Here in the US Northeast, honeysuckle (Lonicera sp.) is an undesirable invasive*. People are paid to remove it, and unfortunately some do it by spraying glyphosate. A friend manually digs it up but I wonder if a Weed Wrench or Uprooter would make more pleasant work of it...

But Honeyberry, Lonicera caerulea, is a permaculture plant I keep hearing about. I've searched on the web for info on grafting it to other varieties of Lonicera but have turned up nothing. Anyone have any experience with that? If not, I'll try it this year and report results.




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*to humans. Lepidoptera caterpillars differ!

Maybe you can be the first to try it. Seems like a good idea to me if you can find scion wood. I've got two plants, but they're only 10" tall so not big enough to spare any wood yet. Maybe in a couple years.

I had bookmarked this report of someone have success with grafting honeyberry onto honeysuckle: http://www.permacultureactivist.net/articles/87%20Guerrilla%20Grafting.pdf
Not clear if he is in West Virginia, or Upstate NY (Finger Lakes Permaculture)

Haven't tried it out yet myself; try it and report back!

Hi Fredy

This is something I'm also curious about. To graft honeyberry onto honeysuckle is something I've considered trying too, since the bush is common around the upper Midwest as well. Honeysuckle has some toxicity. I read in the Grafter's Handbook (R.J. Garner) that a toxicity trait in rootstock could possibly be transferred to the scion wood, ( and maybe to the fruit in speculation ). Not sure if this is a big thing to worry about. The level of toxicity doesn't appear to be extremely threatening when compared to other things, but still, it is there. I don't wish to discourage, I'm just offering a thought. It might be something to look into further or to consider including the awareness of in experimentation. I'm curious too! Good luck!

Grafting is the choice when the alternatives are difficult, expensive, non-existent, etc . None of those apply to honeyberry/haskap. Honeyberry propagates easily from seed, dormant hardwood cuttings, and softwood cuttings. The techniques are cheap and easy basically involving a root stimulating hormone such as Dip 'n Grow, coarse sand, and, for the softwood cuttings, a "mist" setup which can be as simple as a plastic shoebox. You need the "mist" setup to reduce transpiration. Cutting leaves in half is important as well. Keeping cuttings in the shade is essential.

Thanks for your replies. Davis, I'm glad to see an experienced grafter thought that was worth trying, but at the time of writing he had only just done the grafts. That was a couple years ago so if I can track him down and find out what came of his mass grafting, I'll post it here.

Becky, that's a really interesting point and a good thing to know overall. Maybe I should pick up a copy of that book. Barring fancy tests, I can only wonder if the wildlife would eat the honeyberries (though their chow is often our poison). Even if that were all that happened, it would be a net gain!

Mike, of course it would be more effort than propagating them from seed or cuttings, but still less effort than uprooting dozens of honeysuckle trees.