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Haskap berry plants and Honeysuckles

 
Posts: 23
Location: Lake Whatcom and the Acme Valley Washington State
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We have a couple of honeysuckles here on our property and they are a great attractor for bees as they bloom so early and stay so late.
The Honeysuckle vine is generally considered to be a non fruit producing vine but upon research there are some varieties  that the fruit is edible and pallatible.  Our honeysuckles all produce a red berry and I assume the birds eat them as they do not persist thru the winter.
So the Hapsak berry plant and the honeysuckle are very close and in the same family.  This year I am increasing my Hapsak plants by introducing a couple of different varieties.  I plant to put them all around the honey suncles and see what happens.
I am positive the hapsaks will cross pollinate but I would be interested to know if the honeysuckles will too.  It should show up in the berries.

Has anyone had any experience in this?
We see it all the time in melons, cantaloupe and pumpkins...
 
pollinator
Posts: 933
Location: Huntsville Alabama (North Alabama), Zone 7B
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Tracy, Do you mean haskap?  Honey berry?
 
Tracy Diller
Posts: 23
Location: Lake Whatcom and the Acme Valley Washington State
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Actually I meant any honeysuckle bearing fruit variety that people are growing.
The hapsak was developed in Saskatchewan at the university using boreal varieties of Lonicera caerulea and the honey berry I suspect was developed for lower latitude success.
The common honeysuckle vine we see growing, Lonicera periclymenum, should cross pollinate and that might change the flavor of the hapsak / honeyberry fruits from better to worse or not at all.
It also may make the honeysuckle climbing vines little red fruit more palatable for Humans and wildlife.
 
pollinator
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Location: Zone 6a
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Why do you believe that common honeysuckle and hapsak/honeyberries (honeysuckle) will cross pollinate?  I have done extensive reading on this fruit because we planted 160 of them this summer on our farm.  I have gotten information from University extensions and I have the book "Your Essential Honeyberry Guide" by Logie J Cassells (337pgs).  I have never read any mentions or warnings about the two cross pollinating nor can I find any information suggesting that they will cross pollinate.  
 
Tracy Diller
Posts: 23
Location: Lake Whatcom and the Acme Valley Washington State
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Well in nature nothing is static and the closer you get within species the closer you will get cross breeds.
Most cross breeds fail to produce a viable offspring and the grand experiment stops there, as far as reproduction.
But the fruits are the phenotypes, unique to themselves based on there cross breeding.  
In this case a plant may not pollinate at all with another of its species or may barely pollinate and produce great tasting fruit that cannot survive in the area, or it may just change the fruit ever so slightly that the bee activity increase...
That was the reason for my question.  I am rather sure that the bees pollinating my honeysuckles will climb into my hapsaks and the chance of germination will be there.
I was curious if anyone has had favorable or unfavorable berry production planting close to honeysuckle vines.
 
T.J. Stewart
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Understandable.  I do think that there would be some mention of it, especially in the book that I have because of the trials that Logie is familiar with.  The guide itself is written with the commercial grower in mind.  If cross pollination were possible or should I say something that would cause the fruit to be "less than", that could be a major issue for a commercial grower, something that they would need to know about so that they could decide what to do in the case that they have common honeysuckle on the farm.  Of course, I'm not saying that it's impossible, just that I think it would be very strange that the University extensions and sites like lovehoneyberry. com would not mention it.  If you come across some information suggesting that it IS possible, and that it could effect the fruit in a "negative" way (ie. cause it to be bitter or inedible) I'd be really interested in checking it out, so please post the link here. :)
 
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There's little proof of taste changes by different varieties of fruit plants. This  should apply to haskap(honeyberries) X honeysuckle. The changes would be in the DNA of the seeds produced. If for instance we use the flower of the haskap, & the pollen of the honey suckle we could possibly produce from the seed a type which could have more heat/southern  applicability. Less cold hour requirement. Just an idea for cross breeding.
 
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Different persimmon species are crossed by crossgrafting first kaki on virginiana and virginiana on kaki then cross pollinating. I'm guessing this is what would have to be done to honeysuckle.  Better options would be to find woody/bushy honeysuckles and crossgraft and cross pollinate.  The variety I suggested on the growing fruit forum was lonicera fragrantissima as it produces drupes already and could stretch the "heat hardiness" of honeyberries.
 
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