Last year I ordered 4 varieties of HB from Stark and planted them in the Fall. They looked very sad, with the leaves papery and seeming to have a gray dryness to them. This Spring they came to life with healthy leaves, new growth, and even a few flowers. Now they are starting to get the same papery grayness.

I assumed maybe because they are such early bloomers and fruiters that this was normal and they are just done by mid-summer, but I'll be curious to read what more experienced growers say here.

I'm not familiar with these, but here's some basic info which may help:

http://garden.org/ediblelandscaping/?page=201105-edible

Thanks! This looks like my problem!

It was my take from reading (only) the linked article, that sunburn was mostly due to the leaf underside being exposed. Either by mildew distorting the leaf shape, or by wind overturning the leaves for extended periods. Did you read otherwise?

I also thought it was interesting the list of more and less susceptible variants - I have 4 different varieties planted right next to one another, and one looks bad, one looks perfectly fine, and the other two are in between.

Grateful for this resource to learn about these plants.

I bought 6 this spring from Berries Unlimited. They arrived with a white substance on the leaves. I figured it was either powdery mildew or spray residue. I e-mailed them pictures twice and asked if it could be spray residue. They never responded to either message. I could see where they might not want to guess about it being powdery mildew, but they should know if they sprayed them or not. It's odd. When I send them a message asking about buying something the response is within hours. Anyhow, the leaves have fallen off some and regrown, some have been ok and never did have much powdery mildew on them, and a couple look like they're dying. I'm in the north edge of zone 7, so I shouldn't be too optimistic about them surviving here. Varieties were blue smoke, blue joy, and blue moose.