Honeyberry

Honeyberry’s are new to me. I planted Aurora, Indigo Gem & Borealis last April and got a few berries off the Aurora & Indigo Gem that same summer. I shouldn’t have let them fruit, but I really wanted to taste one, and I’m glad I did.

This year Indigo Gem put on a little more, not a lot but enough to get a fair idea of what they taste like beyond the singles from last year. This is the sum total of what I got while leaving about 8-10 on the bush to see what they are like later on. But I really like them so far.

Aurora is a little behind Indigo Gem. I tried one a week ago and it was still a bit too tart, but today they were pretty darn tasty.

I just received an order in from Honeyberry USA today and so now I’ve added another Indigo Gem & Aurora here.

Tundra was on sale at Michigan Bulb for $7.79 a couple days ago so I ordered some of them to try. Anyone have an opinion on Tundra?

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I have borealis, honey bee, indigo gem and just planted Solo and Maxine 2 weeks ago. So far Im not impressed with borealis, doesnt fruit heavily and berries are hard to find/see. Honey Bee is a more upright plant that fruits more heavily. Also have a Boreal Blizard and Aurora shipping this fall. From what I have read, Aurora is one of the best available, excluding the new releases this year, no consumer reviews available on those yet.

My Aurora set a little bit this year along with the Indigo Gem, and I like Aurora a lot! I learned the lesson everyone has been talking about though, as I left several on the bush to see how they’d sweeten up but sure enough the birds found them and like overnight they were just all gone. (Memo to self - Net that thing next year!)

The Borealis does hide the berries VERY well. The birds can’t find them, and most of the time either can I. Once I located them and removed them, well after Aurora & Indigo Gem were a mere memory - I just assumed they would be a sweet surprise. Wrong! I must have STILL picked them too early, more than tart, kinda bitter.

So either they hide well from the birds, or even the birds pass on 'em…

Two weeks ago i took a ride to Berries Unlimited about an hour drive and bought some bushes from them,while there i got to taste some of there varieties,that was cool.
The varieties were honey berries: Happy Giant and B Banano (new kinds)
Black berries: Sweetie Pie, Osage, Prime Ark Freedom and Columbia Star.
Bob

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Any opinion on the Happy Giant you tasted? I got one of these from them this fall, excited to try it. VERY small tho so it will be a few years… :unamused: BTW I dug out my 3 large borealis this fall and moved them to some public land near my house. Replaced them with some of the newer releases from U of S.

I tried sea buckthorn for zone 9 California. I grew 5 varieties with two males for more than 10 years. Not a single fruit. The plants were quite vigorous but there was just not enough winter chill. I was originally planning on planting honeyberries too but I’m sure the result would be the same.

With what you can grow in zone 9, not missing out on much with seaberries or honeyberries.

Didn’t like borealis fruit?
Think that is one of the newer ones I have recently gotten. I have some older ones I am going to dump in the woods, as breeding is going so fast, that newer ones are way better already.

Very true but I love sea buckthorn fruit.

Borealis is one of the first U of S releases, back in 2007 I think. It is definitely not worth bothering with if you ask me. There are much better varieties available now. Aurora on the other hand is well liked and recommended by many. Here is some information.
http://www.fruit.usask.ca/Documents/Haskap/AuroraBorealisArticle.pdf

My plant was just bought this last season but still produced one honeyberry. It was very tart, but rich as rich can be. I thought is was delicious! (I love tart fruit) Perfect for my cooking needs. I have blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, and blackberries for fresh eating, even though the tayberry-wyeberry jam this year was amazing these raspberry-blackberry hybrids taste somewhere inbetween a raspberry and a blackberry, very very tasty! , With honeyberries, black and also red currants I have my cooking needs filled. Red currants taste bad fresh to me, but cooked, or mixed with a sweet fruit like coconut, taste amazing as the rich flavor is front and center once you knock down the tartness with honey or sugar.All who have grown blacks rave about the jam, my plants will produce a decent crop next year, and I can experiment more with them. Nothing tastes like black currants, a very unique taste, some would probably hate… Oh i also grow elderberries, and plan to eventually make wine with them. If I ever have the time!

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I don’t mind honeyberries as they are my first fruit of the year, though i probably need a 100 plants in order to get much of a crop as the birds like them too much.

U gotta net them or the birds will rape your bushes, they are dark way too long before they are ripe to survive unprotected. Robins are bastards around my area!

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Yes, everything is netted here, which works very well!

My experience from 2016.

Briefly, if you want fresh eating go with Aurora but ideally the even newer varieties (although I have not tasted those yet) (Boreal Blizard, Boreal Beauty, Boreal Beast)

If you want preserves can probably go with any as you will add sugar but the above 4 are still good bets for size and flavor.

So far my yields have been slow to increase so depending on your flavor preference and yard size, I would actually lean towards Titania black currant if I had limited space and wanted jam/syrup.


Haskasp – Tundra (Planted Fall 2013 from prairieplant.com) Survived. No dieback. Tons of flowers.

Haskasp – Aurora (Planted Fall 2014 from Whiffletree) Survived. No dieback. Tons of flowers.

Haskasp – Honeybee (Planted Fall 2013 from prairieplant.com) Survived. No dieback. Tons of flowers.

Haskasp – Borealis (Planted Fall 2013 from prairieplant.com) Survived. No dieback. Tons of flowers.

All the Haskasps were flowering around May 14 with Tundra perhaps a bit later. Aurora and Tundra seem to have the longest bloom time. The plants are still pretty small, about 18-24” tall. The new varieties Boreal Blizzart and Boreal Beauty seem to be amazing with much larger/sweeter fruit and flowering 2-4 weeks later! I just don’t have room!

Fruit was ripening June 15-20 but still tasted pretty sour. I heard leaving them on the bush made a difference so I left them longer. Well the day later the birds discovered them and took about 50%. I netted them quickly but will be sure to do so earlier next year. On July 1st I harvested the rest except for some Aurora’s which were still ripening.

The ones labelled Honey Bee in my photos are actually Borealis. I also had Tundra and Aurora.

http://growingfruit.org/uploads/default/original/2X/9/923f5f8e0419e9a5bea4be611a1becaa01521c65.jpg

Aurora is by far the largest. Tundra and Borealis were similar in size. Taste test with my wife: For fresh eating Aurora won hands down the best. Borealis perhaps had a slight edge over Tundra. Measuring Brix Aurora (17, 14), Tundra (9, 9.8, 11.8), Borealis (12, 12, 11.2) so you can see why Aurora was more pleasant. In the end we ate the Aurora’s fresh and I made a compote with the other 2 by mixing 1 part berries to 0.5 part sugar by weight and it was nice and tasty and acidic.

Yield post bird attack was tiny. Aurora 5 berries (8 grams), Tundra (41 grams), Borealis (32 grams). All are about 3 year old plants.

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https://permies.com/t/56508/Grafting-honeyberry-honeysuckle#1355420

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Glad someone tried it!

Definitely a success to build from! The tape idea seems like a good one to me. Can anyone think of a better solution to maintain the fragile bark integrity while grafting?

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I cut the bark all the way around the scion and slid it completely off. Then open a large flap on the honeysuckle bush and cover the scion with it and then tape with electric tap and top it off to seal it with wax.

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How many did you try like this/ what was your success rate?