Here’s the second half of my haskap variety review. The earlier season berries are reviewed a few posts up. These were picked July 20 - 24. As a reminder, I’m in Zone 5a Southern Vermont. Other than as noted, these are plants that have been in the ground 3 winters.
Kawai: Medium size fruit, medium large bush, highly productive. Mild clean flavor, no bitterness, easy to pick although falls off easily.
Keiko: Medium berry, medium large bush, highly productive. Sweet simple good flavor, although not intense. Easy to pick.
Tana: Medium small berry, large healthy bush, very high productivity. Good straightforward simple flavor, pleasant but a little thin. Easy to pick.
Honey Bunch (Kaido): 1 year plant, still very small, but berries that were there had an excellent sweet-tart flavor.
Sugar Pie (Hoka): New plant, not enough berries to judge.
Maxine’s Opus: New 1 year old plant, although had quite a few berries. Medium sweet, medium large berry with excellent complex flavor. Good out of hand, nice texture. I have high hopes for the future.
(very late berries below)
Solo: Medium small round berry, medium small bush, medium productivity. Pleasant simple tart berry with some complexity.
Maxie: Large oblong berries, medium large bush, medium-high productivity. Less productive than Kawai and Tana, but comparable to the Boreals. I like this berry a lot, although my wife thought it was still too sour out of hand. No bitterness, rich full flavor when fully ripe.
Strawberry Sensation: Medium berries, medium large bush, very good flavor although still a small amount of bitterness. Good although slightly sour out of hand. I thought it was outshadowed by Maxie this year.
Most of the berries were used fresh or frozen, but I made two batches of jam. The first batch of jam was from early Russian berries that were on the bitter side, but the jam tasted great. The second batch was from Maxie and Strawberry Sensation, both somewhat sour of out hand, but excellent in jam.
Overall a good season, and the plants still seem fairly healthy. Signs of powdery mildew on some, but less so than last year.