I planted 4 varieties over 20 years ago, the only one I remember is Smoky, not sure of the others.. maybe Regent, Northline... maybe not. Smoky is the only one I like, the others I don't even pick... one is too sour, the other two I just find rather tasteless. Sometimes I come across tasty wild saskatoons, but I still find them not up to Smoky in taste, and they definitely have smaller berries, although maybe in a garden setting the berries would be larger.

All my saskatoons flower around the same time. Frost has never been an issue since there's never been a year where they haven't had a good fruit set. Maybe frost would be a concern outside the city where night temperatures can be colder?

Thanks Don!
Good to know you like Smoky.
Yes, pollination can be a issue out in the country when nights get cold.
I have been going to places along rivers and lake for many years to pick, ..when some years I go there with disappointment, to find all bushes virtually empty!

Well,...got a little Honeywood plant in last fall.
Grafted Northline about a week ago, this one supposed to be tangy,...didn't know that "any" of them can be tangy, ..think I like that!
Grafted Lee 3 last year,..looking forward to compare seed ratio.

Anybody growing JB-30? good size and juicy! looking for a plant!

I wanted to add this pdf list

Here is a link that might be useful: Saskatoons

Those two "Lee" varieties look very interesting from that pdf. Ah well, no room for them anyway.

Spent a long time going over old garden notes and trying to figure out what saskatoons I planted and when. Turns out the 4 varieties I put in (in 1997) were Regent, Smoky, Northline, and Thiessen. The Regent I found terribly bland and eventually I removed them and put in more Smoky.

I'm pretty certain the Northline are the ones I find too sour, but I'm very sensitive to sour so if you like tang, Konrad, you'll find it in Regent. Can't recall what I think of the Thiessen, I think my complaint on it is low fruit production but I can't think now what it tastes like. (It has extremely low fruit production now as it is now in deep shade, but even before the shade crept over it I recall it being a very poor producer).

Thank you Don for this help!
I followed your advise and got a Smoky plant today.

Got to taste some berries from the Smoky, ..just in time, half the birds ate already, a little bland for my taste but not bad,..the Northline I grafted this spring and some berries formed, covered them up. The Honey wood is ripening also.

Have some native bushes, one I covered up a bit against bird
losses.

Konrad, let us know what varieties you like the best. I had grown lots of 'Smoky' on the farm and liked them quite a bit, though have not tried 'Northline' or 'Honeywood'.

Will do,

Have any of you heard of this,...Amelanchier species weigandii??

See this translated French link, bottom,
Saskatoon, Isaac 26gr. WOW..very sweet.

Here is a link that might be useful: Végétolab Inc.

Tonight I picked 3 1/2 kg of one bush of my best native Saskatoon,..nice juice and sweet with a lovely flavor, found it better then Honeywood.

one more..

There are still lots of places along rivers and lakes where one can pick their needs in no time.
Among 3 of us, we picked 6.5 kg. in only 1- 1/2 hour.
These were exceptionally sweet, [15.6 brix] perhaps
because of all day sun?

Konrad, I am a bit jealous of those wonderful saskatoons of yours! I have a few decent wild bushes in my yard, though have not seen many growing along the roadsides where I now live. We used to pick tons back on the farm and near Sangudo where there was some really awesome patches.

I have Martin, Smoky, and Northline. I think Northline and Martin are supposed to be very similar. I like them all! I really need to start covering them as soon as they have fruit, because the birds have eaten basically all the berries already. So far, I've found Northline to be the most vigorous of my bushes. Maybe that is because I bought them bare root, though? The others were all grown in pots.

>>I've found Northline to be the most vigorous of my bushesI grafted Northline this spring,...came to the same conclusion,
most vigorous!

Yes,..covering up with row cover is a simple way to go about if you don't want to make a frame structure to hang netting over.
NO-tangling of netting! NO-killing birds!
In commercial production, netting might be the better solution.

Found row cover over the Honeyberry is a good way to keep fruits on longer, bushes get less of a shake in the wind and you can keep berries on longer.

This is a wild bush covered up with row cover, tied together with binder clips.

>>Tonight I've picked a hand full of another small wild bush, [covered up], seems like a later ripening one, nice size, still, some not fully ripe, but boy, they are sweeet and juicy! Picked them yesterday,..only had a couple of hands full,..this heat we've been heaving drove them beyond ripe,..started to shrivel up, [full sun] nevertheless, they had more juice coming out of them, [for brix test]..then the ones picked in the bush. They seemed to be sweeter, [wife and me agreed] but the test showed about the same. The reason being, when eating them, juice is more readily coming out and mouth is faster drenched, making it feel sweeter.

Conclusion,...not the berry I want to grow because this one had more, and or bigger seeds.

Since hungry posted some growers [Treetime]...was wondering if you had put in seedlings, [most sell seedlings] ...or tissue cultured ones which would be my first Joyce.

This from the tissue/prairietech..

Saskatoons are a real Prairie success story with over 30 years of commercial and hobby production. They can be propagated by seed or tissue culture. Tissue-cultured saskatoons are more uniform than seedlings with respect to flowering, harvesting and production. Uniformity is important in commercial production when plants are mechanically harvested i.e. they need to be at the same stage of ripening. So for commercial growers, tissue-cultured saskatoons are a must!

Here a white cultivar, Altaglow, grafted to Native, not something I want to harvest much but just fun to have and promote it's survival since it's very rare.

I've talked to treetime and yes, they sell Saskatoon's grown from seeds and could't tell me how they perform...tissue plants would be better to get the right cultivar.

I have every cultivar I can get my hands on, 13 now I think. Most of those aren't producing, but I have a long row that I planted 25+ year ago, of several cultivars. I moved away for 8 years and lost track; at one point a tenant mowed them to the ground. But they're indestructable. I can distinguish three varieties. One is super tall (about 15 feet), very productive, and suckers a lot; thinking it might be Smoky since I know I bought that. Regent I recognize because when I bought it I noticed the leaves are shiny instead of fuzzy. The other one is about 8 feet tall and the berries are smaller. I get gallons and gallons every year, and in a few more the assortment will be fruiting so I'll be able to compare. I've also found some wild ones up here in Fairbanks, and they were much sweeter and tastier than mine, but both the bushes and berries were smaller. I'm thinking to transplant a sucker to my place to see if it's still tastier when grown there. I would rather have quality than yield; I've got plenty of space to plant as many as I need.

squarepegman - yes, I've found that wild probably have the best flavour. We live near a valley with many wild saskatoons, but I find them difficult to pick because they are old trees. Many of them are very tall and mainly fruit closer to the top. Food for the birds I guess! There are also lots of wild raspberries and strawberries down there (also similarly tiny fruit!).

My other issue with wild is that I feel like I have to pick for a long time to get the same amount of fruit. That said, like you mentioned sometimes the flavour and quality is worth the low yield.

Side note - we also get cougars and black bears in the valley sometimes and it makes me a little leery to pick down there by myself! Where I grew up (near Moose Jaw, SK) I sure never worried about that! Funny how being just a couple hours north makes a big difference.

The wild bushes I've found here are shorter than I am, and though the berries are smaller, they seem to crop pretty well. No cougars here but plenty of bears, both black and grizzly. I hope to check on them and maybe get a few this summer.

The best varieties are those that escape the aggravating and persistent town deer population. I lost my entire (small) crop last night...argh!

Mine are outside the fence, and I'm surprised they don't get devoured by moose every winter, but they seem to escape depredation.Now they're so massive that it would take quite a bit of browsing before I didn't have more fruitthan I can use.

Mine are within a deer fence, but birds are the big problem in my yard. They'll clean every berry off every type of bush I have - AND eat chunks out of my apples - if I don't cover them. And I feel like I have too many saskatoons, so I don't cover them... Currently we still go to a saskatoon u-pick every year ha ha. I'm hoping that once mine get bigger there will still be lots of fruit for us even if the birds are eating them.

It's weird, but even though we have tons of birds, they don't much mess with the saskatoons or apples. The do love the haskaps and strawberries, though.

Well...Haskap and Strawberries ripen well before Saskatoons..lots of pressure from birds then, especially on small scale plantation. I've had Saskatoons in town but the pressure from birds is much higher then out in the wild, so I got rid of them and go into the wild to pick...so many berries out there that one can hardly see them being eaten by birds. No Bears or Cougars..but tons of Mosquitoes lol.