Questions not deserving of a whole thread

Curious: How many blackberry plants are y’all growing for personal usage? I’m trying to figure out if I need more plants than I currently have to supply enough blackberries for fresh eating and freezing for the year for two people. I have 6 floricane types currently and 5 primocane on the way.

Would adding more be a bit overboard since I’m not selling or do y’all think 11 plants aren’t enough for a 1 year supply once they start producing? Appreciate any advice y’all can offer.

I have about 8 floricane plants (2015) and 10 primocanes (2015). My freezer is full of berries (about 4-5 gallons) I have enough juice in the freezer for 4 batches of jam/jelly. I probably gave away/took to work for eating 14-15 gallons—maybe more. That is not counting what we ate daily here and there. This was my first big year of harvest. I had to cut my PAF’s back a lot last summer so I’m not sure if there will be as many this year but I think I can manage if there isn’t… :wink:.

Katy

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Harvesting all that fruit is a labor of love difficult to sustain. I used to love my brambles, but as my fruit trees became more productive and took more and more time, my romance with blackberries and raspberries waned. Small fruit takes so much time just to harvest that now I only grow blueberries and black currants. Blackberry and black raspberry stands tend to get weakened by viral disease here after a few years, anyway. Virus that damages fruit but not roots don’t provide brambles enough genetic incentive to develop resistance apparently. Native brambles can dominate land without spreading by seed.

I have to say that pound per labor I get much more fruit from my trees than I ever could from brambles. If I lived in the pacific NW it might be a different story- I guess in the south blackberries can also be much more productive than here. .

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They look great. Congratulations.

We have tons of wild dewberries down here; although, most southerners will call them blackberries, which they mistakenly correct me on. I am trying some various named cultivars of blackberries, but I don’t have high expectations over the long term. The viruses take their toll from what I read, especially if you have wild “blackberries” around. I got the plants as little starts from an eBay seller. This seller is a distributor for that big tissue culture outfit in Florida I believe, perhaps Agristarts? Agristarts did a presentation at NAFEX, at point point they were describing their tissue sterilization techniques. I asked do their techniques eliminate viruses; the short answer was “no,” but they choose tissue (most likely virus free) from the apical meristems. The tissue is later tested for viruses. I asked this question in reference to figs (fig mosaic virus) and blackberries.

In the rural wooded area in which I live the wild blackberries are rampant and are impossible to eradicate. So, yes, I will most likely lose production over time. Most of the growers that are more isolated from the wild berries do really well with their crops year after year but I did start having problems last year with the cool wet year we had.

@alan I can very well relate to your love story relating to the brambles and later occurring tree fruit. We have planted many trees but as of yet only seen a few pears and jujubes produced. It will be a few years before good production of those and in the search for quick home grown fruit the berries fit that bill. We do have figs but have had them for years and I guess, kinda take that fruit for granted. :flushed:. And yes, those berries got pretty labor intensive. I sure did enjoy them this last year though as a much easier gathering than searching out the wild ones and everything that that experience offers!

@BambooMan Oh, yes, Dewberries! They are so much better to me than blackberries and when picking wild we sought the dewberries out first. I did see some of those offered for sale the other day and I am sorely tempted to order! Not many people I know today know the difference.

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I edited my post to say, “I am trying some named cultivars of blackberries.” Sorry, I was typing on my phone in the bed when I originally posted. I got my blackberry plants from the ebay seller floridahillnurserycom
https://www.ebay.com/sch/floridahillnurserycom/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_ipg=&_from=
I agree, dewberries are way better. Last year I braved the thorns and harvested a couple pounds for my GF.

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What would happen if I planted some apple trees on MM111 rootstock in 15 or 20 gallon pots? I don’t have room for them in the ground but really don’t want to get rid of them. Would they eventually bear fruit? Thanks everyone!

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111 will act like a dwarf when restricted by a pot and fruit young. I’ve never kept it in a pot for very long, but I expect it would work as well as most any rootstock in a pot.

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What is the background info? You have extra trees on MM111 and you have not planted them?

This is a picture of my Laroda plum. It has this thing that looks like a tiny fruit. Is it a flower bud, though it doesn’t like any flower bud I’ve seen before? If not what is it?

This is my pear. Are these fruit spurs? Are they far enough along to give me fruit this year?

Yeah, good question. I just flip flopped and decided to put a bunch of persimmons where the apples were going to go so now I’ve got 40 homeless apple trees. Luckily I’ve got 10 of those big 20 gallon pots so I’ll give that a shot for some of them.

You must have gotten a good price on 40 apples. Have you thought about going to a local garden store with your paperwork and offer sell the trees on consignment. That way they get a little bit of money and you at least break even.

That’s not a flower bud. It looks dead. Maybe something like a mummy fruit from last yr.

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Those pears buds look like leaf buds unfortunately. Football shaped means flowers, pointed like a pencil means leaf.

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:pensive:
Thank you. At least now I know :slightly_smiling_face:

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@Susu
These are pear fruit buds. Like @scottfsmith says you can’t miss them. Enlarged the picture of the buds so you can see them better.



Here is an additional topic if you want to see more pictures Pear buds, blossoms, and fruit 2017 - #35 by Derby42

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Thanks Clark. I do see the difference now.

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@Lucky_P
I just sent you a PM

Hey @Richard what’s the progress on your macadamia nut tree? Are you still planning on planting one? I imagine you will be pruning/training for size control, if so how large will you let it grow? How much of a crop will you expect at maturity?

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