Haskaps
Lonicera caerulea
They look like a cross between a blueberry and a football. These are fairly short ones. They can be twice this length. Each year there are more varieties.
No, they aren't blueberries on steroids. Berries are 2-3 times as long as they are wide. Most of the varieties in Canada came out of the University of Saskatchewan fruit program. Taste varies wildly between cultivars. Seems that there are separate genes for sweetness, tartness, and flavours, and you can get all possible combinations in varying degrees. (Breeders have found haskaps that are totally bland -- best description "They're wet...")
You do need two varieties that bloom at the same time.
Bushes are about 3-5 feet tall. In a good year they need to be propped up. Prune in late fall after leaf drop. Support with heavy duty tomato cages, peony rings, or stake and chickenwire.
Hascaps are naturally a wetland plant, often growing in land that goes squish in spring. They like a high organic peaty soil. They tolerate temps down to -7 when blooming -- good thing, since low wet areas are subjet to cold air drainage and late frosts.
This year (2019) we have:
Borealis
Tundra
Honeybee
Aurora
Blizzard
Indigo Yum
Pollination requirements.
Good: Compatible pollen, and generally blooms at the same time.
Ok: Compatible pollen and overlapping bloom period.
Poor: Either incompatible or marginally compatible pollen, or don't have the same blooming period.
Bad: Generally will not pollenate each other.
Looking at this table, we end up with some clusters that work well:
Boreal Beauty and Boreal Beast or Blizzard and Beast. Curiously Blizzard and Beauty don't cross pollinate well. Beast flowering overlaps with both of them
Aurora, Borealis and any of the Indigo series form a cluster.
Honeybee does at least Ok with everyone except Beauty.
The russians have so many members that picking two at random seems to do reasonably well. The indigo series are too closely related to pollenate each other well.
### Details of the cultivars.
Aurora: Traits ‘Aurora’
- Fruit Weight: 1.9 grams
- Fruit Shape: Pointed Pear somewhat
- Fruit Seen: Fruit easily seen on bushes
- Season (in SK): Late June / early Aug
- Mildew Resistance: High Resistance
- Bush Shape: Upright & spreading
- Bush Heigh: t 5 to 5.5 ft
- Fruit retention: Easy to pick
- Flavour: Excellent
- Bloom Time: (in SK) Mid May
- Productivity: High
- Lineage type: Russian x Japanese
- Lineage, parents: Solovey x MT46.55
Extracts from Aurora report, USask
Inventory tables are double rows to make them usable on small screens.
Common name and container in column 1.
Count is how many we think we have left. Price is per tree.
Height will be there next year, we hope.
Food -- Haskap
| Common Name Container |
Count Price |
Height (feet) |
|
| Haskap, Aurora #1 Std pot (3 qt) |
16 $20.00 |
||
| Haskap, Aurora #2 Std pot (6 qt) |
4 $35.00 |
||
| Haskap, Aurora #2 Std pot (6 qt) |
18 $42.50 |
||
| Haskap, Aurora #8 Std pot (24 qt) |
1 $100.00 |
||
| Haskap, Boreal Beast #1 Std pot (3 qt) |
1 $35.00 |
||
| Haskap, Boreal Blizzard #1 Std pot (3 qt) |
4 $35.00 |
||
| Haskap, Boreal Blizzard #2 Std pot (6 qt) |
-1 $35.00 |
||
| Haskap, Borealis #2 Std pot (6 qt) |
9 $40.00 |
||
| Haskap, Borealis #8 Std pot (24 qt) |
4 $100.00 |
||
| Haskap, Indigo Yum #7 Std pot (21 qt) |
-1 $80.00 |
||
| Haskap, Indigo Yum #8 Std pot (24 qt) |
1 $100.00 |
||
| Haskap, Tundra #5 Std pot (15 qt) |
3 $80.00 |
||
| Last Update: 2024-Jan-21 | |||
**Boreal Beast.
- Fruit Weight 2 g -- heavier than Tundra and Indigo, but lighter than Beauty and Blizzard.
- Pollen & Bloom period compatibility: Beauty, Blizard and Aurora.
- Aroma Excellent.
- Fruit Characteristics: Excellent firmness, excellent flavour, nice aroma and aftertaste.
- Mildew Resistance Excellent.
- Brix 13-18 sugars, 1.8 to 2.16 acidity.
- Harvest After Aurora and Blizzard, before Beauty (In saskatchewan)
- Growth Habit: Strongly upright.
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