Found some ripe ones. Love these things. What a simple fruit to grow (just plant it and forget it). Although i will warn against trying to run through a patch naked. You will end up with injuries…these things are razor sharp.
Not sure the variety? I think I bought them at Home Depot. I think I also have some of the purple ones out there.
Mine are starting to ripen too. Have to get them early or my kid eats them all!
Speaking from experience?
They look a little like my Mysore raspberry (rubus niveus). I’ll bet your berries taste much nicer though! The thorns on my bushes are incredibly vicious too; some of the “fish hooks” are easily longer than an inch! I’m just glad they don’t spread by the roots like normal raspberries.
I picked a handful and fed them to my grandson while he watered the peach seedlings today. He really munched them down , lol.
Yikes…not that i remember. I hope to never experience that. They do taste very good. Birds haven’t messed with them yet, although a robin and her baby seem to be in the yard a lot lately.
I think i read something that these have very high level of anthocyanins… the good stuff.
I grow a few black raspberry bushes and they are definitely a favorite of mine. I’ve not found any red raspberries hardy enough to grow here. The black raspberry is very prolific! Mine reproduces when the tips touch the ground.
I don’t understand. What do you mean? [quote=“clarkinks, post:7, topic:6310”]
I’ve not found any red raspberries hardy enough to grow here
[/quote]
I suspect he means that they just don’t like the climate here. Black raspberries grow wild here in the woods. Many never fruit until you cut the trees down around them then they just go crazy.
Thank you. How’s the climate?
I put in Prelude. Maybe next summer i’ll have some berries. I continue to prune back my Caroline because SWD has put an end to them.
Jessica,
Kansas has a very hot dry summer and at times a cold winter. We sometimes have droughts and other times very heavy rainfall. Red raspberries are not as hardy as the black ones. Our temperatures sometimes fluctuate. This week our high temperature is 100 degrees Fahrenheit. We can make yogurt outside in this weather. This is an example from 2014 http://governor.ks.gov/kansas-drought-resources and another from 2016 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEB_TMq8PMk. This is an example of temperature estimates but our actual temperature here will be 100 degrees http://www.accuweather.com/en/us/kansas-city-ks/66101/june-weather/348425?monyr=6/1/2016
Thank you. I am so surprised that you can’t grow red raspberries. Also sad for you… (Not too much though, as I know you can grow plenty of other things I can’t grow here…
) In Qc, that’s one plant that anybody can grow and everybody(almost) owns. I would also say that most people don’t know about the existence of black raspberry. They always answer me: “tu veux dire des mûres?” which means: “you mean blackberry?”, when I talk about black raspberry. Anyway, for these reasons, I always imagined that you could grow red raspberry anywhere.
Jessica,
I could likely grow them in the shade. Red currants and gooseberries can be grown here in that way. I grew yellow raspberries here like that but I had to water them every week or they would die. That’s a lot of work to keep up with watering them. The currents and gooseberries are more drought tolerant.
Clark, I succeeded in growing a good crop of red raspberries down here by planting them in the shade. We’re supposed to be both too hot for them to survive, and also not cold enough in winter for them to fruit the following year. We had a very mild, low chill hour winter. Since they put out many new canes and the summer crop fruited really well, that indicates to me that the second reason is wrong. They are on a lower area of a slope as well as being shaded. They still get watered once a week when we aren’t getting summer rain, but that area, being downhill and also closer to my drain field holds moisture longer.
The amount and timing of the shade also appears to make a difference. The end of the row that has almost continuous shade does not thrive as well as the rest of the row. They do like shade in the high heat, but appear to be telling that there is a limit to how much shade is beneficial.
I think western Kansas would do well with primocane raspberries but florocane would not survive late winter hot cold cycles or the dryingwinds of early spring. I have similar conditions and no florocane except nova has ever survived a winter and it does extremely poorly.
We don’t have the challenges the western part of the state does but typically the droughts start in July and last through August with little or no water. The wind blows hard throughout the state. This year we still have enough water so far but 100 degrees in June implies this will be a tough hot summer. The last rain we get is frequently around the 4th of July. Does the rain have anything to do with all the fireworks? - maybe. We already have cracks in the ground an inch or so wide. My new trees I’m planting are going down in my lowlands where I have water year around. Unfortunately I have everything wanting water year around such as deer, racoons, mud turtles, snakes, possums, coyotes, bobcats etc. The water is kind of an ambush spot where predators hide in the bushes and other stuff shows up to get a drink.
I know nothing about aestern Kansas except that they grow great cattle.
Here are some of mine. These the birds planted. 
Those look nice and vigorous! Nice big healthy bushes.
