What's the verdict on Honeyberries...are they tasty?

ive read they are high in pectin. i use around 40% in my b. currant jam and its perfect. ill use the same in my honeyberry jam in the future.

1 Like

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.

8 Likes

my aurora are huge this year! my oldest 1 is 4 years old and the youngest is 2. all have set fruit but the oldest 1 has 1.5in berries and full sagging branches. should be ready by next week. been eating a few here and there. they are about half ripe right now. birds so far mostly deterred with the flash tape. some starlings were in there 2 days ago and got some fruit but the wind started and the tape did its thing and they moved on. made jam from slightly underripe indigo gem and treat. was very good. about tied with a good low sugar raspberry jam. im old school and still prefer to pick by hand with a small tarp under the bush to collect the dropped ones. i have a old milking stool thats been in the family for 60 yes. works great and saves my back.

3 Likes

I have already finished harvesting Aurora and I have to say that despite the drought there were a lot of fruits and they were very tasty. Dryness, a lot of sun caused that overripe fruits did not mold, but on the contrary had a much richer taste and aroma. That is why it is good to wait, because overripe fruits are more suitable for processing. Although they are more difficult to collect because they are soft. Well, we are waiting for such fruits. Mixed with a little sugar, they create a storm of fresh taste and aroma in the mouth. On the contrary, we look for fruits that are not overripe for direct consumption.

Since there is only a harvest of fruit left after the main harvest, it is a pain, because I have to crawl under the bushes and do the harvest by hand. Well, it’s worth it.

4 Likes

I also want to note that I watered often when the fruits were growing. We had record temperatures measured here, namely 37° - 38° C. Well, the drought continues.

2 Likes

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.

5 Likes

my aurora is in its 4th year and were huge and very tasty. and i had to pick them a week early as the crows discovered them. will be netting next spring. 6 of them payed with their lives. :wink: must of got the hint as my Patriot blueberries are ripening and they have left them alone.

1 Like

This year was pretty much a total loss for my honeyberries due to the leaf rollers taking out all the flowers and fruits. I had maybe 10 or 15 fruit make it to maturity. Next year I will be ready.

I heard that the pure Japanese honeyberries don’t fare well in Mat Su / Anchorage. I’m not sure how they would do in Fairbanks or the Kenai. Anyway, I have been trialing some because I was hoping they would be ok. I have around 8 or 10 of the Maxine Thompson varieties. This one here is the only one that escaped the leaf roller scourge, but the berries are still hard as a rock. I tried one and they aren’t even close to being ripe. The days are getting colder and shorter, so I will be surprised if these come through. I’ll try it one more growing season to see if they can produce a crop. If not, I’m going to pull them.

3 Likes

i put in 2 strawberry sensations this spring. they are the latest honeyberry i grow. the boreal series produced some fruit and was done as of last week. they fruit for a long time compared to aurora.

Added several Arurora here…and a few others. Only one lost was Honeybee from Honeyberry USA…but I think it’s problem was the soil I planted it in stayed too wet.
B.Beauty, Beast and Blizzard doing ok for young plants.

@Moose we don’t seem to have any insect problems on honeyberries here…just the birds. (But, the pests may eventually come, as they appear to have at your location. Sorry about that, as you should be in an ideal climate for growing the haskap.)

sorry for the leafrollers man. we have them here but they are very rare. last year i had a few but none this year. nothing bothers honeyberries here. mine are looking a little ratty from the 80 temps but still holding their foliage.

I’ve not heard of leaf rollers on honeyberries. Maybe try some Spinosad on them.

1 Like

Yea the leaf rollers were kind of a bummer. I wasn’t the only one impacted though— we had an unusually dry spring which meant tons of leaf rollers. I would hear random people at the grocery stores talking about it and there was even a garden column in the newspaper talking about what to do for next year. I heard BT will work on leaf rollers. I’ve never heard of spinosad. I’ll look into that. I did spray neem oil and it killed them but by then it was too late. The neem oil seemed to discolor and soak into the berries that survived so I’m not sure if it is the best choice.

Last year the robins were eating my berries. This year I haven’t seen a single robin. I don’t have any berries for them to eat so that could be a reason.

2 Likes

You may try the russian varieties - they are more early. The new varieties from Backchar are very good.

2 Likes

i have the Canadian varieties. wish we could get the Russian ones here.

2 Likes

I don’t think any of those varieties are sold in the US? I think we are mostly limited to the Maxine Thompson varieties, the University of Saskatchewan varieties, and the Berries Unlimited varieties, plus a few other random old imports here and there.

2 Likes

Here, in Europe there are nurceries from Poland and Chech Republic who sell russian varieties. I have different problem - they suffer from hot and dry weather - more than canadian varieties.

2 Likes

I have Blue Moon, Blue Velvet (which taste like a cross between blueberry and guava), Aurora and Borealis which have not started bearing yet. They were easy to propagate from cuttings when i took while pruning. I just dipped them in rooting hormone and inserted into sand in pot on seed heating mat. I started a bunch of currents just putting them in a jar of water so i may try that with the honey berries and see which has more success. I have not had any problem with pests and the birds seemed to ignore them.

2 Likes

I tried honeyberry cuttings in a glass of water in late autumn. They sprouted 1/8 inch roots, then started to die. I then potted the rest, but they all died.

1 Like

What time of year did you take the cuttings?

1 Like