We did a little pie with just haskaps along with some flour, sugar and a bit of actual honey to help up the sweetness. It was tart, but still good.
The winner was using them in a Mennonite style custard pie. Easy and you got a good taste of the cooked berry. I brought it to a wine tasting dinner and people really liked the flavour.
I skimmed back down through this chain. I see that this is the recommended time to take cuttings. So can I just cut them, dip them in rooting compound and poke them into the ground? Would this work better in partial shade near the house where I can keep an eye on them to keep the ground moist and perhaps put a plastic container over them, or can I put them in the sun in my garden like I did with the dormant currant and gooseberry cuttings last fall, which are leafed out and seem happy. I would like to try some cuttings, but am so swamped with garden chores, plus occasional periods away from home for several days, that I can’t putter and baby cuttings in containers. Or should I just try air layering? Would ziplocks and peat mixed with topsoil work for air layering? I am looking for something rather carefree, rather than super high success rates. I have had some success with bending a branch down to the ground and covering it with a stone and a bit of dirt, but it is hard to do with chicken wire cylinders around the bushes, and the rodents nibble them if they stick out.
Ive had my best luck taking cuttings and keeping them in flats with humidity dome over for 2-3 weeks, until roots start to form. Dont do this in direct sunlight, the heat will be trapped and bake them, I typically do it indoors under artificial lights, a well shaded area outside might work also if temps dont get too high.
nice set up!
This is a great thread! I am going to purchase more varieties next spring. I wonder if anyone growing honeyberry has ever had them bloom more than once? My Indigo Gem and Bluebird have bloomed three times this year! I had my first berries this spring and then they bloomed in July and are blooming now again in August. It was in the 90’s for at least half of July. This is the third season I have had them. I am so surprised by it especially since last year they all defoliated in the heat.
a problem i wish i had! 
Well if they made fruit, yeah but it’s just flowering. I just don’t want it to expend energy and then not fruit in the spring and I am hoping I didn’t cause it by over fertilizing.
i only fertilze mine in the spring and i probably should give them more in mid summer but they have done fine for me so far. i also top off the wood chips around them with another 3in. every spring,
I only fertilized in the spring as well, mulched with old hay.
Believe it or not, twice maintenance men hired cheaply by my apartments to cut things nicely have purposefully chopped down the pollinator of my honeyberries!! So I have two that do not go together still alive. However, I have had a couple berries over the years, which makes me think someone else is growing them somewhere in my area.
Here it is August, and I found near bottom of the oldest bush a wrinkled raisin! I did taste it, and it was very sweet…well it was a raisin.
I’ve had my haskap orchard do a second flowering twice since I planted it. I noticed it typically follows droughts/high temps, followed by a real soaker rain. Sadly, I noticed a drop in my fruit loads for the following year. It certainly affects crop load, which I’m sure would also mean the second flowerings expend energy and lessen the vigor of the plant.
I have a f4iend who dries a portion of his honeyberry crop. He shared somemwith me and they were very delicious and nicely texture, shelf-stable
This is what I am afraid of, stress on the plant causing it to fruit less the following year. It flowered three times this year, no fruit after the first harvest. Thanks for your input!
Make it some compost tea this year with fish bone meal or seabird guano and kelp or alfalfa or do a few feedings with very mild potassium phosphate and kelp around the plant this fall. Then i would mildly top dress with fish bone meal kelp and alfalfa in the winter after petal fall so you can reinvigorate the plant before spring. Doing this has helped me stop plants from becoming biennial and helps any plant from depleted phosphorous and potassium reserves from fruit production.
Were the dried honeyberries sweetened?
So my local garden centers only carry the older varieties: Borealis, Cinderella, and Berry blue. If I remember comments about these on the thread, they are fairly tart. I don’t mind that as much as others, but does anyone have additional comments on these? (I’ll also order or trade for some aurora this winter, but wondering about these as pollinators, extra varieties.).
Yes, I know I can order online too, and I will. I’m just wondering about these varieties since they are potted, good size, and ready now.
I have borealis berry blue and tundra, the berries are tart but ok (however the robins and especially cedar waxwings really like them so will need to be netted to get more than a couple hidden berries!) In terms of berry quality they are valuable in being early and something different but dont compare to strawberries raspberries blueberries or even currants more inline with saskatoon…good but not great
See whats funny is i think honeyberries are extremely good and equal to many of the best fresh blueberries i have had. However my plants have never produced a ton (They are young like 10 to 30 a season) so maybe them putting all that effort into a few fruits yields extremely good examples?
They taste a little bitter, sweet, tart and astringent all in one. To me they taste exactly like an unripe plum. I let my hang on the bush for quite a while and they never get past tasting just like one. They are good because they are early and here in Utah they flourish in the shade under my apple trees, so they can be planted in those areas where nothing can grow.
