While I’m on the subject. Does anyone know the protocol for getting plant material to grow out? Like as in an application to U of A or other horticultural arenas that specialize in trialing “new” varieties?
The sweetest berry I tasted was tayberry. More a lack of acid than more sugar. My plants have to be hardy enough too. In general I don’t care for the thornless types. I’m willing to give Ponca a try, but if it’s a dud, I won’t try again. I really only need a good processing berry and hoping Columbia Giant will work for me.I will have to protect it, so not sure how well it will work long term. I need to try it and see if I can get it to work. I have found the Arkansas plants, most of them hardy enough to work here. But the ripening times was a problem,and for me the quality of the berry. Seems the only ones I like struggle to grow here.
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I checked with Pense and was told they would be selling Ponca beginning this October or November.
Pense is my to go place for purchasing berry plants.
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Try the technology office at U of A. Looks like the list of licensed propagators is small
I finally have a crop of Tayberries to try this year. 
Marion, Thorny Boysen, Newberry will have berries this year but all being grown in pots.
I will probably start reducing my Eastern blackberries because I just don’t need that many blackberries given the care they need.
Switching more to raspberries because they are tastier and easier to contain / maintain. Currently I have Cascade Delight (red), Cascade Harvest (red), Jewel Black Raspberry, Brandiewine (Purple), and Josephine (red - primocane fruiting). The summer varieties are getting the red necked cane borer now, which is impacting my yields. I may have to start treating them with a pesticide or just stop growing caneberries in this location.
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I have been having problems with the cane borers too. Hard to spray as they always have flowers. Yes, I’m trying to plant them out and see if I can keep them alive in ground… Newberry seems the most hardy. It did survive it’s first winter outside. I still have one in a pot too as backup. JT look that this one I bred (black raspberry)
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Wow! That’s impressive. Let me know when you selling those… I’ll buy some My Jewel’s produced some larger berries last year and it is amazing how much better they taste when more size.
Regarding cane borers, I had some success in the past using a drench on the plants and it worked but it’s challenging because can treat the plants before they are done blooming due to the threat to pollinators.
Yes a great plant too. I used Jewel in crosses too. I got them a little mixed up which was Jewel with Niwot and Ontario Wild with Niwot, I have 3 other plants I’m still evaluating. Since then my Niwot died and all I got are these primocane fruiting offspring.
@Drew51 Once Tayberries reach their ‘ripe’ color, how long do you let them stay on the cane until you pick them? I have left a few a couple of days but they still seem tart. Is that their expected flavor?
I picked mine,when they were a purplish red color.bb
No, but it is a young plant. They will get sweeter with maturity. When the calyx (leaves around the berry) turn crispy brown, it’s ready. it should come off fairly easy.
As Brady says they turn color, a little darker.
Mine were tart the first year too, by the third year no tartness at all. Maybe I got better at picking them too! Mine are not even flowering yet.
Nearly all of Western trailing berries are in pots, so they received plenty of chill hours then got to spend some quality time in my garage this winter, so they are ahead of those plants outside.
On my berry path stroll this morning, all of my Eastern blackberries are in bloom now but raspberries are not there yet. It has been so wet that I’m noticing fungal damage on some of the new leaves.
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I’ll give them more time. I have a bit of ‘bird anxiety’ since they are uncovered… 
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I picked my first PAF blackberries on the 16th and they were good. We’ve had at least five inches of rain and standing water for two days. I picked a few while ago and unsurprisingly they tasted like blackberry flavored water. LOL The primocanes were tipped twice and I see bloom buds now forming at the tips.
Sweetie Pie and Osage are sizing up while Von is at late petal fall.
Which one is the best? How about I tell you what I like about each one I’ve chosen?
PAF has worked out great for me in zone 7b. It’s the only variety of the ones I’ve grown that produces berries from mid May until frost. I’ve picked blackberries in December from it.
Sweetie Pie has excellent and distinct flavor. It has strong canes and produces an abundance of primocanes.
Osage has excellent flavor, probably more complex than previous Arkansas introductions. It has strong canes, pretty flowers, and produces ample primocanes.
Von has excellent flavor. A different mix of flavors with less acid. It hasn’t produced enough primocanes for me. I’m lucky to get 3 or 4.
I’m trialing Caddo. It’s in its first year and is sending up primocanes.
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Osage tastes a little better than arapaho and oachita to me. And better than kiowa which is thorny. But my osage crowns keep getting some sort of rot and the plant dies during or just after fruiting in yr 2. May be some pathogen in my area. Its also not vigorous at all. Kiowa on the other hand has great survival and super vigorous. Triple crown was not happy here either. Maybe not enough chilling.
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I found Tayberries needed to get soft and darker before they had good flavor. It took me awhile to get the hang as the color differences were small, they never get super dark.
That caught my eye that Baby Cakes Dwarf blackberries do well in Northern Maine. Have others in the North had good success with them. I have tried PAFs, which ripened too late so I didn’t cover them and they all winter-killed, Nelsons, which the rabbits chewed one winter, but another year they got some tasty berries just as we left on vacation, and Darrows, which have spread into a large patch, but no berries. If the Darrows don’t produce this year after the mild winter, I plan to mow them down. I have also planted a local wild blackberry of some sort that I bought at a garage sale.
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our deep snow helps to protect them but being z4 hardy they should do well for you.
After 8 inches of rain in a little over a week, I’ve fed about 5 gallons of huge and flavorless PAF blackberries to the chickens. The bad thing is more rain is predicted for next three days. Osage are turning red, hopefully it’ll dry up before they ripen.
My early blueberries have little flavor as well. My raspberries are just okay with Royalty being the most highly flavored.
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