Nice, what varieties?
The first picture shows Joan J. It’s sold as a fall bearing raspberry but produces a good summer floricane crop for me as well. The 2nd and 3rd picture show Prelude.
I’ve also got a lot of Nova that are starting to open flowers. It’s a good one to extend the picking season but ripens before SWD becomes a problem here.
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My Prelude plant has sent up prob 20 new canes, it is by far my most prolific rasp. Is yours similar in this regard?
Same here, maybe not as far along as yours. They seem to send up lots of canes too.
Did you see if you still have a lot of fried blackberry buds? I think I noticed that on some of my Freedom blooms.
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Yes indeed. Prelude and Nova spread very vigorously. I’m glad I’m using them as erosion control on the side of a drainage ditch! Their canes will have to be thinned out so they can remain productive. Another thing I notice is I don’t have to give Nova any support. The canes are usually strong enough to stay upright.
I just checked on my AC Eden and it’s starting to bloom as well. This one forms many canes too. The thornless trait is desirable but this will be my first year tasting the fruit.
Yes, all my blackberry blossoms (Natchez & Osage) that opened earlier have black centers. The ones just opening now look viable. It’ll be a reduced crop this year. Raspberries buds seem much more freeze tolerant.
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i have acc eden as well and it should fruit for me this summer. i had a little tip cane damage but that may be due to them still being pretty young. planted last spring. i got a few berries off the primocanes last summer. they were big and tasty. have cascade gold , prelude and joan j that will also fruit for the 1st time this summer. shoots everywhere right now.
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I also have Eden, it’s 3 years old, and I’ve yet to get a berry from it. Compared to Prelude and Killarney (both 2 years old) that it sits between, it just hasn’t got going very well here. This year it just has a couple of floricanes, and maybe three or four primocanes. I do like its thornless canes, tho.
I took a look at my row this evening, and it’s being taken over by various weeds. I spent a couple days last month weeding it, and it’s worse than before. I don’t mulch because it’s not dry here, and I’ve read it can lead to diseases, plus it can inhibit new cane growth. Do y’all mulch, and if so, with what? Maybe I ought to mulch in the summer after all the canes have come up?
I don’t mulch. I do dump compost on them most years In the spring, which suffocates whatever weeds might have sprouted during the winter. My raspberries have grown so dense that they shade out anything under them. Most weeds don’t have a chance of competing.
Polka is my failure here. It doesn’t produce much floricane or fall crop and the canes are so thorny!
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Thanks, I might try some compost instead of mulch. I don’t make my own, so I guess I’d have to buy some.
Yes, the rasps become the ‘weed’! I’d also like to have that happen with my strawberries. They’re not thick enough now to keep the weeds at bay.
I wouldn’t say Eden is a total bust, but I tried twice to get Double Gold going here, and it never made it. But nine other varieties have, so that’s fine.
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i mulch heavily with green arborist wood chips but I’m in a much cooler enviroment and my berries are on a rise so drainage isn’t a problem. new canes have no problem pushing through 4in. of mulch. have you ever tried growing your berries in mounds? seems that if you have wet conditions they would grow much better in mounds or raised beds with some perlite mixed in.
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Thanks, I’ll have to try something, I can’t be weeding every month. Maybe will weed one more time and then put something down.
I can’t really mound them up now the way they are. But, the patch drains pretty well, I rarely see any standing water, and then it’s on one end of the patch.
ind try about 2-3in. of wood chips. , fresher the better as weeds can’t grow in it. just don’t till it in and see how they do with that. sucks having to weed all the time.
I mulch my brambles with whatever I have handy at the time they need it. Usually it’s wood chips that I make from fallen tree branches, which I pile up and chip as needed. Often I’ll shred up some leaves, piled up from the previous fall, and use those. Lately I’ve been trimming lots of shrubs, so I shred up the trimmings and use them where needed.
Needless to say, I have very little yard waste as most everything is used as I find it. My compost piles never have a chance to get big enough to actually make compost for me. 
I wasn’t aware of this and will look into it. Thanks.
A quick search found this from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Raspberry plants are shallow-rooted and thus are poor competitors for water and nutrients if weeds are present. A 3 to 6” layer of mulch will help to conserve soil moisture and inhibit weed growth. Coarse sawdust, wood chips or bark make good mulching materials. Pine needles work well, but need replenishing more frequently. Mulching of raspberry plantings is not without risk. The use of a permanent mulch may delay fruit ripening and plant hardening-off in the autumn, increasing the risk of winter damage. Mulching is not recommended after the first year on heavy soils due to the risk of Phytophthora. Mulch is also a haven for rodents that feed on plant roots and canes. Baiting is recommended where mulch is used.
Choose your poison, I guess. Although, three to six inches of mulch seems excessive to me. Perhaps a thinner layer would be less problematic yet still smother the weeds.
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i have the worst draining heavy clay, rocky soil and in 7 yrs haven’t had any die offs of any kind even when i put down new green mulch every spring. we get similar rainfall as kentucky. MA gets even more rain. mine is on a slight rise but i do get puddles forming in between the rows in heavy rain.
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We’ve been picking strawberries more often for the past week or two. Probably got a pint yesterday and another today. Hard to tell when my 7yo daughter just walks around eating strawberries whenever she’s out in the yard.
She’s also been helping pick mulberries. We planted three sticks a few years ago and today we harvested about 12c of mulberries. The kids helped my process 6c of them into mulberry jam which we canned into 12-4oz jars. I might run out to the store and pick up some more of the little canning jars so we can make another batch as it came out quite good.
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Saw my first red on a strawberry today. An Earliglow. VERY late this year.
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I think these are Earliglow. I’m terrible at keeping records.
I’m happy I was able to get them through 2 frosts and hopefully I get a ton of these.
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they look like them. I’ve tried probably 8 varieties and of the commercial straws. earliglow and sparkle are still my favs. i just put in galetta this spring which one of its parents is earliglow and archer which has great reviews. put in ac wendy last summer. should crop well soon.
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Earliglow right on time after all. June 1 harvest starts. Berries are sound.
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I harested first 4 strawberries yesterday lots more to come!
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