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20 years ago, our assortment was weak and often from seeds. Some were bitter. In 2001, two varieties were bred in Slovakia - Altai and Amur. Altai was very tall shrub - 1.8 m, poor fertility, fruits quite tasty with a special aroma. It served as a pollinator for the Amur variety. Amur is an unsurpassed variety so far in terms of balance of taste from all varieties that I have grown so far. It’s my honeyberries king.
Varieties I have experienced in cultivation:Amur, Altaj, Modrý Triumf, Sibír, Fialka, Morena, Čulimskaja, Jugana, Tundra, Leningradsky Velikan, Wojtek, Nymfa, Bakčarský Velikan, Amfora, Duet, Honeybee, Aurora, Blizzard, Beast, Sinij Utes, Vostorg.
I will break it down into criteria:
- taste criterion (They excel from the list with their dessert and aromatic taste)
1 is top.
- Amur
- Leningradský Velikán
- Aurora
- Jugana
- Morena
- Fertility + taste criterion
- Aurora
- Morena
- Amfora
- Jugana
- Wojtek
- Shelf life + fertility + taste criterion
- Top is Aurora
- Only fertility
- Honeybee
- Wojtek
- Size of fruits
- Bakčarský velikán – až 3,5 - 4cm
- Amfora – 3 – 3,5 cm
- Jugana
My top varieties are Aurora and Honeybee Pollinator, Honeybee, Amur, Amfora, Leningradký Velikán, Jugana, Morena.
If you want a dessert variety, you have to count on weaker fertility. The more varieties we have, the higher the probability of good pollination.
The sweetest variety and most aromatic I’ve tasted from my collection is the Leningradský Velikan. Amur has a more balanced acid / sugar ratio. There’s a taste for me.
Leningradsky Velikan - a variety selected in the Vavilov Institute from third generation seeds from the surroundings of Petropavlovsk in Kamchatka. The shrub is of medium size. Fruits dessert, sour-sweet taste with strong aroma. Secondary flowering undetected. Harvest from one shrub around 1kg. Falling fruit poor. Advantages of the variety: very tasty fruits, excellent transportability.
Lack of variety: less fertility
Then comes the Slovak variety Amur, which has a very balanced and dessert taste and does not fall. Disadvantage - poor fertility, but with good pollination fertility is quite sufficient. These varieties are good to eat directly from the bush and are excellent.
Amur - variety selected in the Slovak breeding institute Bojnice in 2001 from the free pollination of the Russian variety Gerda.
Shrubs of medium height with a height of about 1.5 m. Fruits with an average weight of about 0.8g with a bell-shaped fruit. Tasteful, relatively sweet, with no trace of bitterness. Advantages of the variety: excellent taste of fruits.
If somebody wants to include more criteria such as fruit size, fertility and taste in the variety selection, I would prefer the Canadian Aurora variety. A very vital variety that combines excellent properties such as fertility, size of fruits, flavor, aroma, strength of fruits and thus resistance to harvesting and storage is therefore also suitable for commercial use.