Has anyone heard anything about any possibly new varieties coming out for the home gardener for the upcoming year?
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There have been several rasps and blackberries released this year with little fanfare as far as i can tell. The marketing of them is very poor… so i doubt that they will be in the trade very long.
The most exciting that i have going is if I finally got the real Josephine. They are growing slow so i have nothing to report.
Fall Red is for sure worth growing as far as i can tell here… its ‘new’ to me.
Im thinking of getting a trade thread going with rasps, blackberries and strawbs for those of us that are culling some or have too many of this or that to get more of us interested in them again.
I am at my tipping point of management… its a fun hobby but is becoming work on some that i dont really need to be fooling with.
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I’ve been curious on the varieties:
Kwanza, rafiki, sarafina, and another low acid sweet variety from advance berry breeding but i swear I’ve seen kwanza for us regular folks in the past…
All the Crimson series that i have except giant, have been so vigorous
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its in that window of Josephine… so a struggle to grow for most of us.
I like early myself… very late is sketchy for me… plus im burnt out by then… 
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I would definitely buy some starts from you
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Sweet Giant- Left Black Magic- Right
Sweet Giant low production and pcanes ripe now. Black Magic better production also ripe now. Black Magic tastes better but has thorns so theres that.
Black Magic boasts heat tolerance above 100F… i guess thats fair. fcanes ripen early and pcanes ripen late… so no berries for me in that 100F window here.
Black Gem is another week or so from being ripe. Production and berry size much larger and elongated berries.
Im not a fan of anything ripe right now as far as blackberries but it is nice for a surprise on a walkabout.
So far to me the nod goes to Black Gem (aka Midnight Jewel) which i really liked last year. As far as these oddballs go.
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both my colombian giant and star fruited lightly in july then started bloomimg again 2 weeks ago. alot of green berries but i doubt they will ripen in time. im still eating a few here and there from late blooms on colombian giant. i think they are confused. lol.
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Hello, everyone. Does anyone have any berry recommendations for hot climates? I’m in zone 9b and it’s mostly 90-110 degrees all summer. Winter temperature lows seem to hover around 30 degrees. Luckily, I have varying degrees of shade in my backyard throughout the day depending on where I plant them, so that gives me a few ways to keep them out of direct sunlight all day. I would like to grow a few blackberry varieties and one or two raspberries as well, but I want to make sure that whatever I get has a good chance of making it through the summer. Thanks.
Got a weird flower on my 6x Blackberry x Raspberry hybrid. A ring of anthers, then a ring of stigmas but in the centre is a small bud of immature leaves.
Has anybody seen something similar ?
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Just from what i see from others that post on social media and the tubes… (real life experiences not breeder or nursery tales)…
The Prime Arks and their spinoffs and maybe the new USDA pcane release… all pretty much fruit late on the pcanes and very early on the fcanes… so from what i can see most all skip the dead heat of summer.
rasps- give Heritage and Bababerry a look… as well as one of the Cascade Series like Delight.
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These days my favorite berry is the purple that volunteered in my yard. Taste is excellent. I now have three or four purples from a cross I did. One had yet to fruit. Not as good as the first volunteer. But all grow well here. Do not need any special protection. But have a very exotic flavor and primocane fruiting to boot.
This was a couple days ago.
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Welcome to the forum!
Echoing what krismoriah said, primocane fruiting varieties are probably your best bet. You might not get enough chilling for floricanes to reliably fruit, but with primocanes you can just mow them over after they fruit and wait for the next primocane crop.
Prime Ark Freedom is the natural choice, though I’ve found they can struggle in high heat. Prime Ark 45 is one that seems to do better, and is much more vigorous since it’s thorny, but I’ve not tasted it yet so hard to say if it’s a good berry or not.
Bababerry is doing much, much better for me than Heritage, but I’m in a more humid climate so you might want to try both.
There are some subtropical raspberries that would survive and produce in your climate and shouldn’t need many chill hours, yellow himalayan raspberry and mysore raspberry are potential options, though they aren’t really domesticated and at least with mysore they’re pretty small and seedy. Taiwanese creeping bramble or creeping raspberry might work for you, the berries are small but the ones I had were very tasty. Andean raspberry or mora de Castilla might be another option.
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I think there are a few reviews here and there from Houston TX, Los Angeles and South Florida on PA Freedom/Traveler etc.
Probably the real answer for rasps and blackberries is hybrids. Hard to beat a good Boysenberry if you cant get Newberry.
Kiowa i think is a 200 chill hr one… but not many folks want to deal with it or Brazos or the other low chill thorned ones.
Sweetie Pie may be worth a try. 100 chill hours on it i think (according to some publications).
Apache has been discussed as good in Z10.
Natchez also been discussed as Z9
These are from growers on various forums and social medias… whereas nurseries and wherever they get their info say different on alot of them.
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Oh, that’s good to know. My Sweetie Pie is one of the last to ripen, but so far it seems to handle high temperatures pretty well. It might be another one for EdwardBear to try.
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I have heard poor reviews about Sweetie Pie. Its about the only blackberry that can be grown in Broward/Miami-Dade, and everyone down there has told me to grow any other type of blackberry if you can. Only really worth it if you have next to 0 chill hours.
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Here is a listing of chill hours and descriptions of most all blackberries and raspberries… Gina Fernandez is the author… so thats about as close as you can get to some kind of fact.(not really).
She lists PA Freedom as 100 chill hrs etc.
The disputes are things like Apache where she says it requires estimated 800 chill hours… yet there are reports of it having great crops etc in Z10
Here is a question on a well known nursery about PA Freedom
I dont think that is true. (the patent says its cold hardy to 8F) I myself had massive winter damage at 0F… so not sure where this info comes from. Unless the lowest foot of cane that survives to fruit on the floricane counts.
My 2 cents-
Dr. Fernandez has just about every award and doctorate and credential that you can get when it comes to cane fruits etc…
I just think it would be nice before they publish things and teach things and mentor most of the world… that these folks would do their due diligence or homework or something so that folks in cold climates and warm climates can have some kind of truth to go by.
As of now i dont think that there is any real data or truth to what things will do well in Z9 and above or Z5 and below…other than what growers like us share on forums and social medias. That doesnt reflect what experts or nurseries say most of the time.
Most nurseries dont even know they just regurgitate what the scholars say… i dont blame them really.
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
Having said that- i think we should all do our own homework and not believe things just because someone says so…
I like proof myself which is why i try so many things.
I like the truth as well as i like proof.
Thats up to you.
However if someone else may be interested in Sweetie Pie… i think its only fair to them to do their own diligence and watch/read reviews from others.
“These are very good, i would definately encourage you to get some of these” - he says
YMMV of course.
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Thank you @krismoriah and @a_Vivaldi . That’s been very helpful. If this website is accurate, we get between 350 to 800 chill hours every year:
chill-hours dot streamlit dot app
And I’m about an hour or so away from Berry Lady Farms who I think grow the ruby boysen or newberry. I’ll see if they would be willing to sell me a plant. But the primocanes definitely seem like they are a good start for me as far as the heat goes. My plan is to get some berries planted here this fall, so I’ll post back here when I have some updates.
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Sweetie Pie is one of my favorites in zone 6b. Nice size and consistently a sweet berry. In 4 seasons, the only issue I have had is white flies seem to be attracted to it.
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Black Gem
Hmm… i really like this one. Its ripe now with no SWD in sight. Black Magic is another week or two maybe three from being ripe… so frost may get it. Berries are huge. I usually look forward to fall bearing rasps this time of year but this is a nice addition.
This is no fert no maintenance… and pretty severe drought. This plant doesnt care.
Taste is subjective but with the drought these are delicious. I suspect that if i had watered or it had rained more these would be even larger.
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