Did I make a mistake planting ‘Austin’ dewberry last year? On a dry fence line with practically no care, some scattered mix of wild black raspberries, ‘Jewel’, ‘Bristol’, and unknown U of AR blackberries.
Everybody has been well behaved and healthy except the dewberry is throwing out 10’ trailing canes and popping up from the ground several feet away rambunctiously. Also has fine, nasty bristles like cactus or barberry thorn tips. Is it tasty enough to keep?
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L. Burbank used it as breeding stock, not a source of fruit.
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i have a dewberry from rolling river. its canes grow to 20ft. its not very productive but the fruit is good sized and tasty. it mostly sends canes from the crown but sometimes throws a few 3’ - 5’ away. i let the new canes sprawl beside my raised beds then tie them to the trellis the next spring. they are about as prickly as black raspberries.
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I wonder if I got something mislabeled, it’s bristles are much more dense than my black raspberries and more painful, break off and embed easily. I even have to be careful near it while mowing.
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I’m not familiar with that Dewberry variety but we grew something called Carolina Dewberry when we first started. They were a very popular crop in my state before the thornless blackberries.
They grow crazy long canes with thorns more like Raspberries than thorny Blackberries. We thought they were hard to manage on a traditional trellis. The commercial growers in my state used to tie them to a tall vertical post at the base of each plant.
Still see a few growing on the ground 40 years later.
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