Per personal communication 2/5/15, Dr. Maxine Thompson wrote:

"Between 1996 and 2003 I evaluated 36 Russian honeyberry cultivars and about 3,000 seedlings from these cultivars. In 2004 I discarded all of them when I discovered the superiority of the Japanese haskap. I went to Japan in 2000, collected seeds from 8 different sources, planted them and began evaluating the seedlings. By 2004 I had identified a few outstanding individuals. These I propagated for further evaluations. Since 2004 I have been making crosses between several promising selections. Last year I applied for patents for two of the original selections,22-26 and 44-19 as well as two of my hybrids, 91-95 and 67-95. And this year I am applying for 3 more of these original selections; 21-89, 22-14 and 41-75 as well as two of my hybrids, 79-91 and 108-42.

The main problems with the Russian honeyberries in moderate temperate climate such as W. Oregon, are:
  1. They bloom too early, before bees are out for pollination
  2. These Siberian plants have a very low chilling requirement and when it is satisfied, plants lose cold hardiness, so if the temperature rises in winter and then drops, plants suffer winter bud kill.
    The Russian literature states that these plants cannot be grown in southern Russia where temperatures fluctuate in the winter but only in northern regions where the cold temperatures remain all winter long.
  3. All of the Russian honeyberry plants that I evaluated had fruits that ranged from 0.3 to 0.8 gm.; that is very small.
When I discovered that the Japanese haskap were so well adapted to our region I did not know that they were also hardy in cold climates. They seem to do OK in Saskatoon, SK and in Carrington, ND.

Another advantage of the Japanese is the larger fruit size. I do not consider any plants with fruit less that 1.5 gm, and some have 2.0 gm berries.

When I collected the Japanese genetic materials in 2000, I also introduced the name that the Japanese use, that is 'haskap'.