Saskatoons

(Amelanchier alnifolia)

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!

Hobby growers, too, can find what they need from our long list of cultivars.  Imagine walking through your own private orchard to pick buckets of ripe, tasty saskatoons you can eat fresh or use for pies, jams, and desserts.  They freeze well so you can enjoy them all through the year.

All of the saskatoon cultivars grown today are selections found in nature, in some cases several decades ago, and not from any deliberate breeding program. An observant fruit enthusiast might have noticed something superior in a native stand of saskatoon plants and collected seed from those plants. We have perpetuated these superior characteristics by propagating clones through tissue culture.

The University of Saskatchewan has published a comprehensive growing guide for saskatoons, Growing Saskatoons:  A Manual for Orchardists so we won’t include many cultural details here.

How to choose which cultivars to grow? Planting several may avoid crop losses that can occur with one cultivar (e.g. inclement weather during pollination or a disease that affects one cultivar more than another). Planting several cvs. will also spread the harvest period over a longer period (e.g. plant early, mid and late season cultivars).

Cultivars

For more information on the different cultivars that we offer, please see the following saskatoon table.  For  a more printer friendly version, please click here.

Smoky

This is an oldie, but a goody, known to many!  Fruit is large (14 mm diameter), round and sweet, and ripens evenly within the cluster.  Smoky is a good producer with a consistently high pollination rate.  Flavour is sweet with a high sugar/acid ratio.  It has a high degree of suckering; growth habit is upright and spreading.  Grows to 10-12 feet.  Widely grown in commercial orchards, it accounted for 85% of the saskatoon hectarage in 1990.

Northline

A very popular cultivar, Northline originated from Beaverlodge, Alberta and has grown in popularity so much that it comprises about a third of commercial hectarage.  Fruit size is up to 16 mm with excellent full, sweet flavour.  Height at maturity is up to 3 meters with an arching-spreading habit.  Very productive at a young age and yield can exceed Smoky. Flowering and fruiting is a bit later than Smoky.  Long-lived, 50+ years; crown expands indefinitely.

Honeywood

Good fruit size at 16 mm diameter, deep blue when ripe. It blooms a few days later than other cultivars which helps to avoid late spring frosts, but it also ripens later. Honeywood has low suckering and a vase-shaped habit. Grows to 12’ tall; 12’ spread at maturity. Fruit ripens somewhat unevenly within the cluster.

Lee 3

Lee 3, a 1989 selection of the late Mr. Lloyd Lee of Barrhead, is believed to be a cross of Northline and Pembina. Fruit is up to 16 mm diameter with intense flavour and few seeds. It ripens ahead of other cultivars. Lee 3 is a compact shrub up to 6 ft tall that spreads slowly.

Lee 8

A cultivar unique to Prairietech Propagation. Lee 8 ripens more evenly than its parent, Northline. A high quality saskatoon that has good yield, fruit size and flavour.

Thiessen

Thiessen flowers a few days earlier than other cultivars. Fruit is large (up to 17 mm diameter), has excellent flavour and ripens unevenly. Thiessen grows into a shrub that is 12-15 ft tall with a spread of up to 18 ft. Popular for U-pick farms. Ripens earlier than other cultivars.

Martin

The Martin saskatoon was selected by D. Martin and originated in Langham, Saskatchewan. It is a seedling selection from Thiessen and is similar with large berry size but shows more even ripening.

Nelson

Selected by S.H Nelson in 1974 as a wild plant found near Bradwell, Saskatchewan. A compact shrub at 5 ft tall, it flowers 3-7 days later than other cultivars. Fruit is up to 13 mm diameter with few seeds.