Yeah in addition to Aurora I had Willa, Boreal Beast. The sweet sour tastes were from Willa and Boreal Beast which were similar. I had Maxie which made some really tiny fruits so it was hard to get a good sense of the full flavor but think it was similar to Willa etc. Haven’t tasted Solo and Maxine’s Opus but others have and Solo was good and Opus was very good and highly ranked along with Aurora. I have Opus now but no berries yet. Pretty much any of the U of S or Maxine Waters cultivars are fine. Some are a bit better than others, but no bitterness of some of the older cultivars.
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A couple of my plants got that too!
They did sweeten. I was being impatient and picking them early.
These definitely weren’t fully ripe, they needed a strong tug to pick, but this member of the family didn’t care and just spent 20 minutes picking the bush clean:
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Did she like them? Hope mine can produce next year and maybe then mine will be old enough to see if she approves
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She loved them, but she also likes underripe blueberries, underripe Luma apiculata berries, fresh Montgomery cherries, and arugula, thyme, and oregano flowers, so she’s tolerant of sourness and strong flavors.
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been eating the indigo series for a week. a few auroras were near ripe. so much fruit the bushes are bending over. the boreal ones were the most covered. going to be a great year for honeyberries.
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The cedar waxwings are gorging themselves in spite of the nets. I hope they leave me some.
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I have several fairly young Honeyberry bushes. This spring 4 of them flowered and appeared to set fruit. They were tiny green things, about 3/16" long. They seemed to be doing fine, then within a few days they all pretty much disappeared. I am not sure what happened to them, did a critter eat them (seems unlikely at this very young and unripe stage), did the bushes abort them (it has been dry and warmer here lately). I do not see any on the ground under the plants, but with the mulch they could easily be missed.
Any thoughts about what might have happened?
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This is my guess. I start watering mine regularly any time they are holding green fruitlets and it’s been dry. Last year I didn’t start watering soon enough and lost a bunch more fruitlets than usual.
It’s also possible they were not sufficiently pollinated, I usually see some percentage of fruitlets that hold initially and never develop, and I assume it’s a pollination issue. But my money is on the dry weather.
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Could well be it. I started watering some (like 2gal per bush) every other day, but that may not have been enough.
The grasshoppers have been feasting on my honeyberries. They like the apple and pear foliage too.
It was a good year for honeyberries. I finished picking the last of the auroras tonight. Honeybee also put out quite a bit this year but the berries are tiny compared to some of the newer varieties.
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wow. you guys are late up there. aurora was done by mid july here.
My honeyberry leaves are turning brown even on the new growth, I’m in zone 6b. I don’t think it’s from a fungus as I’ve tried to treat for it. I’ve heard that this is normal in the summer and I don’t have a shade cloth for them and it’s been in the 90s quite a bit recently. I’m probably going to move them to a shadier location till the end of August as they’re in pots. Anyone else have this happen to them? I’m planning on trying some cuttings and getting new plants and I want to make sure it’ll not be for nothing.
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My tundra in 7b has no leaves now because it fried
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Ah ok, mine are a bit better than that right now. Do they come back in the fall when things cool off and the suns lower in the sky?
Pretty much it just goes dormant once the last probably 6 leaves it has left fall off. Then it comes back at the end of Feb for me. My Aurora and indigo gem still have leaves, but look a little unhappy
I should have probably listed my varieties but they are the Maxie and Solo. That’s good to know, it’s a bit sad seeing them loose their leaves late summer but as long as they come back. I’m going to expand the varieties and try some shade cloth to see if I can extend that growing period a bit. I know it’s an unnaturally long summer compared to their native area though