I was wrong! They are waking up fast now. Here’s Blue Forest, which is farther along than the other one:
I see a sneaky Himalayan blackberry trying to creep in under the fence behind it, I’ll have to do battle with that sucker later.
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It was a beautiful sunny day with no wind, so I added some ash to them. I’ve had enough of him. I sift so that there are no coarser coals and when there is no wind, it is applied well and the wind does not blow it. At the same time, the snow will melt earlier.
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To be sure, I would also put a little mineral NPK on their snow.
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You might be surprised … some of the US and Canadian hybrids are pretty tasty.
Preferrable to currants, maybe blueberries even.
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Now I know!)
Update on my Texas 8a honeyberries. To recap my earlier post I planted Willa, Boreal Beast, Aurora and Maxie in November which were dormant. All except Maxie started to leaf out in mid Dec. then hit a 8F cold snap, didn’t really phase them much and kept growing. They started flowering in mid January, hand pollinated and I am seeing seeing berry formation. Then we had a 2 day 24F cold snap with an ice storm covering the plants around Feb.1. The Aurora leaves looked wilted and looked dead, but as it warmed some of these leaves bounced back and as far as I can tell the berries are fine. Same with Willa I think but the berries are still small so will wait and see on that plant. Definitely some leaf damage on the newest Willa growth but the slightly older leaves survived the ice no problem. They continue to flower after all this so more pollenating to do. I may well get a few berries off of these. We are still getting occasional light freezes at this point briefly at 28-29F for a couple hours on a few nights. Last freezes here are usually end around end of Feb. Always possible to get a bad freeze in late Feb. but less common. This is working better than expected so far.
I also had planted Blue Pagoda and Boreal Beauty the previous year which remained dormant till first week of Feb. and are starting to grow now too which I believe will be the normal time for the established plants to exit dormancy here in TX. The Maxie I planted also leafed and flowered Feb. 1.
So I would assume the berries would be ripening in May before too much serious heat here starts. Which would be perfect. They should be able to handle warm but not too hot May TX temps. Given their ability to really shake off the sporadic light freezes we have they may well work as a very early crop. Time will tell and I should have a better idea by the end of February.
Kind of surprised the dormant bushes I planted in Nov. with a mid December dormancy break, I assumed the lack of chill hours would not result in berries this year but didn’t seem to matter. I was not sure if we got enough chill hours for berry production in Texas at all… So not really sure what the chill requirements for these would be. The November planted bushes at best got 2-300 hours of chill. Maybe the berries will fall off due to lack of chill but not so far. One of my zone pushing experiments that so far is promising.
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Maybe instead of chill, one measures heat hours with them in warmer climates? Plum trees are like that. I can’t quote you a source, but I’ve heard that they are supposed to require more heat hours to wake up from dormancy, after a short chill period. I’m referring to Methley and Santa Rosa. Higher chill plums are probably different.
I’m glad to hear the more established ones started emerging in February.
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Mine have been blooming for 15 days or so…first Aurora, then Czech 17…but all but Indigo Teat I think today.
Beauty and Beast in bloom also.
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I’m guessing it’s been a bit warmer there than here, these La Niña winters always are cold for us but warm for the eastern half of the continent. Here are my outside temperatures since Jan 1:
They are in the shadow of a fence, so haven’t had direct sun since early fall. They are in the only area of my yard where the topsoil froze solid for a good portion of that chart, I figured honeyberries were something that could handle that spot.
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They seem to handle everything but cedar waxwings. I even accidentally poured gasoline on a bush. It turned brown and looked like a goner. The next spring it resprouted and is thriving again. I think it is boreal beauty or blizzard, I forget which.
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Based on your graph I’d not think the ground to be frozen.
But, yes, the ‘polar vortex’ staying close to the poles instead of dipping into Texas or Tennessee means it’s been nice here (ecept for the X-mas period.
February gave us from 19 to at least 76 – and some reports of 80 I think.
The honeyberries not hurt at all by the 19.
Only one corner of the yard froze, in deep shade. With the low sun angle, it gets zero sun for the entire winter, so the snow melted everywhere else but became a block of ice there that helped freeze the first few inches of soil, too. It’s all melted now, though, after heavy rains recently.
The honeyberries started budding out even though the ground was frozen around them at the time.
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Are your temperatures warm enough for bees to be pollinating?
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Currently 74. Reached 60’s yesterday after frost in the a.m. It got to 76 and 74 and 73 on other recent occasions.
But some days of 58 for a high and some days of 30+ mph ‘breezes’…no bees.
Besides, bees are not plentiful in the best of conditions.
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Yep!
Czech 17 and the first Aurora I hand pollinated both have little green berries!
Don’t see any set fruit on the others yet. Many blossoms probably not pollinated. Indigo Treat is a tiny plant still …three years in and it has not leafed out but has green stems so it’s alive. Boreal Beast is in good bloom…got couple years back from JUNG’s.
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Those are Honeyberry bushes?!?! Mine are still little things. I assumed they always would be!
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Anyone have a larger list in chart form. There are lots of cultivars not included on this chart.
19F earlier (Sun/Mon)…blackened some shoots, others not bothered, even on same plant.
Boreal Beauty still blooming and looks damaged the least out of the cultivars that bloomed.
Most blooms dropped…I assume not pollinated, but noticed a couple berries here and there that made it. 70’s yesterday, 50’s currently. Spring finally here it seems. I hope.
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