Self fertile Haskaps?

[Marches]

Do they exist? I currently have one bush, a kamchatika variety called "Morena" (yes I know it's not the Japanese subspecies so shouldn't be called "Haskap" but I couldn't care less).
It's its first year and put out a few flowers, I rubbed some pollen off one onto another and the flowers are now gone and it appears to be developing fruit. Whether they'll stay on or drop off is another matter though but where I bought it from advertised it as self-fertile.

I am weighing up getting a few varieties of Haskaps to do some breeding as they sound promising, but I'd at least like to try some fruit before I make the decision.
One problem seems to be that the American varieties don't seem available in the UK or Europe, just the Russian kamchatika varieties which are supposed to have inferior flavour to the Japanese sub species. Then again Kamchatika is described as sweet and sour and I quite like sharper tasting fruit, maybe I'm stereotyping but American tastebuds seem more geared to sweet fruit based on varieties released which I'm not so fond of, so maybe the Kamchatika varieties available to me might not be so bad after all.

[prairiegarden]

There are different varieties in the US from those in Canada but the "haskap" varieties bred by the U of Sask in Canada are said by the U of Sask breeders to need another variety., that they are not self fertile. I thought I'd read somewhere that they will produce a berry or two on their own, but that may have been a dream, I've certainly not been able to find such a reference again.

[khoomeizhi]

none of the varieties i've had in the US are all that sweet. even when squashy-ripe they've still been fairly tart.

[prairiegarden]

I've had two from the U of Sask breeding, one was almost bitter and the other was like a really nice ripe blueberry in terms of sweetness. I'm getting 10 more this year, an assortment including 2 of their latest releases and hoping that the bitter one was just an early sort, although they might just have been picked before they were ripe. I started some from seed but the mice took them all out the first winter, very annoying. Speaking of which, has anyone heard of using ( unchewed broken bits of ) chewing gum as a way to rid a garden of voles?

[khoomeizhi]

not sure if this is the place to do so, but no, and do tell. got plenty of voles.

[steev]

Sounds related to the claim that "Juicyfruit" gum is the best gopher-trap bait; I have no idea whether that's true.

[ferdzy]

Yeah, I'm not aware of any self-fertile haskaps. Probably because compared to growing a zillion haskaps in isolation to find that one self fertile one, it's hella lot easier just to plant two.

They are not a sweet berry. I started off by getting 3 plants. One was described as a "pollinator". It produced a lot of fruit - more than the 2 "fruit" shrubs - but they were comparatively small and bitter. Not just sour; definitely a little bitter. There were some notes of bitterness in the "fruit" shrub berries too but not so much.

Mine are some of the first generation of improved berries from Saskatchewan, I believe. I hear there are better tasting (sweeter/non bitter) ones coming down the pipes as breeding continues. I doubt they will ever be super sweet though; the fact that they fruit with the very earliest strawberries mean they just haven't been exposed to enough sunshine to convert to lots of sugar.

I don't find them exciting for eating fresh, but they make stupendously good jam and baked goods. (Hoping to have enough for pie this spring!)

[reed]

I put in three last year and got about a dozen berries from one of them this year. The berries were smaller than I expected and somewhat sour but I liked them. I will try to find my notes on what variety they are because the one that made the fruits flowered so much sooner than the others I think it might be self fertile.

[prairiegarden]

Perhaps they are better in Saskatchewan.. this time of year the sun is up by 5 or so and wont be gone until about 9-10 at night, by the time the haskap are getting ripe we'll only be getting about 5 hours of night. There are DEFINITELY better tasting strains of haskap now than the earlier releases. One of mine which got eaten by some sort of wildlife had no bitterness at all, it was lovely. OTOH I've had some from a very early commercial planting which were bitter to the point of almost not being pleasant to eat. Sour is fine, but bitter.. not so much, to my palate.

[Marches]

The fruits formed were dropped before they developed any more so the variety "Morena" doesn't seem to be self fertile after all.
I'll try and get a few more plants although it's hard to get them here, "Fialka" seems one of the few other varieties available.

[prairiegarden]

Read an article about these people who apparently are trying to get more people in Scotland and England growing them, but they call them honeyberry as haskap is apparently a copyright name for the varieties from the U of Sask. Their plants come from work done in the US and Canada with material sourced elsewhere. If all else fails, consider buying some fruit from them and raise plants from seed.. the seed is tiny, but the seed I got from frozen berries from a farmer's market was enthusiastic about sprouting and growing, so that might be an option too.
www.arbuckles.co.uk/#!honeyberry/n2vb9

[reed]

prairiegarden,do you think having been frozen helped with sprouting? I saved some from the few fruits I got this spring. Was thinking of going ahead now and putting them in some sterile mix, but they of course have not had any winter or cold stratification.   

[prairiegarden]

Well I assumed so, since they grow to zone 2 I thought perhaps they required some period of cold. However, I read the other day that stratification wasn't needed so who knows? Guess you'll find out! Good luck!

[reed]

I think I'll give it a try, not a big priority but curious to know. On another note concerning flavor, I found a couple more hidden in the foliage. They looked the same and same texture as the ones I ate a couple of weeks ago but much much sweeter! I think the first ones I ate might not have been completely ripe.

[prairiegarden]

Yes! I think that may be the biggest drawback about them, it's so hard to tell when they are ripe. Unripe haskap are pretty "meh" but the ripe ones are really nice. Unfortunately birds sometimes don't wait until the fruit is entirely ripe so raids by birds are not entirely reliable as an indication either.