Sunday, April 24, 2016

Zone 5b - Aurora haskap berries on bush

Aurora berries
Note dried blossom dangling at end of berry
4/23/2016: We have multiple berries on both Aurora plants! (planted in 2015) The Honeybee is now in bloom, but this didn't happen until Sunday. So, I strongly doubt it affected the developing berries on the Auroras.  The Borealis still has not yet bloomed.  We live in a very rural area & I know of no other honeyberries beyond our own in the area so Aurora may be self pollinating. We planted 2 Indigo Gem this spring which will blossom earlier.
Jeannette, Frankfort, OH 

Thursday, April 14, 2016

Zone 6a - PA - Haskap survive frost

Blossoms survive 20F

Unopened blossoms next to maturing berries
I started getting blossoms on my honeyberries about a month ago (Cinderella, Borealis, Berry Blue, Blue Belle, Blue Velvet and Sugar Mountain).
The temps got down to 20 degrees on Saturday night (4/9/16) and it did not hurt my blossoms or any of the fruit sets (Very happy to see this!) My other fruit trees(sweet cherries) that were in full blossom appear to have lost the fruit but if the trees (pears) with blossoms that were not in full bloom were fine and bloomed on Monday.  I think Spring is finally in Pittsburgh!!
Rusell, Pittsburgh, PA

Sunday, April 3, 2016

Zone 6a - OH - Spring Haskap Blossoms


Berry Smart Blue surrounded by 3 Borealis planted in 2012
All four (3 Borealis, 1 Berry Smart Blue in middle) blooming very nicely and I have hopes for a good crop. However, we are in central Ohio where our weather is very unpredictable. We had high winds of 60 mph all day yesterday so it was impossible to get a cover to stay on the bushes, I just hoped for the best. The winds finally died down early morning and then the frost, fortunately it was not too heavy. I plan on putting bird netting over them too this year when the berries start to ripen so I’ll have some berries for myself. 
Jane, Granville, OH, zone 6b