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| Aurora fruit set, self pollinated, March 4, 2017 |
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| Aurora plant 2-year-old from tissue culture propagation |
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| Honey Bee blossoms forming, March 4, 2017 |
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| Honey Bee year-old plant, cutting propagation |
I love the way these little
plants look, very pleasing green to their foliage accented with the
yellow flowers. I'm really happy so far!
I will be up-potting these as
they grow, as this is my first time growing haskaps I didn't really know
what to expect with growth rates/vigor. My idea was to see what
conditions they would tolerate throughout the growing season, and move
them in and out of dappled shape when necessary. If I start to see them
struggling with the SoCal summer, I will still be able to move them
around accordingly. I will definitely be keeping them watered well
through the heat. I was able to keep some currants alive over last
summer, so I have high hopes.
We live in the foothills of a mountain
range east of Santa Ana, CA, but have a pretty unique micro climate to the Southern Ca
area. During winter, the canyon blocks a lot of direct sun since
it is lower in the sky, which actually keeps the temp 5 degrees
cooler than most of our surrounding areas. It's actually pretty
nice to grow here, because we probably average 500 chill hours
or so, but also get the benefits of early spring temps. Around
this time of year the sun starts hitting us for much longer
periods of the day and in the summer we get normal full sun. But
yeah, officially we are zone 9b ish.
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| Boreal Blizzard year-old from tissue culture |
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| Solo(TM) 2-year-old from tissue culture |
Plants were received bare root in late October, 2017.
Plants were potted, watered, and left outside in shade
over winter. No direct sunlight until Jan., a couple hours a
day increasing direct sun as the sun becomes higher in the sky.
Potting soil used was a varying mix of:
1) bagged, organic soil from big box store (Kellogg)
2) vermiculite
3) coco coir/peat
4) composted chicken bedding/manure from our coop
5) rabbit manure
Southern California had a rainy winter, so soil was almost
always moist. Temps never got down colder than 30-35 deg F at night.
Started seeing growth on Aurora in late Jan and blossoms in early Feb.
(I didn't pay too close attention to time frames at the point)
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| Honey Bee -March 10, 2017 update |
Honey Bee just started showing flowers. Still some Aurora flowers out too, although Aurora looks to be almost done.
Mike, Silverado, Southern California
