I need to cut and stick a soft cutting or three from my honeyberries…they need trimming to promote branching.
All of the hardwood cuttings that I stuck in my outdoor prop bed early - late winter have taken. There were 2 or 3 that I found hanging from the shrub. The cambium was green so I stuck them in the prop bed and they took too. They take just as good as currents do for me.
as soon as my auroras get big enough to do maintenence pruning ill be doing this. love aurora!
I did some cuttings…dipped in hormone … and planted today as a matter of fact!
What’s your set up? Inside, outside, in ground, in pots, mist?
The ones I tried in water indoors in late fall fizzled. Early this spring I put some Aurora cuttings directly in the ground. Jury is still out on them. Currants I did about three years ago did well. Ended up with about 20 new currant bushes of various varieties. I’m hoping for similar great results with honeyberries, of which I have many varieties to play around with.
only a few of the hundreds of cuttings ive taken have leaves on them. Might have something to do with your climate? Are you generally high humidity? I live in a dry/windy climate that could have something to do with my poor success… I had better luck last year when I calloused my cuttings over bottom heat before sticking them. I think Ill try that again next spring. Its still abit cool here so maybe some of my cuttings will come around, but Im not hopeful.
Very good observation @TheDerek . Today the humidity level where I live is predicted to be 91%.
Newbie with a question… I’ve read parts of this thread and skimmed some, lots of info. Ive seen some say that honeyberries do best in colder climates. Can anyone recommend some varieties that do well in zone 7a? If not, any good places for me to look/research? Or are they not worth messing with in my area/climate? I don’t know if any place around me carries honeyberry plants. Just got interested after stumbling on this thread.
Nope, shade of trees and sprinkled about every other day! They make it fine, they don’t fine. Most of currants and gooseberries made it this spring…most viburnum did not.
Berries unlimited sells honeyberries and they are located in Arkansas. The general consensus is that they might not thrive in a location that gets direct noon sun in hotter climates. If you have a place that gets mid day shade and you pick Japanese varieties like all the ones linked below, it is worth a try. Japanese varieties might handle the heat a little better than the Russian varieties.
All of the varieties hirts sells are Japanese.
https://hirts.com/search.php?search_query=haskap
like was said, afternoon shade. after they fruited it will look like they died but they go dormant in the heat of the summer and perk up once it starts to get cold again. Honeyberry USA has all of maxine thompsons japanese varieties with good descriptions of each. ive got all my honeyberries from them and they all have made it.
Hmmmm, I will have to work on figuring that out…I don’t have many good places with aftenoon shade. Thank you for advice and links.
They would probably do well close on the east side of a house or privacy fence. That way they get shade in the afternoon when the day is the hottest.
What variety?
Blue cloud
Well, this year is the first year since planting my Tundra and Aurora honeyberries in 2019 that I have really gotten to taste them. I’m impressed and pleased to have stumbled upon this little berry. I’m not normally a tart fruit person, but even when I pick these a little early and they are tart, I find that they are still enjoyable. Wait until they are ripe and I can’t really taste very much tartness. Let them dry out a little and WOW… yum! So, if I am to give my reply to the title of this thread, I say that they are VERY tasty (at least Tundra and Aurora are). I can hardly wait until some of my newer varieties, such as Beauty and Beast start to produce.
In my opinion they are amazing and maybe one of my favorite berries??? The people I have introduced to them too claim they are the best berry they have ever tasted. My wife hated on them until they were producing as they were getting “too much love”
their complexity of taste is like a good black currant. strong but richly flavored. both are fabulous for processing but fresh eating off the bush the honeyberry so far wins. im anxious to try some of the newer Russian black currants. they may change my mind and black currants are by far more productive.