Black raspberry

Black raspberries have acclimated very well on my property and they are spreading all the time!

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I transplanted a bunch of wild ones from out of the gardens. I have a row I planted along my deer fence. It’s about a hundred foot long with some reds after that that I bought. They have taken over the deer fence. I’m going to have lots of them. They are my favorite.

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It appears we have a batch of some wild black rasps growing on the north edge of the farm, by our driveway. They are intermingled with a bunch more blackberry brambles.

The rasps’ fruit are mostly red, but there are some dark purple or black fruit mixed in. Those are sweeter, and seem to almost fall off when picked. But, the birds seem to have found quite a few of them. You can find some of the darker fruit down low under more dense foliage.

Our blackberries are just now starting to redden up. They are absolutely thick around the farm. We should have beaucoup to harvest this year, prob next month.

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We’ve picked about 5 bowls like this and ate plenty more over the last week or so…my kids mostly picked these.

SWD hasn’t been too much of an issue…although i’m pretty sure i’ve ate some!

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Sweet… What variety are those, or are they growing wild at yer place?

Our wild rasps are about played out, there weren’t a lot of brambles to begin with, and the birds have got to more than we have.

The wild blackberries are just now starting to turn dark. We ought to have bunches to pick in about a month.

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How would you describe the taste of your black raspberries? The few I collected so far of Mac Black are bland lacking acid similar to mulberry.

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If you’re asking me, ours are pretty tart, even when they’re purple. But, when they get black, they are somewhat sweet, with a small bit of tartness, a good raspberry flavor. They are small berries, maybe thumbnail size at most. I wouldn’t call them the best raspberries I’ve ever had, but for wild, they’re not bad.

Also, they come off the plant real easy when they’re black. But, even when they’re purple, they stay attached to a small stem, with their little thorns on them.

I sure wish we had more of the rasps around the farm, than the blackberries. I just prefer them more. But, there are more rasp brambles now than there was just a couple years ago. But, they’re still outnumbered by prob five to one.

We are going to an orchard soon to try out some of their blueberries, rasps and blacks soon. I think one of their black rasps are Mac Blacks, along with Jewel, so I’ll try to give a report on them when we go.

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I wouldn’t say they are sugar sweet, but they have some sweetness…especially picked right off the vine. I wouldn’t say they have a strong raspberry flavor…i’d call it mild. Seeds though are annoying…stick in your teeth. The kids seem to like them, so they must be pretty good. I picked some wild mulberries off some trees near here and i didn’t care for them,but they were wild and not very big…very bland and little to no juice.

They are named …jewel or bristol or something like that…they i think came from Home depot years ago. They don’t take up much space…they are super razor sharp.

Main goal is to just get fruit before SWD attacks…this year swd seems very early.

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I sent an email to Reed Valley and asked them about their berry harvest times. They said their red raspberries are already gone, and the black rasps will be gone by next week.

Blueberries will be available thru July, and blackberries will be ready by next week, but will be best at the end of July, and should last into the first couple weeks of August.

So, I don’t think we’ll be able to get any rasps. We want to go when the bloobs and blacks are peak, so we’ll prob go in a couple weeks.

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Love Black Raspberries! I filled in my row with some I found in the wild – recognizable by the puplish white color – this past April. With all the rain, they’ve gone to town and sprouted many new canes. And I still got a lot of raspberries this year! Very enjoyable – but now they are at the end of their fruiting life for this year. On to blackberries and raspberries next – although the birds are getting a lot of my raspberries. I did find some beetles on the blackberries, so will need to spray them with neem oil to deter (works great for Japanese beetles).

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I’m the opposite! blacks can’t survive our winters but reds are wild everywhere. I’m excited because they came out with a improved culitar of ohos treasure black raspberry thats cold hearty to some 3 and fruits on primo and florocanes! I’ve never seen or tasted black raspberries. i also planted baby cakes dwarf thornless blackberries that are hardy to zone 4. a 1st for me also! only blackberry i know that survives to zone 4. the 4ft canes will be buried in our deep snow and be further protected. I’m psyched!

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Locations are so different I can’t imagine red raspberries being easy or blackberries or black raspberries being harder. Love this forum because I always learn so much stuff like this!

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but at least you get cane fruit early summer. i won’t till mid july. only thing i get early is my honey berries, strawberries and they are just starting to color up now. we only get a handful of days in the 80’s in average years and our growing season is late may to late september. seen killing frosts in mid june and mid september. my berries are about 2 weeks late due to a cool wet spring. my rasps. won’t produce here if in shade at all.

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We picked a bunch more black caps this morning. All the rain lately has caused them to really size up. I can say this…if someone had a couple hundred feet row of these…they’d be picking them all day for week or more. I can’t believe how productive just a small area can be. They will probably be about done here in the next few days. Some of the branches that are almost done …the leaves are turning yellowish…so i’ll have to prune out all that used wood…loots of new stuff growing too.

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Had no idea how cold it was there. We got less than a month or so of cold weather last year but in Kansas we can’t predict so Ive even seen snow in May and October but there are other years I started pumpkins in February and grew them until November which were both extreme examples for us.

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not to hijack but got a quick question. are black rasp. heavy feeders? my reds are but reds send out a lot of suckers so id think blacks wouldn’t need as much.

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I’ve never fed mine…probably will though soon

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I’ve got a couple hundred foot worth of black raspberries. They are at there peak right now. There is no way I will be picking them all, but I like to many of them! I’ll try and pick a couple buckets tomorrow early in the morning. I’ve been picking them so far this year without out the bucket, lol. I have about eight pints of Jam left over still. Maybe I’ll make ice cream with these.

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Oh wow…i don’t envy you (the picking part!!!) I would probably be freezing bags of them if i had that many. I’m trying to keep mine picked so SWD doesn’t get out of control. I also have elderberries sizing up and they hit those super hard.

We took fresh berries and put them over vanilla ice cream… excellent. I just need a couple of dairy cows.

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I have some in the freezer still from last year too, reds also. I figured out a fast way to pick them. Tie a rope into circle. Loop that around the handle on a one gallon bucket so its hanging from your neck waist high. Then pick with both hands putting them in the bucket. I use the cheep ice cream pails and stop to unload when they are half full. I don’t trust the handle to fill it full.

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