Anyone have an opinion on Big Daddy blackberry variety?
How does it compare to Ponca and Kiowa?
I haven’t tried any berries of these three but I’m very interested in blackberries and so was curious if anyone had an opinion comparison on these three?
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And sweet giant 
how does it compare to sweet giant as well i wonder… i too, am looking to get a giant blackberry
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They are not sweeter or all that much bigger to me. But they are low chill .self fertiles that produce lots of berries. Probably 2 to 1 compared to our Kiowas.
But it does not compare to Arapaho in berry versatility. Or Gem , Brison or Flint in production here. The last 3 tailored Commercial varieties for South Georgia. Big Daddy is more for fresh eating. Probably not for U-picks. or canning/frozen.
But that is here. There are plenty of great berries for other harvest times and places.
Big Daddy-
There was a guy on the Blackberry growers that put in like 500 plants when they first came out… he was going to have some kind of super u-pick. I think they ripened kind of late or something and SWD got him and he said they tasted like crap. Its been awhile but that was the jist that i got from it. This was in Arkansas and he lived near Berries Unlimited and bought them in bulk from them.
Sweet Giant-
This was going to be Lydia’s Sweet Giant and sold by BerriesUnlimited but Gurney’s got them.
Both of these are U of Arks and they didnt really make the cut to put their stamp on them from what i gather. Good enough for backyard hobbyists but not good enough for mass marketing under their brand.
Ponca is probably the safest bet as far as growing something for fresh eating. It doesnt really have the twang or acidity that i prefer but for just a sweet tasting berry it does a good job.
Here is a video from NC… he is picking the king berries in June…so the main crop would be into July if that works for you. As you can see most of the berries have barely formed and will not be the size of the king berry.
However Apache i think does just about everything right as far as the U of Arks go. Its erect, easy to trellis… big berries that ripen early and highly productive. YMMV.
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I have been seeing this variety pop up all over Etsy, Ebay and also highly promoted in lower and mid tier nurseries… lots of descriptions from ‘huge’ to ‘massive’ berries. So barring all of the hype… here is what i have found to be true. (snippets from the patent)
average first harvest date of 7 June and was three days after ‘Osage’ and five days later than ‘Natchez’. The floricane fruiting period is long, averaging 61 days. Fruit yields of the new cultivar on floricanes are very high and on average 8.6 kg (18.9 lb/plant), higher than that for ‘Osage’ and ‘Natchez’
The fruit is elongated in shape and glossy with a uniform black finish. The floricane fruit is large (ave. 7.9 g), 3 g larger than ‘Osage’, and 1.0 g smaller than ‘Natchez’.
The fresh fruit rates very well in flavor and when fully ripe are very sweet with good aromatic components. The soluble solids concentration averages 8.7% on shiny black fruit, which is lower than ‘Osage’, and ‘Natchez’.
So from all of that… i gather that it does nothing better than Osage and Natchez other than fruiting a longer time… 2 months worth. So well into SWD time for some folks. However it does yield more.
I reckon thats why U of Ark did not run with it under its own banner.
YMMV and things may be much better or worse than the U of Ark trials from this data… it could be much better or worse depending on alot of variables of climate etc.
patent-
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Thank you for the rundown!
“The soluble solids concentration averages 8.7% on shiny black fruit, which is lower than ‘Osage’, and ‘Natchez’.”
Can you dumb down what soluble solids concentration means to me?
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Soluble solids are mostly sugars.
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OK, thank you I was thinking it might indicate juiciness, but it means it is sweeter.
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Soluble Solids/Brix/potential sweetness…
Lower number is less sweet than higher number.
I checked the patent for Natchez and they listed 7-8 pounds per plant, it seems shocking that this produces over 2X more berries by weight…meaningless if they don’t taste good (and maybe explains why they are so much lower in sugar, the plant just can’t produce that much sugar)
But I also wonder if Natchez wasn’t managed ideally for maximum yield (cut back too far or something like that), presumably for evaluation purposes they prune them all the same but it might be pretty far off the best way to manage some varieties for maximum yield
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Alot of variables in patent info vs commercial or backyard growing. Chester and TC have very high numbers but were not from Ark. Some data points even show yearly variances in yield at same location.
So hard to judge a plant or brix etc from just one set of data…
Too much water or not enough alone can change things immensely.
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