Orchard Wind break for haskap

I'm planning to plant a windbreak around my haskap berry orchard. I'm posting to share my plans and welcome feedback before I get started.

Site:

Zone 4, clay soil,  former hayfield. Prevailing winds are from the Southwest
4 acres of haskap berries, planted in 40 rows in a North/South orientation.
The haskap are very winter hardy, I have no issues with late spring/early fall frosts bothering the crop.
The windbreak will be 900ft/270m in total
While officially Zone 4, plenty of "zone 4"plants have winter killed here already. Spirea, blueberry, thornless blackberry, black walnut, hybrid hazelnuts. I even lost my first batch of black locust.  So anything that is borderline zone 5 is not being considered.


Goals:

Reduce average windspeed, especially during the growing season

Avoid need for pollination services for haskap. Attract and support natural pollinators by provide lots of nectar and shelter.

Prioritize native species.

Be visually appealing (it' will occupy a significant portion of the view from my house)

Stack as many functions as possible

My Plan:

Plant a two-row windbreak on the South and West sides, totaling 900ft/270m:
1. An outer row of evergreen trees for maximum protection.
I'm planning to use white spruce, planted at 13ft intervals. To provide earlier wind coverage, it will be interplanted with Douglas fir. These will be grown as Christmas trees and cut when the white spruce need the space.

2. An Inner row of deciduous trees for diversity and pollinator food.
I'm going with a "trio" approach for the primary:  1/3 black locust, 1/3 basswood (Tilia Americana), 1/3 black cherry. These will also be spaced at 13ft, and interplanted with as many beneficial perennials as I can muster.

I started the black locust and basswood already, so they'll be on their second growing season when planted out. I plan to use tree tubes for the basswood, undecided on if the locust needs the deer protection.

The understory companion plants are selected for things that flower. Everything will be started either from seed or division from existing plants. The inventory I have in mind includes:
Caragana
Comfrey
Coneflower
Hyssop officinalis
Anise hyssop
Liatris
Wild bergamot (Monarda fistulosa)
Sedum for late season nectar/pollen
Anise hyssop
Hardy sage

The exact makeup will dependent on just how quickly I can propagate them. I had great success starting Coneflower from seed this spring so that will be prevalent.

There are some plants that I considereed, that are ultimately not on the my list for the moment.
Autumn Olive and Russian olive. Non-native and possibly invasive.
Black Walnut - I'm avoiding juglone near the haskap.
Bur Oak - native here and possibly stunning; but I had difficulty sourcing acorns to start
Red maple- -great tree, but I'm prioritizing flowers over catkins for nectar under the belief that flowers will attract more pollinators

Hopefully I'm not being too dreamy and this plan is sound for my needs. I welcome feedback, and I'll be posting pictures as I go to share lessons learned.

So you've already planted the haskap? I think I would have broken up the planting a bit with alleys or such like.
I'll just share my experiences of growing Haskap on Skye for you. I have just a few (8?) planted in my orchard area, which sounds like it should be sheltered, but all I can say is that it's "getting there" We are almost always windy here - today was a cold wind gusting to about 40mph - not particularly windy. However my honeyberries set fruit really well even though they have been flowering from the start of April when the bumble bees just get going. We are pretty cool though, so maybe the flowers are accessible for a long time compared to a warmer spot?



This was the fruit set in their first year.

I love them despite the "Russian roulette" of picking them - very difficult to tell if they are ripe! I do have lots of wild flowers though in my treefield which includes the orchard and a healthy bumble bee population, so I guess whatever you can do to provide habitat - both nesting sites and food sources will help. Sounds like you've taken all this into account already, including succession of the windbreak trees.

Nancy, great to hear of your interest in haskap, I love haskap! I've been growing since 2013. I was young and planted 8 acres at once and learned lots of what not to do. I'm downsizing to a new 4 acre orchard closer to home, which is what this field is for.

I started planting into the field in 2019. Eventually there will be 4,000 plants. The rows are spaced 11'/3.3m apart, sufficient space to travel up any row. The aisles were reseeded with white clover for nitrogen and more bee food. I practice "mow and blow" mulching - the aisle grass is blown under the haskap.

Each row is a different variety to encourage pollination. I've been using varieties from the University of Saskatchewan exclusively (Indigo Gem, Aurora, Boreal Beast, Boreal Beauty, Boreal Blizzard). One of the key benefits of them is even ripening.  Haskap ripen from the outside first, they are only ripe when they are purple all the way through and no green remains. I sample daily to check.

My plants just started flowering on May 8 this year, which is average.

I'm attaching a picture of the orchard from last summer, it faces North so the windbreak would be the far end. What is not shown in the picture are the posts that will be installed to support bird netting - cedar waxwings will devour 100% of the crop here if not protected.

Glenn Van Agten wrote:I'm planning to plant a windbreak around my haskap berry orchard. I'm posting to share my plans and welcome feedback before I get started.

Site:

Zone 4, clay soil,  former hayfield. Prevailing winds are from the Southwest
4 acres of haskap berries, planted in 40 rows in a North/South orientation.
The haskap are very winter hardy, I have no issues with late spring/early fall frosts bothering the crop.
The windbreak will be 900ft/270m in total
While officially Zone 4, plenty of "zone 4"plants have winter killed here already. Spirea, blueberry, thornless blackberry, black walnut, hybrid hazelnuts. I even lost my first batch of black locust.  So anything that is borderline zone 5 is not being considered.


Goals:

Reduce average windspeed, especially during the growing season

Avoid need for pollination services for haskap. Attract and support natural pollinators by provide lots of nectar and shelter.

Prioritize native species.

Be visually appealing (it' will occupy a significant portion of the view from my house)

Stack as many functions as possible

My Plan:

Plant a two-row windbreak on the South and West sides, totaling 900ft/270m:
1. An outer row of evergreen trees for maximum protection.
I'm planning to use white spruce, planted at 13ft intervals. To provide earlier wind coverage, it will be interplanted with Douglas fir. These will be grown as Christmas trees and cut when the white spruce need the space.

2. An Inner row of deciduous trees for diversity and pollinator food.
I'm going with a "trio" approach for the primary:  1/3 black locust, 1/3 basswood (Tilia Americana), 1/3 black cherry. These will also be spaced at 13ft, and interplanted with as many beneficial perennials as I can muster.

I started the black locust and basswood already, so they'll be on their second growing season when planted out. I plan to use tree tubes for the basswood, undecided on if the locust needs the deer protection.

The understory companion plants are selected for things that flower. Everything will be started either from seed or division from existing plants. The inventory I have in mind includes:
Caragana
Comfrey
Coneflower
Hyssop officinalis
Anise hyssop
Liatris
Wild bergamot (Monarda fistulosa)
Sedum for late season nectar/pollen
Anise hyssop
Hardy sage

The exact makeup will dependent on just how quickly I can propagate them. I had great success starting Coneflower from seed this spring so that will be prevalent.

There are some plants that I considereed, that are ultimately not on the my list for the moment.
Autumn Olive and Russian olive. Non-native and possibly invasive.
Black Walnut - I'm avoiding juglone near the haskap.
Bur Oak - native here and possibly stunning; but I had difficulty sourcing acorns to start
Red maple- -great tree, but I'm prioritizing flowers over catkins for nectar under the belief that flowers will attract more pollinators

Hopefully I'm not being too dreamy and this plan is sound for my needs. I welcome feedback, and I'll be posting pictures as I go to share lessons learned.

I would suggest maybe thinking about a row of white pines for your outermost windbreak.  They grow fast and keep branches pretty low to the ground.  I planted a lot of them for windbreaks and in just four or five years, they are 12 feet or more.  I've planted blue spruce and white pines at the same time and the white pines quickly tower over the spruce.  Douglas fir grow pretty fast but tend to lose most of the bottom branches later and for me at least, that limits their use for windbreaks.  Just my experience of course, in your climate, those things may not be true.

I've started planting the deciduous row. Black locusts and basswood (in tree tubes to protect against deer). Each tree got at least one companion plant; comfrey, chives, bergamot, or gayfeather and some woodchips for cover.
In planting the trees I realized I really missed planning the shrub layer. With the trees on 13' spacing there is lots of room in the first 10 years for more diversity. I'm now planning to add a shrub between every tree, so that's another 70 shrubs to source and plant.  1/3 will be caragana so that between the caragana and the locust, every tree will be beside a nitrogen fixer. The other 2/3 will be what grows well here. Chokecherry, highbush cranberry, lilac, dwarf sour cherries.  Most of this will be planted in the fall as it's getting late in the season now. For now, I've started rooting cuttings, dividing suckers, and starting seeds.

Oh, I've also received the white spruce seedlings for the coniferous row and planted them in a nursery bed for now.  Those will be planted next year as that row extends into a hayfield which I want to get one more crop off of first. I figure baby'ing them for a year will give them a stronger start later as well.

The picture also shows a second nursery bed with echinacea started from seed, which will also move out to the windbreak once more mature.