I have some Columbia Giant on the East Coast about to ripen.
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Here they are now, raspberries starting to flower, two of them are dead I believe, but it’ll fill in
Here’s the blackberries, growing well
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Some of my blackberries were finally starting to take off, but my dogs keep smashing them, most notably the thornless varieties. I have victory, triple crown, natchez, prime ark freedom, kiowa, galaxy, and prime ark 45. They all suffered some or complete winter dieback, but last year’s growth was thin on all of them so I think that had something to do with it.
Anyways, I’m most likely going to replace a few with something more cold hardy, and something with nasty thorns to hopefully help ward the dogs off. Does anyone have sugestions, and where I might find them?
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Newberry giving me a nice taste. Very nice blackberry/raspberry hybrid. There is a little bit of fruit punch in the flavor, but in a goodway. Thanks @krismoriah for getting me started with these. Definitely a thorny beast, which is either good or bad depending on your view and your birds.
Some of the first Ponca are ripening as well. Very yummy as usual. Caddo is just a bit behind, but already enough to give a good taste as well. Caddo is in partial shade and Ponca is in full sun, so not really a good comparison of ripening time. Caddo seems sweeter this year than prvious years - maybe because we’ve had very little rain.
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I have Farmhouse right next to the house..it does amazingly well with very little to no care from me.. nothing bothers it and the berries are very classic blackberry taste.. unlike the super sweet bred ones.
I think i have Super Hardy somewhere in my nature area but i couldnt pick it out if i tried.
I have an ultra ultra ultra thorny one that is getting ready to fruit now.. i have no idea how they will turn out. I found it in an industrial lot in a boggy swampy area… it is very unique. It is prolific and is thriving in my wet area. I have never seen a more thorny blackberry in real life or pictures.
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Those are smallish.. once they mature and the canes size up they will be twice that size. Flavor gains as well also.. so better days to come.
I found by trial and error that mine does best in a sandy/pine fines heavy mix.. So adding sand and pine fines really make them shine here. They survived the drought and heat blast last year with flying colors whereas alot of the others suffered. I think the sandy/pine fine mix is a bonus for flavor as well as it doesnt hold water.. just my observation. The better treated ones with high amounts of woodchips and composty soil did not taste as good nor thrive.
Final thoughts are that it is a very tough to manage plant here.. too many canes and too vigorous. Someone would have to be very diligent to keep them in order. I dread it to be honest.. other than when it fruits it is a very time consuming and tedious plant to manage here. YMMV.
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Thanks. I definetly prefer the classic blackberry taste to the super sweet stuff. I love the wild ones that grow around here but there’s not nearly as many as the black raspberries, which are quite prolific.
sadly my best ever tasting berry, a dewberry from rolling river , died 2 years ago. wasnt very productive but had huge berries with a awesome taste and was z4 hardy. would love to find another like it. it beat out both rasp. and blackberries for flavor. was purple colored like royalty.
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Perhaps anecdotal but my experience supports your pine fines hunch. A friend of mine planted a raspberry in dappled sun between two pine trees in thick pine straw (because that’s what was open) and I have never seen a more vigorous raspberry in the region than hers.
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Here is a pic of my thornless, primocane fruiting, dark purple raspberry. It is 75% Red raspberry and 25% Black Raspberry just like Royalty. Fruit weigh 4g to 5g. Much bigger than the 50/50 F1’s.
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Those look exceptional! How’s the flavor and how do the plants do in your climate?
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I like the flavour. It is more Black raspberry than Red raspberry but it is a mix of the two. It is doing very well in my Subtropical climate.
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Ebony King is also worth trying.. i like it here and as this review states it can be better than PA Freedom as well as Columbia Star which is a Marionberry-like berry. YMMV though.
Ebony King is usually available at Walmart, Lowes and maybe Home Depot some years. However i figure most are gone by now.
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I have these growing wild in my back lawn. They look and fruit exactly the same as a wild black raspberry with the exception of the fruit color. I am trying to propagate via tip layering.
all 3 varieties have overlapped to the point now that it’s hard to tell what’s what. I’ll have to cut back and trim them out better this fall. they’re all over the fence area, loaded this year. black rasps
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Seedlings from a purple raspberry. Bowcane habit. Parent is a no name that popped up. Birds planted the original.
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I keep finding new purples in my yard. Six I think at this point. I have no time to breed these days but I’m finding these volunteers interesting all the same. I did try to breed them but Mother Nature is hard to beat
My primocane fruiting purples seem similar except for one plant it tastes like a boysenberry except sweeter. The other purples taste like typical purples. Sweet slightly bland from mild flavor. I tip rooted a plant and this is it 3rd leaf
The thing is a monster! Seems more vigorous than its parents. Nice size canes too!
Here is a volunteer black raspberry (could be a purple?)It’s unusual as it naturally branches. The plants was never pinched. Possible mutation or tip was damaged by insects environment etc. still gonna let it grow out.
Many of my plants that are sensitive to cold I grow with my figs. Or let backups grow with them. Here my marionberry or maybe it’s new berry? Tip rooted in one of many fig pots
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@a_Vivaldi @Favman Do Mysores tip root easily? I am trying to propagate some to give to a friend, just don’t know the best way to do it.
Also have my first Rubus leucodermis seedling sprout. I have a few different sets of rubus seeds that I am trying out this year, hopefully will have more success to report late summer/early fall.
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I don’t actually know. It’s very erect so just getting the tips down without breaking them could be tricky. But my thought also is just that something so erect probably won’t tip root easily, I feel like it’s usually trailing types that like to tip-root. Won’t hurt to try since Mysore doesn’t sucker much either.
The blackened sad little stub of a floricane left over from winter on my inground Mysore just pushed out a few fruiting spurs with flower buds. Assuming I get fruit, I can send you some fresh Mysore seeds if you like. I’m honestly shocked it’s producing anything, it was such a brutal winter I thought the floricane was completely killed. I think a thick layer of mulch and grass clippings that had built up around it did the trick.
Do you think R. leucodermis will handle the heat a little better than R. occidentalis?
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I have a fair amount of fruit, so I’ll have seeds, but I was trying to get her a jump start. I rooted a cutting of it, but it seems to have had a sudden decline. Which doesn’t surprise me since I don’t think Rubus cuttings typically do very well in general.
Thought never crossed my mind. I assume it will struggle with the heat just as much as other raspberries. But I have Fall Gold doing pretty good still, so I have a little more faith that I can grow some of these raspberries species.
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