I just mixed up some neem oil and castille soap with water and did a light misting on everything outside…
I’m starting to think that by combining 40+ varieties of blackberry & raspberry plants from all over the country, plus tomatoes, plus a few roses and other plants all into one little back yard, that I’ve basically made one giant buffet for insects!
Welp, sounds like I should have kept up on the forum before planting them. My rows are spaced 5 feet apart and the plants are 67in (5.5ft) from each other along the row.
Victory up-close:
FYI - you may already know this, but Kiowa grows upright erect thorny canes, but Marion puts out long thick vines that lay on the ground unless you hang them up. Just letting you know in case that changes how you want your rows
Yeah, that probably does. I had kinda known/figured that up until fogeting while I was planting them…What it changes for me is I’d probably try them outside the (soon to be) fenced area.
I’m finding that, at least with my boysen, deer don’t touch them, not even my thornless one, as long as I leave them trailing, like the wild ones around them.
On the other hand, my Meeker raspberry plants growing right next to them act more erect, and deer demolish them regardless of thorns.
So maybe as long as I plant trailing blackberries and leave them untrellised, the deer don’t touch them? We shall see.
Nice looking soil!
Im not going to let mine do their thing again… their thing is that they want to grow like gangbusters and grow tall. On this years primocanes im going to tip at about 5 foot then tip the laterals to 4 foot. I did this on one row and they seem to be more productive and manageable.
Im still figuring this plant out…its a super heavy feeder with its growth on top of production…
Thanks! I’m still a bit uncertain myself though. The soil seems at least fertile, it has the only worms I’ve seen on the property. The only problem is if you look closely, you can still see small puddles in footprints from rain 2 days before.
On another topic, we trellisted the new florocanes in February, and a few of the TC canes had tip rooted. Not wanting to bother with it, they were just cut off and thrown into a slimy bucket of water.
Seems every bud that was left submerged decided to root as well.
That’s unfortunate. My Kiowa is an absolute monster. Super thorny, vigorous, and productive. It hasn’t been in ground long enough to develop much disease yet. If/when I get blackberry rossette, I think I’ll try to control it rather than give up on such an otherwise impressive plant.
I babied my PAF, Tayberry, and SweetiePie, planted them in well-prepared beds, controlled weeds, mulched them well. Kiowa went in later in the year and was dropped into a hole I punched into the grass in my lawn. And yet my two Kiowa plants are looking to outproduce everything else combined.
8a/b here in eastern NC. I’m currently growing Heritage in part shade. They do ok, but I think it’s only a matter time before they bite the dust. I was scammed by Willis nursery so I have wineberry which takes the heat fine but so far has been a lousy berry and a nuisance plant (if they don’t taste good this year, I’m ripping them out). Tayberry isn’t pure raspberry but they’re doing pretty good for me, I’ll be getting my first fruit from them this year after good growth last year. Really long canes on them. Some new raspberry variety from Oregon called Cascade Harvest that is supposed to take the heat well failed pretty bad for me last year, we’ll see if the surviving plants do better now that they’re kind of established.* Oh, and mysore take the heat just fine, but mine died to the ground over the winter after temperatures in the teens. I have baba berry on order, hopefully it’s good.
*Actually, seems I got the wrong variety. @krismoriah had recommended Cascade Delight I think, but I bought Cascade Harvest. I can confirm, for what it’s worth that Cascade Harvest does not like the heat. Oops.
Fascinating that your Kiowa is doing so well, I wonder why NC extension recommends not selecting Kiowa for NC according to this page, I like the idea of having one plant with absolutely massive berries. It looks like my first year PAF will actually have some large berries, but that’s only compared to what I’m used to.
Not only that, but it is recommended for basically every other southern state, lol. Very interesting!
@a_Vivaldi … i ended up starting a new blackberry bed at our new home location this spring… It has…
3 Caddo
4 Kiowa
1 Columbia Giant
Will see how they do. Kiowa is known to be succeptable to double blossom / rosette… my illini blackberries have that… but they still produce a lot of good berries.
Ps… those long trailing type canes produced by west coast berries… Obsidian, Loganberry… and many others… when grown in the south east… our red neck cane borer will wreck them right quick.
I have lost my logan canes twice to them… and my Obsidian primocanes grew so nicely last year… but this spring i could see the swells in the canes… lost 3/4 of the canes they estabished last season.
A big heavy stout thorned cane seems to be much less attractive to them. They dont bother my illini… and bet they will not kiowa either.
My Columbia Giant may get wiped out by them.
Looking to try some raspberries in pots. What size pot would be big enough to not need watering?
so far the cane borers haven’t bothered Columbia. giant here but its on the other side of the property from my reds and other blackberries. my nelsons are super thorny but they still get hit by the cane borers but not as bad as the raspberries do. last summer was really bad for them. im going to have to spray just before the blooms open.
in your climate they will need alot of watering no matter what size the pot. even here in z4 they need water daily in the summer.
Hi there, 22-24in whiskey barrel containers are fine with full size varieties. I have been growing them for a few years in containers and they do well with some fertilizer and compost in the spring. When it’s hot they may need to be watered twice a week. Mine are in morning shade.
@steveb4 … i remembered from a few years ago. … that you and I most likely have a different cane borer pest.
Yours may prefer different canes and does enter and affect the tips…
Mine (the red neck) normally enters the cane much lower … often nearer to the base.
The southern or south eastern red neck cane borer seems to prefer west coast long thinner canes… and will make a mess of them.
They dont seem to like the thicker harder tuf thorny canes like illini and hopefully kiowa.
Does anyone have issues with orange rust? (not cane and leaf rust). The area I was considering planting some more brambles has some wild black raspberries growing nearby, but after doing a bit of reading and remembering a few funky leaves on my triple crown last year I’m hesitant to use this area.
Is orange rust mostly on new emerging primocanes? And would new rust on floricane growth likely be the less severe leaf rust? I’ll have to check on a microscope when/if things emerge this year.
Are there any thornless blackberry varieties that seem to not get orange rust for those of you with it present on other plants?
@Jabberwalks … I have never seen orange rust on blackberries here in southern middle TN.
Wild or tame/named varieties.
Flavor update - Obsidian vs PAF (same ripening time for me):
I have to say, after tasting Obsidian I’m not sure that I want to continue growing Prime Ark Freedoms…
Pic update:
Obsidian in my hand, Siskiyou in the background still ripening
I look forward to your tasting report with Siskiyou since not many people have it anymore.
I had PAF for a while, but I agree others are better. It can be very early which is nice, but I also found it a bit confusing trying to figure out how to balance trying to get primocane fruit and getting good floricane crops.
