Haskaps: The Perfect Low-Maintenance Berry 

Thanks - added to the list. Will prune in late March - so expect a video then :)

@@maritimegardening4887 thank you! I’ll keep an eye out for it.

Same challenges here with the blueberries in Alberta Canada. I feel your pain, but love the Haskap berries/honey berries.

Morning!

Mine were "falling off the vine" ripe. That's as ripe as it gets :)

they are ready when they easly fall off the plant with a shake.

Boreal Beauty cultivar of Haskap has bigger sweeter fruits, I also really like the aurora cultivar.

I tried these when they were falling off the bush. Purple all the way through. As I said - some people have more sensitive palates than others.

I've grown them in the past - not a fan personally - but I agree, they were easy to grow and prolific

Awesome - you will not be sorry!

I have Aurora and they are really sweet und great to eat right from the bush. My other varieties are more sour and better used in jams.

Would love to hear about the differences in sweetness, taste and size between those cultivars? :) also if any one of them is more prolific?

@@elsef6798 HI Else. Well our haskaps are still only 1 to 2 years old. Alot of them haven't produced at all yet. The one that grew the most and also produced the most was Zalushka which we purchased from a Quebec nursery. Zalushka seems to be Russian for Cinderella and I can't find anything about Zalushka on line but Cinderella is available. We also got a good harvest from Boreal Blizzard. There are still haskaps on our Aurora bushes that need to ripen. My understanding is that newer varieties are being developed for sweetness so these are likely to give you a sweeter berry. Enjoy.

Thank you! I’m living in Denmark and the selections here are slim. I can find neither Cinderella nor Zalushka. I’ll be hoping for any new cultivars on the way 😊

@@elsef6798 Hi again Else. It is tricky finding many different varieties here as well. Good nurseries that are online often only have a few different options and they seems to change from year to year. The University of Saskatchewan in Canada has developed many of these, in the past decade or so. They are recommended as productive and sweeter than many of the older varieties. They include boreal beast, boreal blizzard, boreal beauty, aurora, tundra, and borealis. My collection is made up mostly of the first four of these and then I've got several other individual ones - like cinderella. I would recommend any of the newer University of Saskatchewan varieties. Make sure to consult pollination charts which are available on line. 🙂

Thank you so much for the great tip! I will make sure to do that 😊👍

I had these falling off the bush - still tart.

There is water everywhere here. I think they like the berries :) The birds here seem to like everything - but yes -a trail cam is a good idea. The problem with the trail cam is sifting through 1000 pictures the next day. Its eat up a lot of time - and that's why I don't have any trail cam videos. I have three trail cams and have wasted hours of my life sifting though 1000s of vids and pics of nothing trying to capture cool stuff with them. One of these years I'll get lucky - maybe with the hascaps. I'm a sucker for punishment so I will try again :) It think its probably true that some birds use them more as a water source than as an energy source - but there is no shortage of water here - even before I made the pond, so I imagine some birds just like them.

I've not had cedar waxwings - but yes - a net is your only hope :)

I find they are good eaten fresh...I eat them with a lil cream! :)

@@rogerweir1772 I have heard that there are some cultivars that are wildly better than others.

Yes - bird netting is a very good idea - they don't seem to mind the tartness

Sorry to hear that! You need fencing my friend :")

I had same thing happen chewed to nubs but came back and took a couple years to start producing again, but did survive surprisingly.

@@maritimegardening4887 or, a well-placed snare or two...

I have no idea. I'd imagine the cuttings would work with a little growth hormone

​@@maritimegardening4887 Most northern fruit bushes are dead easy to take cuttings from. I may just order a few of these, and give it a go. Worse case, I waste 5 min, and a tiny fraction of my rooting hormone. I think it comes down to the project triangle, like most things in life. You have good, fast, and cheap, but you can only pick two. Just remembered to ask the bloke next to remind his friend I want some cuttings of his Chaenomeles japonica (Japanese Quince). His father planted them 50+ years ago, and he had no idea what they were, until I identified them from four descriptors. They have really nice red flowers, and are hard as nails. Whilst the fruit isn't really edible, like a lot of crab apples. It's excellent for getting jam to set properly. I think they only grow to just over a meter, maybe 1.5 meters wide. Chaenomeles speciosa is a 10x10 foot oriental shrub sized plant. It's grown right across from the far north of China to Scandinavia. And I wouldn't be at all shocked if they weren't growing wild somewhere in Canada, where some old timer had a farm house. Both are listed as deer & rabbit resistant. But I think that's down to how hungry that deer/rabbit is when it finds your plant. 10x10 is a lot of space to be taking up where you could be growing other things. If you're only using a few fruit per large batch of jam. Then having them outside the fence could be an option. They have an interesting history, and one of those plants you'd have seen in every farm/large kitchen garden years ago. I think it's still the main soft drink in parts of Russia & maybe the north of China. Not a lot of fruit to chose from when you get nearer the poles.

@@maritimegardening4887 All the fruit has a good video on them. Flowering quince taste comparison (Chaenomeles spaciosa, japonica, hybrid 'Pink Lady', kathayensis)