Joanna Harvester Demo

The World's Best Information, Hands-On Learning: U of SK Haskap Day 2014 (Part 1)

Integrating the best haskap research in the world, and providing the opportunity for active participant interaction, the University of Saskatchewan once again hosted their annual Haskap Field Day yesterday.  Here's a snippet showing their Joanna-3 (Weremczuk/Poland) harvester in operation.  Due to heavy rain the night before they were unable to demonstrate actual berry harvesting as they have in previous years.  However, here is a video clearly showing just how the machine works...

http://haskap.ca

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

Meet Bernis And Jim Ingvaldson - www.haskapusa.com

Bernis Ingvaldson was a participant at this year's Haskap Day. She and her husband, Jim are currently in the process of planting a fruit orchard near Bagley, MN. She posted a wonderfully written article on her experience at the University of Saskatchewan Field Day last Friday on one of her websites. You can access it on PDF here:

http://www.honeyberryusa.com/info/2011HaskapDayUofS.pdf

In her write-up she includes links to her You Tube recording of the university's Joanna-3 Harvester at work:

http://youtu.be/QUC5OquV66E
http://youtu.be/2qhl0iKAgc0

The address for all her fruit-related sites are:

Honeyberry USA: The Honeyberry Farm (blog)
Haskap USA: Tracking Edible Blue Honeysuckles Across The USA (blog)
Honeyberry USA (commercial website)

VERY nice, Bernis!!! We'll be sure to stay tuned...

Haskap Day 1 Highlights - U of SK Field Lab

This year Haskap Day at the University of Saskatchewan began with registration, a brief overview of the day's activities, and then heading to the field for touring the various research plots, a mechanical harvesting demonstration, and background and tasting of newly acquired and potential varieties. We returned in time for lunch and then listened to several presentations in the afternoon covering: research, planting an orchard, and Haskap Canada.

Here's the university's new Joanna-3 harvester that was fired up for us and about to get to work on a row of haskap...

Formalities aside, Haskap Day at the Field Lab is a great chance to meet propagators, producers, marketers, and developers. In addition to the words spoken in the field, the afternoon always provides a wealth of insight. Some of them from this year included:

- pay attention in the future to the roles of polyphenols for marketing perhaps all aspects of the plant: quercetin, cyanadin, luteolin

- that 23 days is required from flowering to fruit turning blue

- that the first and longest phase of fruit production (cell division) involves linear fruit growth and high respiration, and that in the second phase (cell expansion) respiration drops and anthocyanins are metabolized

- that anthocyanins are easily degraded with heat (e.g. boiling)

- that perhaps watering is best correlated with berry ripening?

- that perhaps diurnal differences in temperature, UV intensity, and daylight length are correlated with increased antioxidants?

- whether the red leaves in some varieties are an indication of berry anthocyanin content?

- that berry formation is directly related to available sunlight...and pruning practices might need to reflect this

-that since light is used to set next year's berry crop, it may be important to prune plants after harvest rather than waiting until next spring?

- that roughly an average of 80,000 haskap have been planted over each of the past several years.

First Mechanical Harvest - U of S

This week preparations for the first mechanical harvesting of haskap at the U of S were made. A Joanna harvester was brought in, netting was taken down, and support posts removed. Some rows of haskap itself were also removed so that the machine could operate. (*Note: haskap plantings at the U of S are compact…made so as to best accommodate research practices, space utilization, and the needs of horticultural specialists and research technicians.)

Several rows of haskap were successfully mechanically harvested. The result was very encouraging, reported Dr. Bors. Haskap berries held up better than expected. Branches did not break even though the machine went down centre of the bushes.

At first glimpse it appeared that taller genotypes may have fared better in several respects than did short ones. Yesterday fruit was being sorted and further evaluated.