Gadenin日本語Get the appLate winter: prune before the buds move
Haskap comes out of dormancy earlier than almost anything else in the fruit garden, so the pruning window closes sooner than you expect. Work while the bush is fully dormant and the buds are still tight. Remove dead, broken and prostrate wood, then take out about a quarter of the oldest stems at ground level. Do not shorten the young shoots.
This is also the moment for the mechanical jobs: check and repair the netting frame, top up mulch to 3 or 4 inches (8 to 10 cm) over the whole root spread, and pull back any mulch that has piled against the stems. Clear grass and weeds out of the root area completely while you can still see what you are doing.
If you are adding a plant, whether a first bush or a pollination partner, this is the time. Planting into cold, moist soil ahead of a very early bud break gives the roots several weeks to settle before the plant asks anything of them.
Early spring: bloom, and the only weeks that matter
The bush flowers earlier than any other fruit you grow, with paired creamy tubular flowers opening while everything else is still tight. The flowers themselves take a hard frost of about 20F (minus 7C) without harm, so cold is rarely the problem. The problem is that honeybees will not fly below roughly 55F (13C) and the pollination window is only 10 to 20 days.
There is little to do during bloom except protect the conditions for it. Apply no insecticide to the bushes or to anything flowering nearby. If the weather during the window is persistently cold and wet, hand pollinate between two genetically different plants on the mildest days, working in both directions with a soft brush.
Feed lightly once, either just before bud break or just as growth starts: a balanced fertilizer at a modest rate or an inch of compost spread over the mulch. Haskap is a light feeder and heavy nitrogen produces soft growth, poor fruit and worse mildew later in the year.
| Period | Main job | The judgement call |
|---|---|---|
| Late winter, dormant | Prune, mulch, plant new bushes | Are the buds still tight? If they are swelling, stop pruning |
| Early spring, bloom | Protect pollinators, hand pollinate if cold | Do two different plants actually overlap this year? |
| After petal fall | Net the bushes, keep soil moist | Net goes on at first color, not first ripeness |
| Fruit coloring | Test berries every three days | Cut one open: purple through, or still green? |
| Harvest | Pick over two or three times | Fruit should release with a gentle roll |
| Mid to late summer | Water deeply, watch for mildew | Is the mulch still deep enough to keep roots cool? |
| Autumn | Clear fallen leaves, last deep watering | Nothing to protect: the plant is hardier than the winter |
Late spring and early summer: color, then the two-week wait
Fruit sizes up quickly after petal fall and starts turning blue much sooner than seems plausible. Net the bushes on the day the first green disappears from the berries, because birds judge ripeness by color and will clear the crop during the very period you spend waiting. Use a fine mesh of about half an inch (12 mm) on a frame that holds it clear of the foliage, pegged down all round.
Then wait. Skin color is fully developed roughly 10 to 14 days before the fruit is actually ripe. From the day it finishes turning blue, sample two or three berries every three days, cutting each one open. Green flesh means wait; purple through the whole berry with dark seeds means pick.
Harvest runs over about a fortnight, taken in two or three passes. A mature bush gives 5 to 10 pounds (2 to 4.5 kg). Keep the soil evenly moist right through this period: the roots are shallow and fruit shed from a bush that dries out while cropping.
Summer and autumn: the quiet half of the year
Once the fruit is off, the plant's remaining task is to build the wood and buds for next year, and the main risk to that is heat. Long spells above 85F (30C) with dry soil scorch the leaf margins and can defoliate the bush early. Water deeply before the leaves flag rather than after, keep the mulch topped up, and keep grass off the root area.
Powdery mildew usually appears at this point, as a white film on the leaves, sometimes followed by early leaf drop. After harvest it does limited damage in a single year. Improve airflow at the next pruning, avoid late-evening overhead watering, and rake up and remove fallen leaves rather than leaving them under the bush.
Autumn asks almost nothing. Take the net down and store it dry, clear leaf litter from beneath the plants, give a final deep watering if the season has been dry, and leave the bush alone. Winter needs no protection in the ground: the wood is hardy far below zero, and the only real cold-weather risk is a container that has filled with water and frozen solid.
Close each season by writing down four things for every bush: the first day of bloom, the day the fruit finished turning blue, the day you actually picked, and the weight. Those four numbers, over two or three years, answer nearly every haskap question you will ever have, including whether you need another pollination partner and how many days to wait after the color change.