Planting Honey (Haskap) Berries in the Alberta Urban Garden

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I am really excited about these plants. A Friend of mine suggested I try our Honey Berries. Not knowing what they were I quickly went to the internet and did some searching. The University of Saskatchewan came up and I was awash with information. Originally a cross between two edible blue honey suckles, the Russian (Zhimolost) and the Japanese (Haskap) to produce the North American Honey Berry. The University of Saskatchewan is working to create different varieties that are both great to eat and can be commercially grown. In most cases you will need two varieties to get cross pollination and because these are new some will not pollinate each other. Make sure to check and make sure you are getting two that will pollinate each other. They will need to be with in a few meters of each other to make sure the pollinators can do their job. Honey Berries or Haskaps will grow quickly typically to a height of 5-8 feet tall and wide. They flower first in the spring which are extremely cold tolerant having reportedly withstanding -7c (19F). I picked up a Berry Blue that is closest to the garden and a Borealis They are an early producer usually yielding in late June before your strawberries and blueberries. I am really excited about this! With all of the recent additions to our perennials the Seascape and Sierra F1 Strawberries, Rhubarb and three types of Raspberries are wonderfully complimented by Blueberries, Goji Berries, Grapes and finally the Honey Berries. We should now be able to have ripe fruit from mid June right until the first frost in October! As a side note most of these are GREAT for wine production! Some of my favorite childhood memories are of gardening with my parents and brothers. This channel is about low cost organic urban gardening in zone 3. I am by no means an expert gardener however I love to share my experiments and journey garden year round. Please feel free to join the conversation and if you think you might like this channel subscribe. Have a great day! Check us out on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/stephenlegaree14 Webpage: www.albertaurbangarden.ca Google +: google.com/+StephenLegaree Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AlbertaUrbanGarden Twitter: https://twitter.com/northern1485 Pintrest: http://www.pinterest.com/ABurbanGarden/

Comments

could honeyberry survive on hot climate ,temperatures over 40 celcous?

Are the honey berries doing good.

Honey berries :000

i just bought 3 haskap plants because of this video! can i request an update of their progress / fruit / pest issues / growth / watering needs, etc..? excited!

I live in Edmonton. Bought 3 last year. 1 Borealis, and 2 Aurora The Borealis was just a bit larger than the ones in this video. The Auroras are new and I had to get them from a place down east. They were just plugs. All of them grew a few inches last year, and a few more this year. The plugs are growing faster than the larger plant.

(The Auroras seem to be available in stores here this year too. Larger fruit and supposed to be sweeter too.)

All the plants flowered last year and this year, and produced fruit. This is a bit unexpected as I though the plugs would take up to 3 years to do any producing. I really should have cut the blooms off of the Auroras so the plants would put more into growing, but I really wanted to try a berry to see what they taste like. (The Borealis needs the Auroras for cross pollination.)

So year one there were lots of flowers but only a few berries on each plant. And only 2 or 3 berries made it to eating (Borealis)...and they were a bit sour....think I picked them a bit too soon.
Year two there were a lot more flowers, but again only 2 berries made it to eating (Auroras)...although they were really good.
(We have some cherries too...Evans, Romeo, Crimson Passion. They were planted last year too, and all flowered like crazy this year, but not a single cherry produced....although they have all grown about 1/2 a foot to a foot...pretty substantial. I assume the oddly warm winter and spring may have something to do with the lack of berries on all the plants. Plus the plants are all newly planted and so may not be 100% settled in yet.)

All the plants are super healthy. I'm hoping to have a lot of berries next year. (Year 3) :-)

PS: They are all in a sunny and sheltered location. And watered every week...or a bit more in the 28C+ temps.
Soil used was about 1/4 to 1/3 compost soil + tree and shrub soil from HomeDepot. Used root booster fertilizer (for transplanting), Mike's fungus stuff for root growth (Can't remember the exact name.), and bone meal when we planted them.
Lawn was kept back at least a foot from the plants...but this year we tor it up where the plants are and put down a 2" layer of bark chips...we will be adding another inch to that next year.
Grass will compete with the plants so it's bast to keep it away from them if you can. The bark (or wood mulch) helps to keep moisture in, grass and weeds out, adds nutrients as it degrades, and is good for worms. But it should be kept a foot away from the plants as well...as the rotting can rob the surface soil of Nitrogen.
And I think I put a fruit fertilizer spike in the outside rim of the dirt hole of each of the plants this spring. They may have also got a bit of lawn fertilizer last year and this year.

,yy

i am putting 9 in next week in the alley central ND :D

i came across these awesome looking plants last year and planted them in my garden and tried following what they liked for soil conditions, they grew back very nice this year but only 1 had a few blooms which didnt amount to anything and the other showed no blooms. they said you needed a male and Female plant for the honey berries so i bought one of each, hopefully next year theyll show some fruit

I am in Medicine hat an i have two haskop shrubs--three years this spring . they have had lots fruit each year . this year has not been a good year.late frost dry the month of April an cold not good but I did get 3jars of jelly. but now I am seeing a lot of rusty leaves I never saw this other years . if i send you a picture would you look at it. thanks

I have been growing these for 3 years now and have noticed they do bloom by late April, here in Southern Alberta. When they bloom the plant is loaded with buds. Last year it didn't produce much fruit even though it was loaded with bloosoms
so I think the wind blew the bloosoms off because there were lots on the ground around the plant and all the fruit it did produce was in the middle of the plant. Next year I plan to put up wind breaks while the plant is in bloom.

Best planting video on the honeyberry.....thanx

Hoping you an share more about your first ha eat this year and document the growth rate your little bushes obtained. Very interested in these for my place as well. I think my wife is nervous to plant something we have never eaten. Best of luck

Hi Stephen, these are relatively new to the UK and I have been wondering about planting them myself - a plus for me is that they don't need acid soil like blueberries do. I checked the botanical name - Lonicera caerulea - which might be helpful for people who are not familiar with this plant.

what other fruits and berries do you grow? I'm also interested in growing novelty fruits, so I'm gathering information on the internet. I hope you can help me :)

great video I too got some haskap. I notice you plant it pretty close to what look like a lawn. I heard you need to keep the lawn at least 3 feet from tree but i don't know if haskap as consider tree. because it suppresses tree growth

We grow Haskap/honeyberry commercially, and in spite of what they tell you, Haskap are not truly ripe until their Brix value is 15. And that doesn't happen until 3 weeks after they turn blue. So don't be deceived. They aren't ready before strawberries. That's a marketing ploy for the propagators. They were only ready this year on July 12-18, and I still have some that aren't ripe.

mee too. I just joined your facebook page.

hi Stephen.iam getting 2 honey berry bushes tomorrow from our local grower.she has 2 left and is saving them for me.they are the 4 foot tall zone 2 variety.too funny.i figured I better check out you tube for some info and there you where.so now ill have honey berries,blue berries,saskatoons,strawberries,apples,grapes.
thanks for all the great videos they sure help.
pierre roy