Are We Going To See You At Haskap Day? That's This Friday...

The University of Saskatchewan's Horticulture Field Lab is located on the north side of 14th Street between Preston and Circle Drive in Saskatoon, SK.  Parking is available for participants only along the south side of 14th Street... 

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Haskap Day 2015 Agenda, June 26 - Part 2

Time: Friday June 26,  8:30 to 4:00

Location:  U of Sask Horticulture Research Farm, U of SK, Saskatoon, SK

In recent years our Haskap Day has been held in mid-July which allowed visitors to see late ripening Haskap in their prime.  But this year we will be able to see early ripening haskap since the event is in late June.  This marks the 10^th anniversary of haskap funding from Saskatchewan Agriculture, which has allowed much larger plantings of haskap.  If you haven’t visited us in the last few years you will be amazed at how many plants we have and the diversity of the collections.

Highlights of what will be on the tour:

• ·       15 acres of haskap seedlings from our breeding program
• ·       Tasting berries and tagging favourite plants in the field
• ·       20 named Russian varieties in good production
• ·       U of Sk named varieties
• ·       Wild Haskap gathered across Canada and their hybrids
• ·       Plants from Japan, Russian and the Kurile Islands
• ·       Strange relatives of haskap: some grow fast and tall but taste disgusting, other creep along the ground
• ·       Demonstration of Johanna harvester
• ·       Demonstration of hand harvesting (swimming pool and tickling methods)
• ·       Demonstration of pruning and pruning equipment 

In the field, attendees are allowed to sample fruit from different bushes.  Each attendee will be given flagging tape to mark superior seedlings.  Later in the season, the breeder will visit every marked plant and evaluate the bushes.

Please, do not chow down and eat many fruits from a favourite bush.  If many fruits from a good bush are eaten we will have no idea that bush was productive and it might never get considered as a new variety.

For Sale:  


Several of our propagators will be having booths, usually taking orders but sometimes bringing plants for sale.  A limited supply of Haskap T-shirts will be available. 


Location:

North side of 14^th Street, between Preston and Arlington avenues.  A big green “HORTICULTURE” sign is next to the gate.  Park on the south side of 14^th st.  There will not be any room in our parking lot.  A map is on our events webpage: http://www.fruit.usask.ca/extension.html

Cost:  $25 per person, Kids and U of SK students free.  $5 more if you want us to order pizza for you, otherwise bring your own lunch.  Cash or Cheques only, we cannot process credit or debit cards

U of SK Haskap Day...Plan To Attend!

Mark your calendar for this year's Haskap Day at the U of SK - June 26.  This year's field day will emphasize early-bearing selections.  More information will be forthcoming.  See you there!

The 'Privilege' Of Haskap

U of SK Horticulture Field Lab

When it comes to breeding plants it is relatively easy to genetically select and change a single physical characteristic in cross-bred progeny.  But try and change two physical characteristics simultaneously, and it becomes more difficult.  Try breeding for three characteristics, even tougher.  Furthermore, which of these characteristics are most-important?  Complex genetic formulas are not complete until each trait is properly weighted in that formula.  All of this is precisely what makes the Haskap program at the U of SK both unique and successful.  Breeding plants for a wide variety of traits takes resources...human, monetary, training, technology, oversight.  Here are just some of the traits that go into selecting a superior Haskap plant: bloom time, harvest season, fruit weight, fruit shape, fruit firmness, fruit flavour, fruit sweetness, fruit chemical analysis, bush habit of growing, bush vigour, disease resistance, productivity.

Their early Haskap breeding program was funded by plant sales, workshop fees, and volunteer labour.  But beginning in 2007 Saskatchewan Agriculture's Agriculture Development Fund (ADF) awarded three grants that allowed a 10x increase in Haskap research.  With the flourishing of Haskap orchards across Canada royalties from Haskap sales allowed for yet another doubling since 2011 in research both in general as well as in providing stipends to support graduate students involved in the program.  65% of Haskap plant royalties directly fund various aspects of the U of SK's fruit program; 35% of royalties goes toward a general horticulture fund and allows for the purchase and maintenance of equipment and facilities.  It is the success of this program that allows all Haskap growers to succeed.

The World's Best Information, Hands-On Learning: U of SK Haskap Day 2014 (Part 4)

By the time that lunch was over the sky had cleared and the sun was beginning to shine through the clouds.  Because of the heavy rain the night before we walked the tour and were picked up on the farthest point of the tour so that we didn't have to walk all the half mile back to the starting point.  Seventy-five paid participants were accompanied by Bob Bors, James Dawson, Bayartugla Lkhagvsuren and Ellen Sawchuk.  There is always a lot of interaction among participants in the field...one of the highlights of attending!

The Joanna-3 harvester was demonstrated, although not on plants because of the saturated field conditions.

We moved on to the next-generation group of selections; plants were lush, heavily laden with fruit, large, and varied widely in berry characteristics.  Each year participants are given the opportunity to mark plants that they consider to be of a superior taste; this year was no exception.  We next toured and tasted the selections that Dr. Bors acquired from the wild on his search across Canada several years ago.  And we ended the tour viewing and tasting the youngest of the bushes along with the original "9" row that produced their first commercial 'haskap'.  It should be remembered that haskap is an edible blue honeysuckle that was selected for superiority in many traits: berry size, shape, flavour, sweetness, not bleeding when picked...bush shape, size, rapidity of growth...etc..  As in all genetic selection, it is easy to select improvements in the next generation based on only one or two traits; it becomes mulch more complex and complicated when you are trying to select for many traits simultaneously.  The U of SK program proves that this is not only possible, but that it requires enormous effort, skill, and perseverance to do so...the proof is in the field!  Come see for yourself next year!!!

http://haskap.ca

http://www.fruit.usask.ca/haskap.html

The World's Best Information, Hands-On Learning: U of SK Haskap Day 2014 (Part 3)

Following lunch we walked the 35+ acres of haskap plantation at the University of Saskatchewan's Horticulture Field Lab on an interactive tour guided by Dr. Bors, accompanied by his field staff.

Before describing the tour itself, here's a constellation of commonly repeated words/phrases spoken by participants while we were tasting and comparing...

...good growth, such big fruit, good selection of flavours, 
delicious, amazing, size, taste, wow!...

I think that it would be fair to say that participants were literally bowled over by the plant growth, plant size, berry size, and ridiculously bountiful amount of fruit on the plants this year...

http://haskap.ca

http://www.fruit.usask.ca/haskap.html

2014 Haskap Canada AGM (Part 1): Dr. Bob Bors & The University Of Saskatchewan Research And Development Program

The 2014 Haskap Canada AGM started at 10:00 a.m. on February 29th at the Agriculture Building on the University of Saskatchewan campus.

The meeting began with a report by the University of Saskatchewan's Dr. Bob Bors.  During his presentation he discussed:

• the sources of funding for ongoing haskap research, 
• the ongoing developmental nature/evolution of the research, 
• the outcomes of a wide selection of controlled crosses, 
• the fact that 20,000 seedlings are now coming into fruit production at the university's Horticulture Field Lab and its implications, 
• a review/critique on the success of various forms of mechanical harvest
• a review of the various selections and their growth characteristics
• interim reports that will become available online
• the continued development of fruit selection standards
• the development of a quick-screening platform for evaluating neutriceutical properties
• the trial currently going on in Ontario

As usual it was a very informative presentation, the technical nature of what it takes to continue to strive for exceptional, haskap-quality varieties being the focus and how the vast array of the University of Saskatchewan's facilities are able to contribute to this.

Haskap Day 2013

Haskap Day this year will be held on Friday, July 19 at the University of Saskatchewan's Horticulure Field Lab, Saskatoon, SK.  The day will feature talks by Dr. Bob Bors, and doctoral student James Dawson will report on various compounds he has discovered in Haskap while doing his research .  There will be introductions to new graduate students and their respective fields of inquiry. Industry updates will be addressed by the Haskap Canada Association, who will also speak about some of their new initiatives. As always there will be field tours, which are continuing to break open new insights as these plants continue to mature.  Starting time is 10:00 a.m..