First picking of my kotata, excellent flavor again. Middle of my row hardly any berries end of row and beginning of row a lot of berries. Going to remove the middle three plants. Bird predation is definitely up this year. Finding quite a few bird pecked. Still birds getting all my Columbia giant and star. A few siskyou. Not bad flavor, flavor improved from last time I ate a few. Newberry is excellent as always.
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We just got back from an eleven day trip and i am trying to get back on top of weeds and get on picking. My berry patch has exploded with new canes, and where I had paths are now grown in.
This section is my black cap raspberries with some vicious thorns.
I also have Tayberries and Ollalies that i put in last year. I’ve gotten a few ripe Tays so far, but no Ollalies yet.
There is a large section of raspberries that were here when we bought the house 20 years ago, so I have no idea what type they are, but they are productive and have a good flavor.
I was excited ro be able to try some strawberries from my Mara De Bois strawberries. I put the strawberry bed in this year.
I also have Old North Sea and Temptation in tthe bed.
Not bad for my second picking of the year.
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Sleeping Beauty’s castle!
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Another report from my extremely young orchard. I picked my first Patriot blueberry today. I hadn’t put anything over it to protect it from the birds and was surprised to see it when I was watering the gardens. It was still a little under-ripe, but I didn’t have time to get a cage together for it and I’d prefer that it goes to me rather than the birds so I ate it.
Growing up, there were probably 70 to 80 bushes between my grandfather’s and his next door neighbor/sister’s yards. Out of all of these blueberries there was only one bush that ripened in June, it was in my great-Aunt’s yard and I assumed it must have been Earliblue but now I’m not sure. If Earliblue is earlier than Patriot I wonder how early that’d be.
Does anyone else in my general area know how early Earliblue should be for me? I’m in southern Connecticut on the border between zone 6a and 6b.
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For an early blueberry I added Spartan. It’s impressive, huge berries, early ripener, and the fruit is as good as any, excellent.
Speaking of berries I picked Aurora Honeyberries and also Carmine Jewel Bush cherries today.
I decided to dry some of the Carmine Jewel cherries. I also am drying some honeyberries.
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I put in Spartan this year, based largely on the success you are having with it. Those reports that it doesn’t do well on ideal sites had discouraged me from getting it in the past. I also have Earliblue but I removed all the flowers since I moved it. The Bluerays were munched down to the ground and are starting over, but are doing well. My little blueberry crop is coming from Patriot, Bluecrop, and Berkeley this year.
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No more Driscoll raspberries for you!!!
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It felt like I was battling through the thorns of Sleeping Beauties castle too! I started pruning out some of the new canes right after I took this, and removed other varieties that had wandered over.
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Jewel black raspberry now finished and good primocane growth for next year. Despite rain being 50% more than normal, fungus problems remain low. Will probably have to spray Brandywine purple raspberry since they seem less happy with wet soil. My late replant of Cascade Delight red raspberry produced a small but tasty crop and look good for next year so far. The Cascade Harvest, a cousin to Cascade Delight, looks good so far this year. We will see how it handles the cold weather.
I have already picked about 2 gallons of blackberries across all varieties (Prime Ark 45, Sweetie Pie, Osage, and a wild hybrid). Prime Ark usually does not produce much for me on the floricane crop but last winter must have been kind (it did drop to -6F), so I’m getting some really nice, large berries. My bird nets are in their last season, so there are a lot of holes and in some sections, I just didn’t cover. Thankfully, bird predation is light so far.
My western trailing varieties, now mostly in pots, have a light crop. Boysen and Newberry are the regulars with good taste. @Drew51 I’m starting to have second thoughts about the Wyeberry start you gave me and then looked to be a boysen. Although visually identical, the berries of the plant you game me tastes slightly different than boysen…so now I wonder if that is, in fact, a wyeberry plant! I have a wild pacific blackberry that is growing quite well but was disheartened to learn that you need both a male and a female version of the plant to get fruit. 
The Nightfall blackberry I carried back from Portland OR on a plane, did not produce anything despite being well-cared for…that’s not right. 
I did have one small win…I managed to overwinter an Olallie blackberry and got one ripe berry off of it. Have to take the wins when you get them. 
Managed to pick a gallon of black currents from one bush, so that was a win. The other mature black current seems to get fungus and produce almost nothing. I did get a small amount of red currents this year from my 2-year old plants. They are growing well but the fruit tastes unremarkable.
Of my three gooseberry plants, only one produces much and the fruit is always mushy and bland. Some creature cleaned out all of the gooseberries this week, though it was not much of a loss.
Northern highbush blueberries have about another week before their season is over. I ordered a couple of patriot blueberry bushes. I had this variety before and it was a good producer with large, tasty fruit. Pink lemonade is ripening now and the fruit is tasty…it has a hint of peach flavor.
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Nice report. How would you rate your blackberries’ flavors? The only ripe ones we’ve had so far are Traveler, just a few handfuls so far. Osage and Ouachita are close, but not quite there yet. Triple Crown is just now setting fruit. Freedom has put out a lot of primocanes, I’ve topped them, but they haven’t started to bloom yet.
We didn’t have a lot of large raspberry floricanes, but the ones that did produce were pretty good. Nova was best, followed by Prelude, Anne and Caroline was okay, but not a lot to sample. Looks like birds got the last of my small floricane crop. Primocanes have done very well this year.
Gooseberries were mostly from Oregon Champion, they turn purple when ripe, not bad, but not great, either. Tastes like a mildly sweet grape.
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For Eastern blackberries, Osage is a bit sweeter than the other I have. That really only matters if you intend to eat them raw. I’m saving mine for blackberry pies and cobblers. Blackberry jam from them is OK, but the seeds are somewhat of a problem. Raspberries do a better job with jam…but I guess I’m off topic 
Although I don’t grow them anymore, triple crown has one of the best flavors, for raw eating, that you can grow around here. When SWD was bad for me, TC tended to get infected a lot because it was a late fruiter, so I switched to varieties that fruit earlier.
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Cool, heck any blueberry is a good one! I hope the Spartan works out! I have 9 plants now. Next year in a different location I will be adding two. Right now All 9 of mine have fruit.
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planted austin dewberry from willis orchard last summer. grew 5 10ft. long canes. they survived the winter under the snow. have them tied on a trellis. checked them today and they are full of flowers! so are my thimbleberries right next to them. will be the 1st time i get to taste either. my xxl romeo cherry i put in last month has 20 or so cherries growing on it and my 3 yr old juilet also set 4 cherries. my carmine jewel is quite a bit bigger/older than juliet but didn’t bloom . I’m just excited to get these first fruit period.
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Gooseberry, currant starts to ripen. Raspberry is still developing.but my favorite IE mulberry is just in season , yummy😋
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The raspberries are winding down and the blackberries are picking up. I’m still managing to get a couple pounds of Nova per day. Not bad considering I think I only started with 5 plants last year.
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@subdood_ky_z6b I don’t know if you’ve built your trellis yet or not, but I’d recommend something like a V shape. I’m also growing a variety of blackberries (and raspberries) in one row. I set it up with three strands of wire and T posts. Three years later, I think a V system would be more effective. Some of mine I can train around the wire, but other really just need something to flop onto. If I don’t weave the more erect ones through the wire as they grow (and they grow like weeds!), they fall over and break. I’m not super diligent about keeping everything neat and tidy— mostly I’m just trying to eat all these delicious berries before my dogs do! They love them, too haha
Growing with good success:
Raspberries— Polana Fall, Heritage Fall, Prelude Summer, Double Gold Fall, Jewel Black Summer
Blackberries— Triple Crown, Prime Ark Freedom, Apache Erect, Ouachita Semi Trailing
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Yesterday’s picking gave us a large bowlful of red and blackcap raspberries with a few tayberries thrown in.
They were turned into a berry pie in short order.
The leftovers were put inside crepes this morning and now i am headed out to pick again.
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The good life!
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I gave my dad some Minaj black currants over the weekend. He ate a small handful, made a face, and said, “These taste like hamburger.” Although I think they’re pretty good, I can see where he was coming from.
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