The leafs falling is fine though, it is how they deal with the heat stress.
@Gkight do you have 2 compatible varieties to pollinate each other? If not they won’t produce. The japanese varieties need other japanese ones and russian ones need other russians. They will show flowers about 3 weeks apart. Presumably if you collected pollen and saved it for 3 weeks you could cross breed them that way not sure but I will try it in a few years.
You can hand pollinate for more success. I do not get any berries at all if I don’t hand pollinate because the plants are too small at the distance I planted them. In a few years they’ll likely do fine but right now they only had a few flowers so I hand did 5 of them and… got 5 berries lmfao
Yeah I only have Japanese varieties. They don’t grow much less pollinate one another yet. keiko, Solo and strawberry sensations, I forget which one but one is all but dead. If they die I won’t replace them. However if I do, they will remain in pots so I can move them accordingly
This was year two for mine, and I was hoping they would be tasting a little sweeter this year, but they were just as sour as last year.
Does anyone get any berries which have good flavor which you enjoy to eat? I am not generally hard to please. I like sour fruits like Kumquats and apples which are tart, or hard quinces, but my honeberries at this point fall below my hopes and expectations.
