EBH: In an article called Haskaps and Honeyberries (I'm not sure when it was written) you say Haskaps and honeyberries root easily from dormant stem cuttings, grow quickly, and bear fruit one to two years after sowing or rooting. When do you take the cuttings? Are they from this year's growth or last year's growth? Do you use a rooting hormone? If so, what strength? Are you keeping the cuttings in a misting system? Any guidance on propagation by cuttings would be greatly appreciated. DB: The haskap varieties that I worked with at the University of Idaho generally rooted well from cuttings, although some selections rooted at higher percentages than others and time of year influenced rooting percentages. My best success came using dormant cuttings collected in January or February, enclosed inside plastic bags without moist paper, and stored at 2-4 C until sticking the cuttings in late March-early May. I used either Hormex or Hormiden rooting compound No. 2 with 0.3% IBA (indole-3-butyric acid). Cuttings were stuck in a mixture of 50% Sunshine Mix No. 1 (peat moss-based potting soil) and 50% perlite. For containers, I have used 10 cm square pots and 15-20 cm containers. Both work very well. Softwood and semi-hardwood cuttings collected during May-July can be used, but generally produced lower rooting percentages than dormant cuttings. All of my cuttings were rooted on misting benches with mist activated by an electronic leaf like the one shown at http://www.growerssolution.com/page/GS/PROD/IrrigationControllers/1400 I have grown the cuttings inside a greenhouse and on outdoor benches. The greenhouse provided faster and more uniform rooting and greater and faster shoot development. Bottom heat at 22 C can be beneficial, especially outdoors, but is not essential. Once foliage develops, I fertilize with about 200 ppm nitrogen using a soluble 20-20-20 fertilizer, such as Miracle-Gro. One tablespoon of fertilizer per gallon of final solution provides this concentration. The fertilizer solution is applied so as to cover the foliage and saturate the potting soil. Rooting should occur within 6 weeks. In northern Idaho, I kept the rooted cuttings in containers the first summer, overwintered them in a walk-in cooler, and planted them the following spring. I generally obtained a few fruits 24 months after sticking the cuttings and fair production in 36 months. In Oregon’s long, warm growing region, fruit production came as much as a year earlier. Crowding the cuttings in the crop rows slowed plant development quite dramatically. I suggest planting at 4-5 feet between plants in rows 10-feet apart. Plan to maintain the canopy at about 4-6 feet tall. Whitetail deer browsed my plants heavily and would need to be excluded with a fence in a commercial plantation. Bird netting can be used to manage bird pests. Keep the netting pulled tight and drape it to the ground. Any small gaps allow the birds to climb into the crop row. Apply the netting just as the fruits are coloring up and remove it immediately after harvest. Use a netting with a very small mesh to reduce birds getting heads and wings entangled. Danny L. Barney, Ph.D. Curator and Horticulturist USDA ARS Arctic and Subarctic Plant Gene Bank 1509 South Trunk Road Palmer, Alaska 99645