A month later…
I have a few of the canes from the right side plant are routed behind the Jewel to another smaller trellis on the right. It’s also sending up a new one and every line of the trellis is taken after that so might have to clip a couple (probably best).
i had a no name dewberry i got from the old rolling river nursery. berries were huge and delicious. like yours, not hugely productive but my best cane fruit hands down for flavor. it would put out about 5-7 20ft. canes every summer.. the voles got in my raised beds and ate the roots. i managed to save a piece of it. planted it in another spot 2 years ago. nothing came up last year. i was bummed. then in mid summer i noticed it had sent out 1 10ft. cane. i was beyond amazed and thankful. it gave me 6 nice sized berries. im going to take cuttings soon and root a bunch in ground over the winter. r.r said it was hardy to z3 so i dont think it was austin. all i know is i want alot more of them. berry isnt black. its purple and as big as some of the bigger blackberries. its both acidic and sweet. im sure glad it survived. how cold hardy is austin?
Updated picture of my blackberry rows. I still need to add the wire on a few sections. (Left-Right) Apache and Natchez first row. Navajo and Ponca second row. PAF and Caddo third row. Navajo struggled this year. I think it’s because I transplanted them from my neighbors patch earlier this year. Hopefully they will grow better next year!
2 of the Natchez are the only “mature” plants. 1 Apache is 2 years in the ground and the rest of the plants are new in ground this year.
Those T post braces look good. Are you using one of the brace kits like this one from Tractor Supply?
How are you liking it?
That’s exactly what I am using! I have that setup on each side and then a t post in the middle. I ran fencing wire to the middle post from each side and have a turn buckle on each side to keep the wire taught. I can try to get a closer picture if you would like.
I appreciate the offer, I think that I’m able to see it well enough in this picture. If you decide to increase how many rows of trellis then give this product a look-see as a tensioner instead of the turnbuckle:
Rolling River if memory serves sold them as ‘organic dewberry’.. and were Northern Dewberry..which is hardy to Z3..so that fits i think.
Northern Dewberry fruits late.. (for the cold weather folks)
Austin Dewberry fruits very early (for the warmer weather folks).
NC was once the Dewberry capital of the world i think.. as they grew Lucretia Dewberry.. but Tobacco overcame the industry as a cash crop.
May be fun to grow for some hobbyists or someone wanting a more complex jam… or to put in the wild on their property as forage for bees and wildlife.
I am on year 5 of Orange Baling Twine on the lower training ‘wire’ and also have been trying them on the black and red rasp top wires.. none have broken yet. Can pull them very taut by hand so no need for any thing other than a good knot.
Much easier i think to use these versus wire when it comes time to remove spent canes..
Not my idea.. but its what alot of commercial growers in the PNW use for trailing varieties. I like it for semi erect as well.. and tomatoes etc. YMMV.
I have some wild ones growing in my ditch bank. Never seen them fruit though, might not be self fertile.
do you know of any other sources online for the northern dewberry? id like to add some different ones along the wood line of my property. even less hardy ones could do well here as the snow will bury and protect them.
I like the Lucretia quite a bit this year. Just a hint of bitterness (vs many of the nasty U of Ark fruits). Tractor supply used to sell them in the spring, but I don’t know of an online source.
If you already grow them you have the seed/root cuttings. If not then this place sells seed they say..but are out of stock.
I would go the root cutting route to save yourself a year or possible failure of germination.
Bob Wells sells them (expensive).. however i have seen them in Tractor Supply as well. Not all tractor supply stores here are the same though.. the ones with the most traffic get the big DeGroot shippers and the smaller more rural stores do not. YMMV.
I love how optimistic the promotional images are. Mine have fruit the size of a fingernail. Taste is good, they seem hardy and fairly drought tolerant compared to some of the west coast berries, but the size remains the smallest of what we grow.
Can anyone else with Cascade do a sanity check for me? Are these glaucous purple/green canes inline with what’s expected? It almost reminds me of black raspberry. This is a Raintree plant.
Per the description from George Waldo in 1942:
There are tales from 100 years ago about the nurserymen selling dewberries that werent true to name.. it still goes on today. Try to find a true to name source as i have posted earlier for better results.
Lucretia is good to try for most of us.. Austin for some of us. Austin grew well here as well as Lucretia..but in short time gets difficult to manage at least here it is. Both fruit exceptionally early..which is troublesome with late frosts or lack of pollinators in my fickle climate. I liked Austin(Mayes) the best but cannot say that its worth the effort if you also grow complex better bred hybrids. I may have not given Lucretia a fair try.. but it was fun doing so nevertheless.
Austin/Mayes
Lucretia
Are you suggesting the painted historical image is accurate? Are others getting Lucretia fruit comparable with modern mega berries? If so, I really should try sourcing Lucretia again!
I will answer at the end.. here is another image-
From Iowa State University-
Of Indiana’s estimated 17 native
dewberry species, Lucretia dewberry
stands out for its flowers that grow to
up to 2 inches across and berries that
can reach an inch long. The berries
look like blackberries you can buy at
the grocery store.
https://dr.lib.iastate.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/9e65c985-9c71-46ed-834f-560d5a48b3f8/content
Plant found here in WV.. brought to the public by a nurseryman from Ohio.. named after Lucretia Garfield. The wife of President James Garfield.
Further history is that this was also used as a cash crop and many many acres of them grown and many many bushels harvested at one time.
The evidence of the pictures as well as it being a cash crop most likely is true that it is/was a large berry.. i do not think that so much effort would go into misrepresenting the berry as well as growing fingernail sized berries for profit.
Tales of them being grown in the past-
Yes i believe that the historical drawings and writings and tales are accurate.
I cannot say the same for accuracy of what is being sold as Lucretia.. I think only Bob Wells and DeGroot offer them. Mine was from Tractor Supply and gave me larger soft berries that fruited very early no clue if they were Lucretia or not. I liked Austin/Mayes (Boston Mountain) better.. it was even larger and more desirable.
I also have a Raintree Cascade. It’s in a shady part of the yard, just waiting for me to pull a tree so it can take off. Most of the canes and leaves are bright green, like those above.
A couple canes with more sun exposure look more like yours. We cant know for sure, but it seems reasonable that they are the same cultivar. Either way, I’m guessing yours will be tasty.
Well I hope that is correct. Thanks, Kris- you are such a thorough researcher. I really thought both eastern and western dewberries were uniformly small-fruited. Mine was from Tractor, which I thought was DeGroot. The canes are remarkably slender. Maybe I got a seedling that made it through the grow out process.
