Hi all would like to get opinions on best
thornless BlackBerry for zone 6b. I tried triple crown, I loved them big big berries but the canes turned white then die not the whole cane just part of cane but it all died off. I would get new canes every spring anyone know what might be the cause to cold in my zone but not sure thanks all .also if I remember the cane did not die below the white area. Thanks again
I’m in 6 A/B, I planted Triple Crown and Prime Ark Freedom last year. Triple Crown never made it past summer. We will see how PAF does this winter. It produced a handful of berries last fall that were delicious. Hopefully its alive come spring.
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Do you mean it turned white in the growing season? If so, that sounds like a disease or insect problem and not the variety. I had a similar problem on my Triple Crowns years ago, it was so long ago I don’t remember what it ended up being. It was white fuzzy stuff. I think I rubbed it off and then sprayed with oil and that got rid of it. If the canes are grey not white they could be dying from it being too cold.
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Triple Crown grew here in 6a just fine, No problems with it at all. I did remove it because tasting various berries I discovered in general I don’t like thornless blackberries.I taste this aftertaste in them that I do not like. Not true for all, some I didn’t like for other reasons. Anyway what I did discover is many of the thorny types tasted fantastic to me and is all i grow now. They are a total pain for sure. I really like the hybrids with raspberries the most. Now that I harvest tons of fruit, I decided to pull all the thornless as they were used the least, it was not a good fit for me. If I were to keep one it would be Navaho as the berries were good, and it was not an aggressive grower. On Triple Crown in three years I would say I pulled out 25 self tip rooted plants. The thing is a beast!!
It has been few years grayish white no fuz cold I suspect thanks
Kiowa. Huge berries, heavy production. But… thorny as all get-out.
I’m adding Ouachita this spring, as a thornless companion.
I am sorry that I do not know the name of the type of thornless blackberry plants that we have but they grow MANY new canes each year and are just LOADED with BIG blackberries! We are located in zone 6b but we have some winters that are much colder so we usually look for plants that are hardy in zone 5. We tried several of the other thornless blackberry plants like Navaho and Arapaho and each one would grow two canes and have a very few berries and then those two canes would die back and two new canes would grow. But even after FIVE years, none of those blackberry plants would do any better than only two canes and only a FEW blackberries. Then a friend of hours gave us what they called a commercial grade thornless blackberry plant and we now have blackberry plants growing in a HUGE area! And the plants had berries the FIRST year and then had so many berries by the second and third year that we froze a lot of berries, we gave a LOT of berries to friends and families, and we let the neighborhood kids bring their Easter baskets (it was NOT around Easter time but they save their baskets for this) came and picket berries to eat and to take home with them! We don’t have time to sell the berries so we end up with LOTS and LOTS of extra berries each year!
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Oh, I forgot to say that these HUGE blackberries are DELICIOUS!!
Sounds like Triple Crown.
This is my first time here. Just joined today. I was wondering if you ever found out what variety of primocane blackberries that you mentioned? I know it’s an old post but I’m also in 6a (SW, Pa.) I’ve been gardening for a long time but never gave blackberries a try. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
@Knuckles900 welcome to the forum! I’m not a blackberry expert, but the ones mentioned above are most likely Triple Crown. There have been several new releases of thornless blackberries in the years since this thread died off. Some people that have firsthand experience with them will likely chime in shortly.
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Thanks for replying so quickly. I’m pretty interested in the PAF but I’m not sure if it’s going to produce enough primocane berries to make it worthwhile. I’ll definitely keep watching for any suggestions.
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I have yet to try them myself. I will though as growing primocane black raspberries has been a winner for me.
You would also have a summer crop so you will have volume. I’m not sure which to grow yet so I’ll be watching this thread too.