I’m concerned with cold hardiness of freedom since it’s thornless so I’m growing 12 of them as a test crop. I’m convinced 45’s are great plants. Freedom sure looks like the best thornless I’ve ever grown! It’s still premature for me to say that for sure. Prime Jim are not what I’m looking for in berries. A friend did test crops and sugar levels and yield were to low in Kansas. Traveler is not one I’m testing yet. Here is good information on 45’s http://www.penseberryfarm.com/mobile/Product.aspx?ProductCode=PRA45
Here is some more info on freedom http://www.penseberryfarm.com/mobile/Product.aspx?ProductCode=paf . The reason I ordered 101 plants is because there is a big pricing change there and cost drops to $2 per plant and free shipping About Us | PenseBerryFarm Online Store. I probably should have got 200 plants but I was not up for planting that many at once.
I think Josephine and Fall Gold have excellent flavor.
PAF is pretty good, but I just looked at my bramble planted this year in the z6 mountains, and it does not appear to like the latest cold weather we’re having. Some of the canes look dead. It’s unclear whether it will pull through the winter for me. We’ll see…
Thanks. Did you grow those two rasps at your mtn property or in town?
Did you get any other bramble harvests this year?
Fall Gold has succeeded in fruiting at both sites. It is not a very productive variety, but the berries are gorgeous with an excellent flavor. They are really a special treat when they come in.
My other rasps are a collection of unknowns I divided and transplanted from my mother’s patches in Pennsylvania.
I tasted Josephine at Scott Smith’s place, and it tastes just like the better berries in my collection. It is very dark red bordering on purple in color. I would not be surprised if some of my rasps are in fact Josephine.
Regarding the black rasps: I don’t know what mine are either. Cumberland and Bristol are the usual suspects. They are listed in the literature as having been widely planted and popular in PA in the past. I probably have one of those, or some other wild strain native to Scranton and the surrounding Poconos.
Looking more at photos online, it’s possible my black rasps are Jewel. I still haven’t cracked the case yet. They are bulletproof whatever they are, and taste delicious.
I was looking at some Joan J rasps online and they look almost purple, I thought Josephine was more red? But, you may be right about yours.
Yeah, our wild black rasps are tasty as well. They’re not very big, but I like them more than the wild blacks.
Mentioned up-thread I noticed a bunch of white canes with no fruit on them this year. I’m suspecting them to be rasps, guess we’ll see next year. I’ll have to get some pics of them and compare to some online. Maybe they’re just a wild berry, but my wife has mentioned that her grandparents had sown all kinds of fruit on the farm many years ago. I don’t know what domesticated black rasp that would be available say, 50 years ago.
Today as I was walking down the driveway to get the mail, I checked the canes out. They are no longer white, but kind of purple now. The leaves are getting a bit crinkly, guess it’s because of the cold, we’ve had about 4 nights below freezing over the last few weeks. My Eden red rasps’ leaves are also doing the same.
Strawbs tho, most of their leaves are still deep green. But, I’ll prob need to cover them with some straw soon, as we’re getting more subfreezing nights over the next week.
Jewel is a really big black rasp . Kind of soft . Flavor ok…looks good.
Bristol is smaller , firmer , has that wonderful wild type flavor.
In Ontario, the wild raspberries are even bigger, Niwot is bigger too.
Wilds around here are micro small, very good, but really small.
I had a few volunteers come up, and so far I like them best. One is primocane fruiting too. My Niwot died last year. It left it’s mark in a cross, the cross primocane berries are better, but still not as good as I would like.
A lot of Nursery photos show it as red, but it gets more deeply colored when it hangs to full ripeness. I got mine from nourse. An all around excellent raspberry that’s large and pleasantly firm.
This is mostly for Drew but I thought others might find it interesting . I found a zone 3 wild red raspberry that needs a pollinator . So easy to cross for breeding . I also found a zone 3 wild blackberry that seems to be a cross with the wild red raspberry . Berries are small . So here is what I think happened . The wild reds have a long bloom time of a month or more . Which overlaps the blackberry bloom . So since some of the reds need a pollinator the cross could occur . This crossed blackberry has a long bloom that includes some primocane blooms . Thorns are smaller more like the raspberry . I have not brought any starts home but will . It would be nice to cross it with something with bigger berries for a hardy primocane blackberry .
Sounds interesting. I have perfected emasculating flowers, so it’s not that big a deal. I talked to a professional bramble breeder and he gave me instructions on start to finish and what I needed to do. It helped a lot. My 2nd attempt resulted in a good cross. I must say though with peaches it really helps having a tree that is not self fertile, so yes, a red that needs cross pollination would sure make it easier.
I have another cross of raspberry, not sure what it is? I mixed a bunch of crosses up in one pot. I kept the most vigorous plant.The plant that grew three feet from seed in one season. I plan to do a few more crosses next year. I still need an orange raspberry. The one I have turns orange, then pink when ripe. So still working on an orange when ripe raspberry. Having said that I’m extremely happy with the current cross. it’s beautiful, and has excellent flavor. Polka was the pollen parent, Anne was the ovary parent.
Interesting. I wonder if our “wild” blackcaps are Bristol. Ours are small, firm and tasty. But, I haven’t had hardly any other black rasps to compare them to.
Do you or anyone else know how long Bristol have been around as a domesticated variety?
More likely , Bristol is
More likely ,Bristol is derived from your wild ones.
Don’t know the Origen , history of them, other than.,
I grew Bristol and jewel commercially, in the mid 80s
At the market everyone was impressed with the size of jewel, and they were easyer to pick. So I made more $ with them.
At the farm, I really only wanted Bristol for my own use. Because of the better flavor. I ate a lot of berries then,had several acres . Don’t have either one now.
But after you “all” have stirred the pot, they are back on my to do list.!
Thanks. You guys have almost persuaded me to try Josephine. I know @thecityman raves about his. I don’t know what other brambles he grows, but he likes him some J’s.
What other berries did you grow back in the day? What were your favorites, least favorites?
Jewel and Bristol were my bread and butter.
Black satin…not reliably hardy
Hull …was ok then
Chester … A good one. Still have some .from 20yrs ago ?
Heritage … And …Autumn Bliss where great.
Brandy wine …good.
Mosaic virus , and orange rust ,are the biggest problems, Beware!,!!
If one can get 12yrs out of a planting ,you have done well.
Need to cull , mosaic and rust infected plants each yr. …spring.
Eventually . Clean the slate…start over.
,!!! Starting with virus indexed ( clean ) plants is the most important thing. !!!
Nourse farms highly recommend .( thank you and …you are welcome )
Digging plants from a friends place or buying plants that are not virus indexed.
Is asking for trouble . Especially with raspberrys
Thornless blackberrys you can usually get by,.from trades
Once I got to a large scale ., one rainy weekend at the market and I was eating
$ 100 s of dollars worth of jam. Could have been worse ,I guess…
The people started asking for plants.
Selling plants was more profitable , and not as perishable .
The berries would sell the plants
Then a real job… Life…,. Now I want to plant more berries …jam !
So the varietys have come a long way since I was really in to it.
I am very interested in what people are having good luck with now.
Good thread…
Carry on
Thanks for the reply, it’s good to hear about folks who did it as a business.
I’ve got my berries from both Nourse and Indiana Berry, so I’m good as far as getting clean plants are concerned.
Is mosaic a rasp issue or also a problem with blacks as well? Same question with rust?
We have wild brambles, mostly blackberries and a few rasps. Would these pose as a disease vector to any domesticated brambles that would be planted in the future? I’ve heard not to plant new black rasps in the vicinity of wild black brambles.
It’s more an issue with blacks, not sure if it’s that virus? Mosaic is just one of 15 known viruses raspberries can get… Blacks are like a canary in a coal mine. They let you know you have a problem. They are very sensitive to viral infections. Reds can be asymptomatic or some cultivars anyway.
One exception is Tomato ring spot virus transferred from nematodes. It only infects reds, which are a different species than blacks. Most of the time you cannot replant in the same location, some exceptions like raspberry leaf curl virus. Apparently is not in the soil.
Thanks, I think I meant to ask is mosaic an issue with blackberries, same question with rust. And if so, can it be transferred from wild BB’s to domesticated versions?
I think for now, I’m going to hold off on getting any black rasps, just concentrate on the other colored varieties. Purples should be OK, since they’re derived from reds?