Actually a yellow black raspberry, a yellow cap. It’s sort of local from the great wilds of Ontario.
All commercial yellow raspberries are sports of red raspberries, not black. This is the only yellow black I know of. These are photos Tyler from Ontario took, a friend of mine. Mine will fruit for the first time next year. I will for sure post photos of it.
I do though have two white blackberry cultivars. I don’t have any photos. This year’s fruit was small and unimpressive. Sweeter than any other blackberry I ever tasted.
Nourse is great I order from them too. Propagation is probably not by tissue culture at Indiana Berry? I don’t know? Which is fine by me. The product speaks for itself. My problem with Nourse and many nurseries is I don’t need 5 of the same raspberry cultivar. Prices are good, but you need to buy too many plants. I can make 5 raspberry plants from one in a year. I would rather pay a little more (like maybe 50 cents, sometimes it’s less!) at Indiana and get 5 different raspberry cultivars.They have no problem doing that. I only buy from Nourse if Indiana doesn’t have the cultivar I want.
I can buy 5 (minimum) prime Ark freedom at Nourse for $24.50
or at Indiana I can buy one each of
Prime Ark Freedom 4.45
Osage 4.25
Triple Crown 4.25
Navaho 4.25
Kiowa 4.25
Total $21.45
So for me the backyard grower Indiana Berry makes more sense. Both sell commercial too.
And IB has just as many, if not more varieties than NF. I did a quick check and they have almost twice the blackberries (13 vs 7). NF has very slightly more raspberry varieties, but both have good selections with more than 20 each.
I’ve also got a lot planted in a small space and I’ve tried to deal with the issue by planting dissimilar things near each other. For instance, a row could have purple raspberries, yellows, blackberries, reds, more yellows, etc. At worst, I need to wait for fruit, though often the density/length of the thorns or the height of the canes will be a giveaway.
For the blackberry rows, I’ve been able to ID them based on trailing, erect, and how thorny they are. In a few years I may face an ID issue in a an area that I’ve put all thornless erect plants.
Oops I missed that question about close planting, thanks Bob for pointing it out again. Same as Bob. I know the cultivars, mix them by color. The blackberries vary a lot more, and unlike raspberries they have a central crown. The established plants are easy to spot.
My raspberries are in raised beds and that helps keep them there, although they pop up all over. I pull many out each year.
Triple Crown sends lot’s of runners out and it is a pain for sure! I pulled up 4 of them just this year. Probably 7 other tip rooted blackberries too.
If anybody ever wants to trade, just tell me by the middle of the summer and I’ll save a tip rooted escapee for you! I threw out over 7 plants this year.
My in ground raspberries are trapped, so no escapees! Next to the house. The sidewalk keeps them there. That is about 16 feet long of space there. So far in 4 years none made it under the sidewalk. The two smaller trees in the foreground are Nadia (closest) and Satsuma plum (Other side of the maple, not that visible). We are looking north, so this is my south side, the front of the house.
The yellow caps grow wild as sports of blacks . Been finding them while hunting for 30 + years . Yellow canes make them easy to spot . Were sold as yellow bow cane in a old Bloomington nursery catalog about 1898 .
I’ve got Ouachita and Arapaho thornless. Both make big fruits that are pretty tasty and decently sweet if left to turn from black to a duller black and almost mushy overripe. They are trained to a two wire trellis. I’ve heard the thorny ones are better tasting. I’ve been considering planting a couple of Kiowa. Can anyone comment on Ouachita or Arapaho vs. Kiowa for flavor? I’m mainly interested in if they sweeten up as much and perhaps sweeten without having to let them hang forever.
I’ve grown Kiowa for several years along with Navajo, Apache, and oauchita. The Kiowa also have to go from a glossy black to a dull black to be ripe, but they are still pretty firm in the dull black stage. They were the best out of those four for both productivity and taste, but I had to remove them because of crown borers and crown gall.
I have grown Kiowa as well. Flavor is about the same as Ouachita but the berries are about twice as large…probably too large. Kiowa is also less cold hardy and will start taking damage at around 0F. Triple Crown and Osage both offer a better flavored berry.
I planted Triple Crown and Chester last year, could only taste 2-3 berries on each plant… Didn’t like them. They tasted sweet, but bitter, with big seeds. I am used to pick wild blackberries (with thorns) and they are absolutely delicious. Always sweet and tart, but never bitter, plus extra aromatic. They may produce less with smaller berries, but to me, they are definetly better tasting. Am thinking of removing the thornless and get a plant from the woods.
Has anyone in the SOUTH tested blackberry variety developed in the Pacific North West? Variety like Columbia Star, Black Diamond, Marion and perhaps others?
The Arkansas blackberry (excluding primocane variety) do very well in my climate. They are similar in taste which is good, but not fabulious. I started growing blackberry with Dirkson, Black Satin and Chester. When I first tasted the Arkansas blackberry variety, I could not believe how good they were compared to what I had in the field and removed all the old plants.
I’m now wondering if the PNW variety may produce another jump in flavor. Just not sure about my climate.
I believe @scottfsmith in Baltimore has tried Black Diamond and Marionberry (and other Western blacks) with little success. I think his Marionberry died from the cold. And Black Diamond may not like the extreme hot and cold that can occur here. I have also heard it is low vigor.
Scott encountered strange behavior with the Westerns as many of them just shut down whenever there was a heat wave.
If I am not mistaken, I believe Siskiyou may be the only widely available Western black that Scott has fruited with any modest survival and success. Sometimes Bay Laurel Nursery carries Siskiyou.
A lot of the problem is hardiness; you are a little warmer which will help. As Matt mentioned they often shut down in the heat, and many of the varieties had poor flavor for me which seems to be climate related. Columbia Star and Newberry are probably the best two in terms of taking the heat, producing decent fruit, and being hardy. Osage is in the same league and is Arkansas-bred so you may want to try it.
Boysen sounds very interesting. I made an inquiry with extension to see if has been tested in my state.
Osage hits the perfect ripening window. Does it really taste better than other Arkansas blackberry? It seems like U of A over hypes every new introduction. Ouchata did not meet my expectations. I also have problems with cane rust on that variety. Its the variety I need to cull. Just one row.
Flavor is somewhat subjective but I think Osage has better flavor than the other Arkansas varieties. Triple Crown’s flavor is a notch above Osage but TC has the disadvantages of ripening during SWD and it is more difficult to manage because it is semi-trailing and quite vigorous.
Boysen, when fully ripe, has a very good flavor. The flavor is strong with a bit of tartness, but that’s the kind of flavors I like…kind of like sweet tart candy. The berry is itself is quite soft and delicate, so it is losing favor among many of the commercial growers in the PNW though. For a PYO operation it would be fine but probably would not be good for shipping.
I have Boysen, Marion, Wild Treasure, Black Diamond, Siskiyou, Logan, Tayberry, Newberry, and Columbia Star growing in my berry patch in Northern KY along with Osage, Ouachita, TC, and Loch Ness. Wild Treasure is the only one that seems to need shade during the summer but I’m pretty far North.
I’m adding wyeberry, Olallie, and probably Natchez this coming season.
Rather than say that Boysen can handle heat, I think it actually needs heat. The year we had an early and unseasonable warm spring (May weather in March…), Boysen had plenty of sweetness and great flavor (acid balance). That was my first real harvest with it, so I was very disappointed the next year when it was eye-wateringly sour. I think it would still make great jam that way (hopefully I’ll get enough), but isn’t as tasty to eat fresh unless you get it very ripe.
Anybody in the south growing Sweetie Pie Blackberry? I expect it should do well since it came from the USDA program is Mississippi, but I can not find not much information to work with. I’m also interested in when it ripens compared with Natchez and Navaho
I have no personal experience with sweetie pie, but I did some homework before ordering one for this spring. I didn’t find much either. You probably found everything I found. But I wrote down that 1) it ripens with ouachita, and that 2) in Oregon it ripens 7 days before navaho. But I can’t say that this is correct.
Hopefully someone can give you better first hand info for your region.
