Are you picking them a few days after they turn blue? Or waiting like two or three weeks? Because they turn blue waaaaaaay before they sweeten up and develop flavor.
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yea, like persimmons and some others they are astringent and need to be fully ripe before picked.
If you cut one in half you will see it is still greenish inside and that is not done. They’ll be deep blue/purple when done (and also slightly soft)
I don’t go by softness it is difficult with berries imo. I just wait a while then cut 1 in half and if it is done I figure most of the rest probably are. They also basically fall off the plant when fully done if you slap it with your finger and it falls it is done
The bigger they grow the sweeter they get, this goes for the bush too after a few years they’ll be the full size berry but if the plant is still a small plant it won’t have full size berries either.
As far as “good flavor” it’s all matter of opinion, the one that is probably the sweetest is blue banana Blue Banana Honeyberry Haskap
and also Honey Beast Honeyberries (PPAF) early-mid season 12cm Zones 2-7
These both are russian types and will pollinate each other
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yea sounds like they don’t like it there, whatever it is. hard to tell since so many variables. They also have some of the most shallow roots of any plant (certainly the most shallow of any I’ve ever grown) they grow along the very surface and want constant moisture.
I agree with your methods though. If something doesn’t grow well for me I don’t bother, there are tens of thousands of fruiting plants to grow.
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I see, thank you for the information! I will give them more years then to grow bigger, and hopefully sweeter. That is good advice on cutting them in half and checking the color.
Since they are still just two years old, I think I will also move them to a place with more shade and where the soil is moister.
Mine still have green leaves on October 11th in zone 4a, Wisconsin.
Pretty sure 2 out of my 3 are dead, the remaining live one will inevitably die. This was a failed experiment for my area, the only possible way to succeed would be to keep them in pots and move them depending on the time of year. Not worth it to me, maybe one day I’ll try some fruit some other way. Good luck all on this journey but I will be off the honey berry train for the foreseeable future haha
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They might be alive and just summer dormant. I thought mine were dead the first year then they woke up at the end of Feb. I was like WTF
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i thought mine died the first year because they go dormant in the summer as well. but they all like leafed out beautifully in march.
heres one in late march after completely turning black and losing all leaves in august.
And theyre doing it again this year LOL
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Yeah well this was the third year and mine did the same each year, but each year with less vigor. This year was the first year not a single one bloomed, so I think they will never gain enough vigor to come back strong, as so far they come back much weaker than even when I purchased them.
Ahh that sucks. Mine have done a slow crawl, I’m netting them this spring to give the berries a chance since they got cleaned out last year. If I’m not WOW’d by them I’m gonna dig them out. This will be year 4 I think for 2 of 3.
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You have caught my intrigue. Lonicera caerulea is considered native in Washington state (also a number of other states and Canada). However, it is a different subtaxa than what is found elsewhere in the world, and to my knowledge hasn’t been used in any of the breeding efforts for cultivated types. Our native form is published as Lonicera caerulea var. cauriana. To me this is a bit weird, cause all the other subtaxa around the world are published at the subspecies level, yet ours are only published at the “variety” subtaxa level despite only occurring here in North America. I suspect ours warrant subspecies status, but were just unlucky in that the botanist who published their description just happened to publish it as “var.” instead of “subsp.”.
That rant aside, part of what intrigues me is that the Burke Herbarium only shows very few known specimens within the state, and they aren’t anywhere close to Seattle. Additionally, on iNaturalist the only observations of this species in Washington state are of cultivated forms.
This makes me think that our truly native/wild population (despite being abundant near you) is highly under-documented/under-explored. I’d love to get my hands on some seeds to grow out. There are tons of people around me who specifically want native plants, and our native subtaxa of this species is not one I have ever seen offered by any native plant nurseries. If you can help direct me regarding where and when, I’d love to collect some.
Edit: I went back to iNaturalist and broadened my search for Lonicera caerulea var. cauriana observations, removing the “Washington state” regional boundary. For the whole continent there are only a little over sixty observations total! It also looks like our native var. cauriana tends to ripen its berries to plum purple instead of the dark blue associated with cultivated honeyberries. I’ll bet they would be super interesting to use for breeding in more diversity to cultivated types in addition to growing them in their natural form.
Wild Canadian sources have been used as parents in the University of Saskatchewan breeding program, however I only know of one that has resulted in a commercial release. The male parent of one of the newest releases from the University of Saskatchewan, Boreal Bliss, has wild Canadian parentage. You can read more about the effort here.
I have some Boreal Bliss on order. I will comment on my observations once they are shipped and in the ground.
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Honeyberries were a big disappointment here in southern middle TN.
Yes.. they lost all leaves early the first summer.. but that slowly improved some over the next two years.. around year 4 they kept some leaves all year.
The real bummer was how they ripen..
They turn ripe color… but if you don’t let them hang looking ripe for a week or two… they don’t taste good at all. Mostly just tart and a little juicy.
I could let them hang for two weeks.. and fully ripen.. but my birds would not. They took them all before they got ripe.
I eventually pulled them up and tossed them into the woods.
Some things just do not work for you.
TNHunter
That article states that the pollen parent for ‘Boreal Bliss’ came from Nova Scotia, which is the far eastern side of Canada. This is far beyond the range of Lonicera caerulea var. cauriana which is more present on the western side of the continent. Lonicera villosa is closely related and able to hybridize with L. caerulea and it also occurs abundantly in Nova Scotia. Therefore, this is most likely the pollen parent used to create ‘Boreal Bliss’.
This means that ‘Boreal Bliss’ is probably Lonicera caerulea × villosa and its descendents (‘Boreal Blizzard’, ‘Boreal Beast’ and ‘Aurora’) are all probably Lonicera (caerulea × villosa) × caerulea rather than straight L. caerulea.
Netting is definitely needed.
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I was just looking to add to the conversation that a wild Canadian variety has been used as a parent in breeding efforts. This was meant to build off of your comment about the wild population being under-explored (which I agree with). I felt the information may be of interest to you. I’m sorry for any confusion.
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It was definitely relevant and interesting. It sent me down a rabbit hole of research.
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I’m not too familiar with the specifics, but this link also casually lists that the variety you stated is present in Labrador, Newfoundland, and Quebec. I see sources listing both variations you mentioned in eastern Canada, but I cannot find anything to support which specific variation was used as the parent.
I also see Boreal Bliss casually labelled JNS7 (which I assume is Japanese/Nova Scotia parents, plant #23). This link is to a document that discusses some U of Sask haskap trials. Page 43 lists a series of crosses with wild Canadian germplasm in 2010. There is a similar naming structure, in which we can assume the parentage origin (AB = Alberta, SK = Saskatchewan, MB = Manitoba, ON = Ontario, QC = Quebec, L = Labrador, etc). It’s encouraging to see the wild parents being used from across the country, even if they haven’t yet resulted in a released product. There are better breakdowns throughout the document.
I believe I used to have a document that listed the rough coordinates that each Canadian specimen was gathered from, but I can’t seem to find it. To add to that, I feel the U of Sask could improve on their efforts in consolidating all of the haskap documentation and data for public reference. There are often dead links throughout the website.
Edit: This is the link for a majority of the haskap documentation hosted on the U of Sask website. There is an infographic that talks about using Lonicera caerulea villosa as a parent. Another infographic just shows that the parents were from further west, but doesn’t list the specific variety.
There’s a nice document discussing the polymorphism of Lonicera caerulea here. This article also adds to the discussion in the first couple paragraphs.
Oh, I see what’s going on. At the time of that publication they were classifying L. villosa as a subspecies of L. caerulea. At this point in time L. villosa is being recognized as a distinct species rather than a subspecies of L. caerulea.