I’ve not had bird problems in my large honeyberry patch until this year. Cedar waxwings are very bold, laugh at scare-eye balls, bird flash tape, even a few get inside the nets. I have gotten within 2 1/2 feet of them before they fly. Be prepared for war when you plant honeyberries if you plan to eat any.
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ive got netting at the ready and have my earliest producing 2 out of my front window. only birds i see go under there are a few sparrows so far. the indigo series hide their berries well but the others not so much. i put out the flash tape yesterday after i saw a sparrow come out of there.
Seems like one of the best ways to discourage birds is by encouraging raptors to nest nearby, especially the smaller bird eating raptors…
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the open field to the west of my property has plenty of them. once in awhile ill see a redtail perched on top of my big pines and spruces. the crows all go nuts!
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I collect a variety - Aurora. There are many fruits. This year, there is a lot of sun and the taste of Aurora is great.
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Nice bunch of berries!
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I just made a batch of giant “crumbl” style cookies using some of this years haskap. I went with a bit more than the recipe calls for since they are less dense than blueberries and used frozen. The jam was some of my haskap/black raspberry.
They are really tasty and showy for guests. I think the tartness works better than blueberries would!
Recipe used from Pinterest.
The best Crumbl Blueberry Muffin Cookies with Streusel - Lifestyle of a Foodie
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i got a few like that off of indigo gem but not as well formed as yours.
the jam i made from my indigo gem/ treat was very good. even though i dialed back the sugar by 2 cups i still found it was sweeter than id like. the recipe says use equal amounts of sugar and fruit by weight. id say half would be best. my wife really likes it but she has a sweeter tooth than me.
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Oof, that’s a lot of sugar. Depending on the natural acidity and pectin content, usually 40-70% is a good number. I’m not sure what the pectin levels of honeyberries are, but I’d guess they’re on the higher end. For more info, check out this great article on how to make jam from almost any fruit without a recipe and without adding pectin.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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. 
must of got the hint as my Patriot blueberries are ripening and they have left them alone.
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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.
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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.