Are some of you planning to attend the Upper Midwest Honeyberry Academy on July 1st at Stlllwater, MN? I am excited about it, as that is practically in my back yard! Plus it is free. Register now.
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I wanted to follow up on this post and tell everyone the latest updates. Im very happy with my order. The honeyberries are mostly still alive. I did lose a couple. I dont fault honeyberryusa for that and did not ask for a refund on those. They did follow up with me offering to replace any that needed it, which was very kind of them. Kansas is Kansas, and our weather is harsh. The majority of the honeyberries are alive and becoming established here. The weather here remains in the 90s every day as it has done for weeks. I highly recommend trying honeyberries. They are not inexpensive though i feel they are very much worth it from honeyberryusa. It was a very positive experience.
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The Upper Midwest Haskap Academy was superb! I don’t know if they will do an annual repeat of it, but if they do, try not to miss it. I highly recommend it!
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thanks for this great advice! i will consider it for my future plants that i will buy.
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is anyone who rise honeyberry from seeds? i want some tips from somebody how have some experience.
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When I get plants in the mail that have started to leaf out, I set them in the shade for a day or two, then gradually break them in to the sun over a couple days before planting them out.
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For the early season, I enjoy indigo gem. Good berry with a nice size and a little more tart flavor, but still very great fresh! I find tundra pretty good too, but from what I’ve seen it can be less productive. Still good berries, and that could be change with different cultivation practices/soil conditions.
Aurora is high quality and an enjoyable berry. Boreal Blizzard is a really nice berry, probably my favorite. If aurora is balanced sweet and tart, blizzard would be skewed towards the sweet. Beauty is also really nice and probably my favorite also. Nice shaped berries. Beauty is named it for a reason. They are more rounded than elongated. Will be the later season of the bunch. Beast goes with beauty for pollination. Beauty can be firmer sometimes than the others, which for a generally soft, or complex shaped berry, it is possibly helpful to know. Bliss is also really tasty and a neat flavor. It’s big, and tender. Part of it’s lineage is from the wild, I think L.villosa. so that’s really cool too.
The program in Saskatchewan has a new breeder who started recently, and I think it’ll be very exciting to keep an eye on what’ll happen there!
This year I planted aurora, beast, blizzard, beauty, and indigo gem at my house. Forming a sort of rag tag hedge, but it sure will be tasty!
My family has really gotten into these berries the past few years. Some of my family got onto the carnivore diet a few years ago and still go to u-picks for them.
The berry is full of interesting flavors, with many variations on the sweet tart balance.
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ive got a patch of indigo gem/ treat then behind my garage i have all the boreals , 2 strawberry sensation and a maxie solo. in the north yard i have 2 aurora, 2 honey bee and 2 others i forgot what they were. they are shaded pretty good from my hybrid hazels so not very productive so i leave them for the birds. love honeyberries! i also have a 8-10ft. northline serviceberry thats 3 yrs old was loaded with berries to the point the branches from midway down wanted to lay on the ground. delicious big berries. very productive. i have jb30, honeywood and a apple serviceberry that should produce next year.
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I have been growing 15 different cultivars of Honeyberries/Haskaps for the past several years in Zone 7A Georgia.
Things to Know:
1.) They need at least 1000 chill hours.
2.) They go through a summer dormancy when the summer heat intensifies. They literally look dead, but are not. Mine get sunlight until about 1pm and shade after since I live in the hottest zone recommended for honeyberries. I would not grow in zone 8 or hotter.
3.) Aside from summer and winter dormancy (twice per year), they also are prone to powdery mildew. But, the mildew does not affect the fruits or the plant. It only occurs after fruit production.
4.) Honeyberries remind me and my family of the tropical Barbados Cherry also known as Acerola, but the honeyberries are sweeter in comparison.
Another way to describe the flavor is a combination of Blueberry, Blackberry, Raspberry and Cherry. Hard to describe these sweet/tart fruits but they are delicious freshly eaten.
5.) Be careful which cultivars you get, Some are sweeter than others and some are just tart.
6.) Mid and late season cultivars have a better chance of being pollinated. You will need at least three cultivars that are the same blooming time for best cross-pollination.
The best info on blooming time is provided by HoneyberryUSA
https://www.honeyberryusa.com/honeyberrybloomtimes.html
A good source of information on cross-pollination compatibility is provided by Berries Unlimited.
Flavor category chart from LoveHoneyberry:
I do not recommend Blue Mist since it has a strong Quinine flavor.
Blue Forest, Boreal Beast, and Pirika have excellent flavor in my opinion.
One Green World is my favorite source, but I would also recommend HoneyberryUSA.
I hope this helps.
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