Gadenin日本語Get the appThe first three years: leave it alone
A young haskap is building the low branching framework it will crop on for the next twenty years, and every cut you make delays that. For the first three seasons in the ground, remove only wood that is broken, dead or lying flat on the soil. Do not tip the shoots to make the bush branch, do not shape it, and do not take out anything simply because it is crossing.
The habit is naturally low and rather sprawling, with several stems rising from close to ground level and arching outward. That shape is correct and it is not a fault to be corrected. A bush trained upright into a neat vase loses the low fruiting wood that carries much of the crop.
The one exception is a stem that has been pushed down onto the soil by snow or a heavy crop and is lying in the mulch. Take that out at the base, because it will rot at the contact point and it collects the leaf disease that overwinters underneath the bush.
Where the fruit is carried
Haskap flowers and fruits on wood produced the previous season, borne along one and two year old shoots on an older framework. Productivity on a given stem peaks after a few years and then falls away, so the oldest stems in the bush carry progressively less fruit while still taking light and airflow from the rest.
That determines the whole pruning approach. You are not shortening shoots to force fruit; you are removing whole old stems at the base to make room for the young ones that will carry next year's crop. Shearing the outside of the bush, or trimming all the tips back to tidy it, removes exactly the one-year wood that was going to flower and is the fastest way to lose a season's fruit.
From about the fifth year, a well-run bush holds a mixture of ages: a few older framework stems, a majority of productive two and three year old wood, and several vigorous young shoots from the base coming up to take over.
| Wood | Appearance | Fruiting | What to do |
|---|---|---|---|
| Current season shoots | Green or pale, flexible | None this year, flowers next | Keep, these are the future crop |
| One to three year wood | Pale brown, smooth, well branched | Heaviest cropping | Keep all of it |
| Four to six year wood | Gray-brown, peeling, thicker | Declining | Start removing the worst at the base |
| Old, shaded or ground-level wood | Gray, peeling, few shoots, often prostrate | Little to none | Remove at the base first |
| Dead or broken | Brittle, no buds | None | Remove at any time of year |
The annual renewal cut
From the fourth year onwards, prune once a year and keep it light. Remove roughly a quarter of the bush, always by taking whole stems out at ground level rather than by shortening anything. Choose the oldest, grayest, most peeling stems, the ones lying closest to the soil, and anything growing back through the middle of the bush and shading the center.
Aim to leave a bush you can see daylight through when you crouch and look sideways at the base. Open structure matters for two reasons on haskap: it lets air move through the canopy, which is the main control on the late-summer powdery mildew, and it keeps fruiting wood in light so the berries ripen evenly rather than only on the outside.
On a cycle of a quarter each year, every stem is replaced roughly every four years and the bush never needs a drastic renovation. A neglected old bush that has become a dense thicket of gray wood can be brought back the same way, taking a third of the oldest stems out in each of three successive winters, which is far safer than cutting the whole thing to the ground in one go.
- Prune in late winter while dormant Work in the dormant season, before the buds move. Haskap breaks dormancy very early, so err on the earlier side; once the flower buds are swelling you are cutting off the crop. Pruning immediately after harvest is the alternative if the winter shape is hard to read.
- Clear the dead and the prostrate first Start by taking out anything dead, broken or lying on the soil, cutting flush at the base. This alone opens the bush enough to see what you are dealing with, and on many bushes it is most of the job.
- Remove the oldest quarter at ground level Pick out the grayest, thickest, most peeling stems and cut them right down at the base with loppers, leaving no stub. Count as you go and stop at about a quarter of the total stems, even if more of them look old.
- Open the center, then stop Take out any remaining stem growing horizontally through the middle of the bush. Then put the tools down. Do not shorten the young shoots, do not even up the outline, and leave the bush looking looser than feels right.
Note the date you pruned and roughly how many stems you removed from each bush. Compare that against the following year's crop weight and you will quickly learn what your bushes want, which is usually less cutting than instinct suggests. Marking the oldest stems with a tie during the summer, when the poor croppers are obvious, makes the winter decision far easier.