What's the verdict on Honeyberries...are they tasty?

I’m wondering if we have a really mild winter, if these will ripen:

I took that photo today.

4 Likes

lol! blame the Canadians. i agree. nothing like honey. :wink: i love them fresh but i like stuff on the tart side.

5 Likes

I had two down by Santa Rosa, CA (9a-b) in ground. They did pretty good until the water system failed, that was the end. I liked the few tiny berries I got, so I’m thinking on trying again up at my place further north. This time, I’ll actually try to grow decent varieties and give them better care.

2 Likes

Honeyberry because they are in the honeysuckle family, has nothing to do with honey from bees…

2 Likes

unlikely…

2 Likes

Should’ve called them “suckle berries”…

1 Like

lol, most people that dont like the either have the wrong varieties or are harvesting them too early, or possibly are growing them in the wrong climate/conditions. Overall they are pretty good though IMO.

3 Likes

I think the nurseries that sell them are to blame for misrepresentation. We grow two cultivars, “solo” and “boreal blizzard”. Both were described as delicious, but while the blizzard is very pleasant indeed (better than blueberries in my opinion due to lack of discernible seeds), solo is extremely tart. (Note – they grow side-by-side in my garden, so the conditions are as similar as they could be.) This pair works for us as we eat the blizzard and make preserves from the solo, but we could have easily ended up with two tart varieties and not known what a good-tasting haskap is.

4 Likes

I had:

One Green world
Boreal Beast
berry blue
blue moon
aurora
Blue Pagoda
Blue Hokkaido

Starkbros:
Blue Banana
Blue Diamond
Happy Giant

Random nurseries in person:
Boreal
Tundra

Hated them all…

For Blueberries i have:
Blueberry
[ ] Powderblue - R🐰
[ ] Brightwell - :rabbit:
[ ] Ochlocknee - :rabbit:

[ ] BlueRay - nhb
[ ] Sweetheart x3 - hb

[ ] Patriot - nhb
[ ] Darrow x2 - hb
[ ] Liberty - nhb
[ ] Draper x2 - hb
[ ] Toro x4 - hb
[ ] Spartan - hb
[ ] Razz - nhb

[ ] Bluejay - hb
[ ] Pink popcorn - nhb
[ ] Pink lemonade - :rabbit:
[ ] Chandler x3 - high bush
[ ] Jersey?? - nhb
[ ] O’Neal - shb
[ ] Sweetcrisp x5 - shb
[ ] Florida rose x5 :rabbit:

[ ] Springhigh - shb
[ ] Windsor - shb

[ ] Kabluey x2 - nhb

[ ] Talisman - nhb
[ ] Pearl - shb
[ ] Hannah’s choice - nhb
[ ] Columbus - :rabbit:
[ ] Top shelf - nhb
[ ] Bonus x2 - hb
[ ] Nocturne

Have krewer x2, titan, Vernon coming in the mail from isons.

I just got Kestrel as well the other day

1 Like

Since Honeyberries only grow in a few clusters near the tips and middle of the stems, i don’t think their production could surpass a blueberries.

I only bought them because i thought they were the same as witches finger grapes that i had in south Korea. I only found out recently that the witches finger are grapes and not Honeyberries. There were some that looked exactly like Honeyberries but are not… Honeyberries also take too long to ripen after turning dark blue/purple.

The only blueberries i regret getting were the diseased ones from backyard berry plants. They all came with severe rust fungus. Strange because they haven’t spread to my other blueberries so I’m guessing the ones from backyard berry plants were just sick to begin with.

1 Like

There is enough disparity in popularity for me to still be excited for mine to hopefully survive to fruiting. However my expectations are tempered a bit.

2 Likes

Agree. But it does have me wondering what the optimum DLI level for honeyberries and the possibility of growing them in high tunnels for an second light late fall harvest in my zone.

I would think high tunnels would be too hot in summer. Once your bushes mature, just a few bushes will feed a family. We have them coming out of our ears.

1 Like

They’re not named for their flavor. They are a type of shrubby honeysuckle (a group of plants that produce lots of nectar in their flowers). Berry from a honeysuckle > “honeyberry.”

They’re not all sour though. I’ve really liked ‘Blue Pagoda’ (Chitose #11) which I see you had listed as one of the varieties you tried growing. I find its fruit is very balanced in flavor AND it sets reliably without a second variety for cross-pollination. Would you consider that you might have been picking the fruit a bit under-ripe and also that your expectation for very sweet created a contrast with the actual taste which contributed to the disappointment more so than the actual flavor?

4 Likes

I have just 21 plants, 13 different varieties.

I don’t understand the difficulty growing them & have never heard the word “hate” associated with them.

But, to each their own. Mine work out great.

3 Likes

Well now you have multiple times from me :grin: i hate Honeyberries. They’re disgusting to me and too disease prone

haters gonna hate I guess… :wink:

5 Likes

What diseases were you having? Because powdery mildew on some of them is both a known… & non-issue.

1 Like

Ater’s gonna ain’t :smirk:

1 Like

Maybe known to people who grow them a lot but not know for people starting out. Also can be detrimental if you have a lot of plants that can’t recover as well.

Fact of the matter is, not every plant will be everyone’s cup of tea and that’s okay.

Just like how most people aren’t growing mangos or citrus after trying it out a few times and realizing its different compared to what they’re used to. Or if they thought it was one plant but ended being a whole different species than what one thought it could’ve been. Not everyone has to like the same things as everyone else.

I love growing mangos, passion fruit, citrus, and feijoa. Most people probably don’t.

If something has a common occurrence yearly and I’m just finding out about it, I’m not going to risk my multiple 700$+ plants to try to keep a small handful of of 20-50$ plants who’s fruit i don’t even like, alive. I’ll choose the ones I’ve been with longest before the new ones i decided to hyper focus on for half a growing season.

1 Like