I’m still deciding on what blackberries I’m going to try next year. I have a few on the definite list, but I’ve been reading up on some other possibilities.
I’ve read some good things about Marion berries, so I might give those a shot. Here are a few more that have piqued my interest: Siskiyou, Black Satin, Olallie and Dirksen.
Bay Laurel is selling all of these varieties, so I thought if I’m going to get a couple of pluots, then I could add these to the order and pay the same for shipping ($28).
Has anyone here grown these 4 varieties, and what did you think of them? How hardy are they, and do you think they’d work here in NE Kentucky?
I think the only guy on here I can recall growing Siskiyou is @jtburton, and he’s not that far from me, up near Cincinnati. Just checked in the search, and so does @Drew51.
Mine is from JT it produced a few berries last year, the birds loved them, I didn’t get any!! I have it in a container, and the birds swiped most of my container berries last year. I can say 4 of those birds never left the yard. Revenge is a dish best served cold. I have to be subtle in the middle of suburbia. An old school sling shot met the challenge. It’s fairly quiet!
JT said it’s a good one. Although he has eliminated it due to it not being very hardy, why mine is in a container. I have so many new figs I’m not sure I can fit it in the garage, it may have to survive or die. It’s the severe cold that gets them, I like to leave them out as long as possible. They are still out.
Yeah, I’ve done some reading on Siskiyou, and it’s not really hardy for my area. More like zone 8 and above, maybe z7 in some locations. So, guess that’s a no go for here. According to @Hillbillyhort, Black Satin isn’t very hardy either.
Marion may be on the edge here as well, but I might try them.
Hah, I can imagine you stalking birds in your backyard birds with a sling. But, you must be pretty good with it to nail four of them.
The males in my family have excellent hand eye coordination. Saved my dad in WWII. My son races drones. My son and I are back to back pool champs at our club. 2016-17. My brother likes to compete in clay pigeon shooting competitions.
Scott Smith has tried lots of blackberries in Baltimore z7a.
He says Marion is the best tasting but not reliably hardy.
Some of those Pacific Northwest blackberries cannot take the wild temp swings and humid heat our eastern climates dish out. Some of them bake and wilt in our blazing summer sunshine. Some turn to mush or fail to ripen properly.
Check @scottfsmith’s profile for info on his winners and losers. He was trying Siskiyou, Orus, Obsidian, and other obscure ones not yet tested east of the Rockies.
The primocane berries are huge, biggest black raspberry i have seen. But they taste bad to me. The summer crop is very good. My plant just died on me. Not sure what happened? But birds deposited seeds throughout my yard, Two of those seeds are primocane producing plants. I kept them. The primocane berries are a little better, still not great. No floricane berries yet, the plants are first year. It probably is a cross with Jewel.
I gave my mother a jar of jam from this strawberry
The little scarlet red
everyone at the thanksgiving table loved it for its strawberry flavor
maybe someone could try and find it in the US as i have contacted the company and they aren’t willing to part with it
I have a mature Triple Crown and Chester blackberry plant. Just to show how gardening is regional the Chester is the better tasting berry and produces like crazy. When Chester gets dead ripe it looses most of its tartness and gets a deep flavorful blackberry taste, it is up there with my peaches, but they have to be eaten at just the right moment. The triple crown is more tart and less sweet no matter how ripe it is. I did have a lot of pests this year with the soft fruit in my yard from yellow jackets and box elder bugs coming off of my neighbors silver maple.
My Jewel black raspberry plants are at the end of their rope. The berries tasted good but never got big and now plants are dying to what I think is crown borer. I am not going to fight it if they can’t make it they are out. I am planing on using the space to try growing Isreal/Ogen melons on a trellis.
Honey berries are finally looking good for next year. I bought a sugar mountain that made it through the summer with flying colors to pollinate my Blue Bird and Berry Blue next spring. I have noticed that once the plants get past a certain size they tend to handle the hot weather better and because the sugar mountain came from a local nursery it was way larger than mail order plants. As always I grow them with only a few hours a direct sunlight a day.
My poor man, black velvet and clove currant are producing like crazy and I like them all. Poor man is sweet with no tartness but can be a little mushy, while black velvet has more flavor and retains some tartness.
Thanks for the info. You and I are in the same zone, whereabouts are you? Does your login name have anything to do with you being close to DC?
It’ll be interesting to hear about how your honeyberries do in your area. I probably aren’t going to try them this upcoming season, I’m planning on concentrating on rasps and blackberries next year. Are you growing any other rasps?
I live in Utah zone 6b with poor alkaline clay soil. We have a hot, dry and short growing season of about 150-170 days. One of the reasons why I grew honey berries is that it is so much work to grow blueberries here. A few people have done it but they never taste as good as the ones I get in Oregon when visiting family. I will post my results this spring.
I thought it was just me. I also was not impressed with the Niwot fall crop. I didn’t sample enough of the summer crop to form an opinion as birds stripped nearly all those berries. I ripped mine out because it was taking up valuable real estate for putting out such bad tasting fruit.
Thanks for the comments on Niwot, guess I will pass on that one. If I do try a black rasp, it would be either Mac Black or Bristol. If I get a purple it’ll be Royalty.
I ripped my Niwot out this fall and will be adding another variety in its place. Ripened just a little too late for me, berries weren’t that good, and grew much more vigorously than other varieties.
Why Bristol or Mac Black, why wouldn’t you want Jewel?
Jewel would be fine, I’ve just heard that some folks like the taste of Bristol over Jewel. Either one would probably work.
I was actually reading a study of an evaluation that UK did of some brambles and strawberries. Mac Black was tops when it comes to phytochemicals in their study. Jewel did well also. Very healthful berries. Here is a link to the study if you’re interested. It’s on like page 26 or so. They did studies on other fruits and vegetables. There are others from various years. Kinda interesting read.
I’m curious as to what you got from Nourse? You mentioned last week that you did order some strawbs from Indiana Berry, but also said your ordered some other plants from Nourse?
@subdood_ky_z6b
I’m most excited about my Southern Highbush blueberry grafting onto rabbiteye roots. I prefer the taste of the SH berry over most of the RE and they tend to ripen earlier. Ripening earlier avoids SWD and it is more enjoyable to pick when the temps are in the 80s as opposed to the 90s. The Oneal grafts onto Tifblue roots have exceeded my expectations as of now. My first bush of grafted Oneal has been held down to about 6’ high and has a huge amount of dormant fruit buds. Oneal on it’s on roots is a slow grower in my area but on Tifblue the sky is the limit. It is early to proclaim a victory with the grafts but they do look promising. Each year I’m getting more berries but not as many as I want.
I move several of my blackberry bushes so I don’t have much to report other than PAF wins my taste test as of now.
