“Sweetie Pie’ ripens mid-late season (mid June–late July in South MS)”. If you adjust for the earlier ripening times for the Southern climate, it would ripen around the same time as Triple Crown. That unfortunately puts it in the SWD season where I live and since the berry is ‘soft’, it would be especially tough to keep it from being damaged by SWD without spraying. I don’t see any advantages of 'Sweetie Pie’ over Triple Crown.
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Thanks. Solid info is hard to come by on this new variety. Its has not been tested by extension in my state and I don’t want to devote a lot of time testing. If the ripening date is about the same as TC, it too late for my situation anyway.
Looks like my new plants will be Osage. They ripen at exactly the right time. If Osage work out, I can remove the Ouachita one row at a time if they continue to have problems. May also add a row of Von which does well in my area and helps fill the gap between Natchez and Navaho.
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Just yanked out all my raspberry plants that never seemed happy here and ordered from Pense at batch of Osage and Freedom plants based on the positive comments here. The really hope the Freedom does well, my wife really likes the big berry varieties.
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I love raspberries but they did not thrive in my area and now they have been removed. I planted the Freedom blackberry last spring and got only a few berries around July-August. The berries were large and to me they taste a little sweeter than Natchez. I’m looking forward to seeing the spring crop this year. The early ripening date was my attraction to the Freedom blackberry.
Well if you like raspberries you could try bababerry available at Bay Laurel. They love the heat, they are not hardy enough to grow here. They are more a tropical raspberry.
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Dorman Red is another red raspberry that is more welcoming of hot weather.
I planted a few PA Freedom last year and tried a few of them in the Fall. They tasted fine and it is nice to have blackberries late in the year, especially ones without thorns. SWD has been a problem for most Fall bearing caneberries in my area - that’s something to keep in check on in your area. Also, the Prime Ark series of blackberries is not that fond of high summer heat when the Fall crop is budding out and growing. The Fall crop will still grow but probably not as robust as the Spring crop. That would not deter me from trying them anyway.
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I planted some Polka red raspberry after reading somewhere that it did well in the heat. They produced a decent spring crop, looked terrible in the middle of the summer, and when it cooled off they produced another decent crop. I wouldn’t say they’ve been great, but I’ve been pleased.
I’m hearing lots of good things about the Prime Ark series! ^^ I tried some of the popular Natchez that’s sold in our local nurseries, including Home Depot. They’ve been in the ground for years, but to my disappointment, they’ve never flowered once… Figured I just couldn’t grow blackberries here in Hawaii.
So I did some research on Prime Ark Freedom and thought I’d give it a try! I ordered two scrawny plants online and planted them last Spring. They grew quickly and made lots of vigorous growth (with canes growing from mature canes), with but I was anxious to get some fruit! So I cut one down to the ground and saved the cuttings. Now I’m waiting to see how well the primocanes perform! Funny thing is, the untouched plant started flowering about a month ago!
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For some reason I remember reading that blackberries and raspberries were considered invasive in Hawaii. Is this untrue?
Some varieties are quite invasive, yes. There’s the Himilayan blackberry (rubus armeniacus) and sawtooth blackberry (rubus argutus), both of which are a problem at higher elevations. There’s also wild thimbleberry (rubus rosifolius) where I live and further up the maintains are thickets of yellow Himalayan raspberry (rubus ellipticus).
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I remember bringing back jars of ‘Poha’ Jam! my favorite. ‘Cloudberries’? right? 
Ooh, I love poha jam! ^^ And it’s so easy to grow, even in colder climates I hear. Had no idea it was also known as cloudberry though!
I bought a wild plant from a local farmer’s market. It bears small fruit, but the flavor is much like vanilla!
I only wish blackberries came packaged in that protective husk! lol
Also, I was just looking for more info about primocane blackberries and found a “new” thornless cultivar named Prime Ark “Traveler”. Has anyone else heard about it/tried it out?
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So I was wrong about Sweetie Pie ripening times. I talked to a grower in Mississippi that grows Sweetie Pie and several other varieties. He said that Sweetie Pie ripens around the same time as Ouachita. Sweetie Pie is described as ripening in mid-late season, which would seem like it would ripen later in the season. I have Oauchita and it ripens around the end of June for me (early) and I’m actually North of Cincinnati OH but in Kentucky…I’ll let you figure that one out. Just wanted to make sure I was passing along good info.
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Thanks for the update on the ripening time on Sweetie Pie. My Oauchita has a problem with leaf and cane rust and requires fungicide to control. Its also ripens just a tad bit late with quite a bit of overlap with Navaho. I’m going to try a row of Osage which is little earlier and see how folks like it. If the Osage works out and the leaf and cane rust continues to be a problem, they are going away.
We used to grow Dorman Red which is called a raspberry, but is really a raspberry- dewberry cross. It does well in the south but does not taste anything like a traditional raspberry. Its very trailing (just like a dewberry) and hard to manage.
We used a two wire trellis when we grew trailing USDA blackberry many years ago, but we use a double T trellis with the Arkansas berries. We have 6 rows total. 2 Natchez, 2 Oauchita, 2 Navaho.
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Prime Ark Traveler is the successor to Prime Ark Freedom. Supposedly it’s just as good tasting, but “travels” better. I’m hoping that thicker skin translates into less issues with SWD.
My tissue culture supplier is still ramping up production on them.
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I believe it is a ‘ground cherry’. Not cloudberry, sorry!
Too fabulous for words!
Ah, okay then. My mother always knew them as ground cherries too. She mentioned how she’d be the one stuck husking the buckets of berries they would harvest.
@smatthew Thanks for the info! So the way it sounds, you’re gonna have lots of “traveler” plants?
I just finished ordering some from Simmons Plant Farm located in AR.
Can you elaborate on this please. Are you sending a bit of plant to someone and receiving rooted clones back?
University of Arkansas sent the bits of plant to them - i’m just a happy customer.