Ed B. Honeysuckle

The following was relayed to me by Haskap Central from Dr. Bob Bors. Haskap Central requested that I post it here:

This is what I remember saying or at least was trying to convey to him: A person wanting to propagate a few haskap for self and friends would not be given a licence nor would we want to receive a royalty from that person because that would insinuate that that was acceptable. We have only granted licences to bona-fide companies and occasionally to local farmers who have participated in our program as volunteers. I also said that the University can’t afford to sue a gardener or make a big fuss over a gardener who is doing limited propagation and not selling plants. It is not an activity we want to condone or promote.

Being told you won't likely be caught is very different from being given the go ahead to do it. Gardeners often break such rules but that doesn’t mean it is ethical. It is a mixed bag, on one hand it is considerate that Mr. B. offered to pay royalties, but on the other hand by posting such a thing he is in effect taking away even more royalties. I do wonder if Mr. B. really appreciates our plant breeding activities? If he does he won’t post things like this in the future.

Without a doubt, the haskap varieties produced by the University of Saskatchewan breeding programme are F1's and will not come true from seed. Whether or not the honeyberries introduced by One Green World's Jim Gilbert are stable and thus would come true from seed, I don't know. When Gilbert introduced the varieties, he renamed them. The USDA ARS National Clonal Germplams Depository's Kim Hummer in Corvallis, Oregon might be able to shed some light on whether they are stable or not. Availability of USask haskap in the US is limited right now. There are a couple of Canadian growers would have the necessary phytosanitary certification in place to allow shipping without USDA seizure. There are one walk-in and two mail-order US vendors that I'm aware of in the US selling USask haskap. There is also a pick-your-own who is growing Japanese haskap bred by Dr. Maxine Thompson. It's a bit confusing and made more so by the interchangeable use of honeyberry and haskap.

When I asked Bob Bors who heads up the USask edible blue honeysuckle breeding programme if I needed a licence if I was going take cuttings for myself and friends, he said that no license was needed. As long as I wasn't selling them and I wasn't doing it on any commercial scale, I was OK. Unless that has changed, taking cuttings for personal use isn't a problem.

For more info on edible blue honeysuckle including propagation, see http://ediblebluehoneysuckle.wordpress.com/