Haskaps (Honeyberry)

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They look like honeysuckle flowers because that’s what they are.
Honeyberries are fruiting honeysuckle bushes, so you get the benefit of beautiful
flowers as well as fruit. This deciduous bush are in the genus Lonicera from the family
Caprifoliaceae. Haskaps are known by many names including: Honeyberries, Edible Honeysuckles,
Blue Honeysuckles, Sweet Berry or even the Canadian Honey Berry. The fruit of these delicious
berries resembles a cross between a blueberry and a long grape. Originating from Siberia, these
berries are said to taste like a cross between raspberries and blue berries with a kiwi-like texture.
Each haskap berry contains two twin purple-blue berries inside, wrapped in an outer purple-blue
skin, with deep crimson flesh. They have an amazing ability to survive hostile, freezing northern
winters. Haskap berries have been enjoyed as a wild crop berry and also used in traditional medicine.

Unlike other perennials, honeyberries can be productive just one year after planting. They
go on to produce berries for 30 years or more with benign neglect for management.
The one place where honeyberries are particular is in pollination. To produce fruit, you
need at least 2 different varieties that bloom at the same time. Your garden center can
help you find the right match for the selections that they carry. You can put 5
cultivars in for each pollinator. Both the cultivar and the pollinator bear fruit. Plant
them in the same area so that your wild bees can find them and cross-pollinate them.
Examples of Pollenizers are Honey Bee, Indigo Gem, Indigo Treat, Berry Smart Blue, Tundra,
Aurora or Blizzard.

Introduction

Description

Optimal Time/Temperature for Germination:

Haskaps are extremely cold hardy as well, growing and producing fruit where winters hit 55 below zero. These cold-natured plants seldom produce well in climates where summer temperatures often rise above 85F (30C). Those low-lying frost pockets, where the ground gets damp every Spring, maybe the perfect spot to plant a few haskaps. While they do better if their roots aren’t in standing water, they can produce on the ground that occasionally gets swampy in spring. While hardiness varies by variety (zones 1 to 7) they grow best in zones 2, 3 and 4. They need a cold winter dormancy each year. Some varieties will grow and produce in climates as warm as zone 8.

Optimal Soil Conditions:

Haskaps are popular in permaculture gardens because of their low maintenance needs. They’re cold hardy, fast-growing and tolerant of poor soil. They have been known to do well on clay soils where other crops have failed. Under ideal conditions, they’d grow in loam with a pH of about 6.5. Haskaps don’t need acid soil like blueberries and are adapted to a wide variety of soil pH, from 5.4 to 7.9. In northern climates, this berry produces best in full sunlight. If you’re growing in the south, however, plant your Honeyberries in partial shade to save it from overheating that can show some distress. Sun / wind scald on some cultivars, especially the early blooming ones, and can naturally experience browning and dropping of leaves.

Seed Planting Depth, Spacing and Procedure:

Haskap shrubs maximum height growth is 6-8 ft. with a maximum width of 4-5 ft. so you can plant them 7 ft. apart so overcrowding doesn’t limit your harvest. At 3 ft. apart, they grow into an attractive hedge. The fruit will hold on to the bush after-ripening and continues to sweeten as it holds. In a warm summer, the fruit may dry on the bush, like raisins, intensifying its sweetness and flavor. It’s vital to mix and match a couple varieties to ensure proper pollination. In addition, try to choose varieties that flower on a similar schedule for maximum berry production. Here are easy steps for starting the Honeyberry from a cutting: 1) Choose a mature tree that’s at least 5 years old and pick a healthy branch to cut. 2) Use a clean blade or pruning shears to cut about six inches of the branch. Make sure the branch doesn’t have cuts. 3) Place the cutting in a jar full of water and keep it in a sunny spot. 4) Change the water every few days since the cutting could rot in stagnating water. 5) After about 4 weeks the first roots will shoot out of the cutting submerged in the water. 6) Fill a small container with a regular potting mix and water it to make it moist. 7) Dig a hole in the soil about three inches deep and plant the cutting in the hole. 8) Fill the hole with soil and pack it to push out air pockets. 9) Don’t let the soil go dry. Keep it moist regularly for the next couple of months. 10) Take the plant outside for a few hours every day to harden it. 11) When leaves show at the top of the sapling, you know that the root system is well established and you’re ready to move it to its permanent place outdoors. 12) Pick a spot in the garden that gets either full sun or partial sun. 13) Dig a hole deep enough to accommodate the rootball of the sapling. 14) Ease the sapling out of the container with a clump of soil around the root system. 15) Place the sapling in the hole so that the old soil mark on the stem lines with the top of the hole. 16) Fill the hole with soil and pack it to keep the sapling standing upright on its own. 17) Water the sapling to help the soil settle. If you’re interested in growing Honeyberries from seed, allow a few berries to ripen on the bush. Pull the seeds out of the berry and plant directly. Cover with a thin layer of loose potting soil. They should sprout within 3-6 weeks. Give them at least 4 months of growth before transplanting outdoors. Honeyberry plants started from seed rarely produce fruit within the first 2 years. Keep your young honeyberry potted for a few months as its roots strengthen and grow. Then transplant outside.

Best Companion Plants and Plants that Hinder:

Haskap bushes make fantastic border plants. Additionally, their hardiness and self sufficiency make them great companion plants for most other orchard crops. They don’t overtake an area the way raspberry and blackberry bushes do either. Plant them amongst pear and plum trees for example. Note that Haskaps are not compatible with black walnut and other Juglandaceae trees.

Growing Instructions

Crop Maintenance

The fruit is produced on 1-year-old wood, and the highest yields come from strong, vigorous 1-year-old branches. Honeyberries should be pruned when they are dormant in the winter months, removing any dead branches. Don’t prune your honeyberry plants during their first five or six years. Instead, let them spread out and mature a fair bit, and just allow them to do their thing. Once fully mature, go ahead and prune older branches that don’t produce anymore. This will allow new branches to grow. Aim for a combination of mature and young branches around your honeyberry bushes. The older, thicker ones will offer support, while the younger ones will be more productive. Only prune these plants in late autumn or early winter. They produce so early in springtime that pruning them after January can shock them badly. If this happens, they won’t produce any fruit, and can even die back. When in doubt, don’t cut. By pruning the bush back, you’re encouraging sunlight penetration to all the productive branches. Avoid cutting back the tips of branches, as that’s where the most fruit production occurs. In a good year, they need to be propped up so support with heavy tomato cages, peony rings, or stakes and chicken wire.

Moisture Requirements & Solutions:

Frequent watering is important for the survival of the young honeyberry. Since its roots float near the surface of the soil, it will get most of its water from irrigation or rainfall. Keep the soil moist as best you can, providing the tree with about one to two inches of water every week. In the fall, you’ll need to cut back on irrigation until the next spring.

Weeding Needs & Solutions:

While they don’t require particularly deep or fertile soils, they do benefit from a heavy 2 inch supply of leaf mulch. They are shallow-rooted, with the majority of their roots in the top 5-7 inches of soil. Weeding and cultivating the topsoil around their base can damage their roots, and they can be stunted by over-competition with weeds.

Feeding Needs/Optimal Natural Fertilizers:

Unless you have poor soil, Haskaps are fine without feedings. If you notice signs of undernourished plants, however, add a compost tea in very early spring or fall. (Compost Tea simplest recipe: soak manure overnight in 5 gallon pail with water and apply to plants.) Otherwise, go with 2 inches of well-rotted manure per year and compost. Perhaps at spring, apply some fish emulsion right at bud break for a surprising fruit yield.

Pests, Diseases & Solutions:

Honeyberry plants aren’t prone to any kind of disease but can suffer from powdery mildew in wetter climates. The greatest issue you’ll have to deal with is birds (cedar waxwings & robins), squirrels, mice, and deer because they love these plants, and can take out half your crop. Cover them with black netting to keep the birds off, and try to plant them in an area that deer can’t get to easily. Rodents are a bit more difficult to fend off, but they do help to clear any fallen fruit away from the roots. Leaf roller caterpillars roll up in the leaves, but haven’t been noticed to bother the fruit. If you find them, spray the leafrollers and damaged plants with a neem oil solution.

When to Harvest/Number of days to maturity:

If waiting for the cutting to develop roots tested your patience, you won’t have to wait for long to taste the first berries from your very own honeyberry shrub. By the end of the first year, you’ll have ripe berries beckoning you to pick them and eat them fresh off the tree. One of their main benefits is the fact that they fruit so early in the spring. They produce around 2 weeks earlier than the first strawberries. They’ll fruit for 2 to 3 weeks a year, and after that, they’re attractive bushes for the remainder of the summer

How to Harvest:

The berries are easy to pick with a gentle hand. A bit softer than blueberries, but firmer and more durable than raspberries. Pick them by hand into a basket and use them within a few days. They tend to hide under the leaves, meaning that they’re overlooked by birds, but they’re at a perfect angle for small children to harvest. If shaking them off the bush, spread acloth underneath to catch the berries when they fall.

Optimal Storage temperature and conditions:

You’ll know that your honeyberries are ripe when they pull easily off the stems. They don’t store well in the fridge for very long, so be sure to freeze or ‘can’ whatever you don’t eat immediately. The best way to freeze these berries is to spread them out on a baking sheet that’s been lined with waxed or parchment paper. Put that into the freezer overnight, and then transfer the frozen berries into individual bags. This will keep them from smooshing together into a lump. Frozen haskap berries will stay good for about six months, or longer if they’re in a deep chest freezer. Other ways are dehydrator use, in smoothies, or make an ice cream. Traditionally has had use as a dye also. When dried with mechanical heat, the juice escapes and they darken and look much like raisins. For refrig. storage a high humidity (95%+) and between 33 and 34 F (a standard fridge is 40% relative humidity) is preferred. If don’t have a produce-specific cooler, there may be some promising results with Freshworks containers (but still open them periodically so they can air out) with other kinds of berries.

Optimal Preserving Procedures:

Seed Saving:

Shrubs grown from seeds usually take up to 3 years to bear fruit, unlike honeyberries started from a cutting. Stored seed requires 2 months cold stratification. When they are large enough to handle, prick the seedlings out into individual pots and grow them on in the greenhouse for at least their first winter. Plant them out into their permanent positions in late spring or early summer, after the last expected frosts. Remove fleshy coating on seeds before storing / allow unblemished fruit to ripen / clean and dry seeds but they do not store well so sow as soon as possible.

Harvest and Storage

Notes

Just root some new cuttings for friends and family and encourage them to plant their own in sharing the bounty. They’re a favorite of our native bumblebees, and the early blossoms provide early spring nectar when they’re desperately needed by pollinators. Plants can be purchased either from local nurseries or as bare-root plants from online nurseries. If making honeyberry pie, combine with firmer fruit (pears or apples) so the pie doesn’t become soup in a pan. Jam can be canned just like any other, allowing for ½ in. headspace and processing in a water bath canner for 10 minutes

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