I picked my early and mid-season haskap yesterday (July 2), and thought I should write up the results while still fresh in my mind. These are based on single 3-4 year-old bushes of each variety grown in 4B/5A Southern Vermont. Cool spring, with a relatively dry not a very hot summer yet, but with occasional rain and some days in the mid-80’s.
The earliest berries had been blue and hanging (netted) for at least two weeks, but some of the later berries probably should have been given another few days of ripening. They were under the same net, though, and I wanted to re-use the net for some raspberries.
I’m still trying to work out a good picking strategy. Some we put a small slit tarp under and shook, others we tried a slit kiddy pool and shook. The remainder we just picked by hand. Nothing worked great. I haven’t tried making up a mechanical shaker yet, but have a battery powered reciprocating saw that I’ll probably start with.
Blue Banana: Medium large berries, small plant. Tasty, tangy, tart, but very low production.
Happy Giant: Medium large berries, small plant, low production. Overwhelmingly bitter despite long ripening—not recommended for out of hand eating, but we’ll see how they cook up.
Blue Moose: Medium large berries, small plant, low production. Good strong flavor but with more bitterness than desirable. Mixed with Happy Giant for cooking.
Berry Blue: Small berries, medium plant, medium production. Good tart flavor.
Tundra: Medium large berries, tall rangy plant, medium productivity. Good mild flavor, slight bitterness.
Indigo Gem: Medium berries, very compact plant, medium productivity. Good mild flavor with slight bitterness. Starting to show powdery mildew early.
Indigo Treat: Medium large berries, large low sprawling plant, medium high productivity. Excellent tart sweet flavor. Berries fall off easily, which is good for shaking but also fall when gently bumped.
Honey Bee: Small to medium berries, compact plant, productive. Good tart flavor on ripe berries, but berries ripen over a long period, so shaking resulted in lots of not fully ripe berries.
Sugar Mountain Blue: Small to medium elongated berries on a medium sized plant. Very good flavor out of hand, but low productivity.
Borealis: Medium large firm round berries, compact plant, productive. Good medium flavor. Hard to shake because berries are tightly attached, so basically hand pick only.
Aurora: Large firm berries on a medium plant. Very good mildly tangy flavor, easy to shake off but remain attached until shaken. Good productivity. Still some green berries: probably would have benefited from more ripening, but unlike other varieties slightly underripe berries are just tart rather than bitter. Good safe choice.
I’ll try to do another write up when I pick the later berries in a week or two. In general, in our relatively cool environment we’re getting better productivity and plant health from Thompson’s Japanese varieties, all of which are later to harvest.