Honeyberry chill hours

I read it takes 1000 chill hours for honeyberry. That was not from me. Look it up. If you find something different or have gotten fruit from these in Georgia let me know. I have no special knowledge.

Honeyberry are a native to places like the Siberia, Hokkaido, the Yukon – it’s a sub-arctic fruit. My understanding is that any attempt to grow them below roughly Z5 in the U.S. is a risky experiment. Before planting them here in Z6B RI, I read that it might be too hot for them here, mainly in July-August.

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Mine grow and fruit fine here in 6b Cincinnasti, Ohio

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I planted 6 different types this spring. They all started to look super ratty towards the end of the summer, but they are all bouncing back steadily now that its colder. I’m really hoping they put on a lot of growth next season. I have Aurora, Honey Bee, Boreal Beast, Blue Moon, Boreal Beauty, and Tundra. Tundra is the weakest perfoming of all of my varieties so far.

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Yes, mine have been fine here in ZB RI so far.

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from what ive read the more japanese in the cross, the better they tolerate heat. haskaps are still a fairly new fruit and most cultivars are released with out complete understanding of the plants growth parameters. they rely on feedback from us growers to fill in the blanks. and they are still making new crosses all the time so maybe in another 10 yrs. they will grow reliably in z7 by then. a fruit to watch in the future.

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alice gordon 11:17 AM (0 minutes ago)
Thank you!

Why don’t you try two different plants and see what happens? Who knows- you might end up with fruit. The Maxine Thompson varieties were developed in Corvallis OR (zone 8b) from Japanese stock and do just fine. I don’t think those chill hours are an exact number. You’ll definitely want to try a “late blooming” variety so there will be bugs flying around to pollinate the bushes.

Look at apples- they are supposed to have a chill requirement and people grow them in Phoenix, Southern California, and other places that generally feel like a furnace.

If you look at the romance series cherry thread, there was a post in there from someone in Texas who had a Romeo cherry and it set fruit.

The Internet says this-
Chill Hours (sometimes called Chill Units) are an approximation of how many hours of weather between 32 degrees and 45 degrees (F) a plant requires to properly go dormant so it can wake up and blossom and/or set fruit.

Apparently time below freezing doesn’t count towards this requirement.

The Internet also says this-
We are prudent in suggesting Honeyberries need around 750 to 1,000 hours of chilling hours.

So if you do the math, you are looking at “around” 30 to 40 days of crappy weather, but not quite crappy enough that it is below freezing.

What part of Georgia? Northern Georgia or up in the mountains- you’ll definitely hit it. Southern Georgia or along the coast- it may be more difficult but you should have 30 days of crappy weather?

Keep in mind that with many fruit you mention like apples, peaches, pears, cherries etc. there is low chill varieties on the market. Stark Saturn peach is hardy between zone 5 and 9 but requires 200-300 chill hours so it will grow as low as somewhere here like Colorado but will also grow in California or Phoenix with low chill hours. With cherries I know there are low chill ones like mini royal that a California can grow. The list goes on. Basically they know that if a variety needs x amount of chill hours you have to practically put the plant in a refridge to get it down and that is not economical. As a result they produce varieties that are low chill because they know people will want to grow them but not have the chill hours so you get money from the patent fees.