Is that an everbearing/primocane variety?
they must have really protected them to get them to survive those temps or clickbait because we had a near z6 winter last and i still lost many canes on mine above the snow line. lowest it got here was -12.
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The grower says he used straw and a frost blanket.
A couple of years ago i posted about a grower that puts their TC in hay and they gave them a good crop in Wyoming.
So its doable i think.
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-20 to -30, maybe. -60 highly doubtful. temps that cold freeze 20ft. down with snow cover. seen -50f here in 09’. a all time record. lots of water and sewer mains froze in town that winter. many more than 20ft. maybe they added a heat tape.
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My blackberry season has been pretty much over for a bit…TC crop passes it’s peak early-mid August.
Freak rain messed things up. A few wet days scattered in with a 4 inch dump; what a strange August.
The riper TC seemed to have to get some strange yeast from the rain and just rot off the plant. SWD didn’t help with that. During the sunny days I’d walk by my patch to pick a few berries and it would be an insect battlefield. I could see SWD flies zipping away when I got near. Instead of birds robbin my patch, I now have a new thief.
My own bee hive! Those little traitors just ate the berries enough to make them look bad and invite other problems.
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My first Black Magic blackberry was ripe today… usually the king berry ripens first then the others in a weeks time give or take here. I had forgotten that i am growing them… its been a horrible year here for drought and the heatwaves…
Supposedly it ‘breezes’ thru 100+ days and one of its claims to fame. I gotta say that seems to be true. It seems to be setting the best fall crop of the prime arks…if you wanna pile it in with them.
Supposedly its lightly thorny… not mine. Mine are VERY thorny. Right up there with Kiowa it seems. Perhaps that is due to the drought or heat…im not sure. I like thorns so its a plus.
The berry i tasted was pretty wonderful. Freedom to me is fairly boring… just kinda sweet. However the berry i tasted today had a wallop of tart and sweet. Again could be the drought and heat.
No Black Gem or Sweet Giant this year… likely next year.
As far as red/yellow raspberries go… its been a horrible year for me… the heat has gotten them good. Except for Crimson Night… its been a trooper. Canes are dark red and ornamental… fruit is very dark red which some say is a hindrance but to me i like it… Fruit is very uniform and abundant in their first crop. Caroline has also been diligent with similar crop but less uniform berries… however they are a tad sweeter than CN. Most of my other reds and yellows have aborted their fruit or not had enough water to form berries or are too young… they are honestly struggling. And i am breaking my own rules and watering them… to hope for next year or at least keep the crown alive.
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I just planted Immaculate and Prime Ark Horizon, now I guess I’m gonna have to get a Black Magic if you say it breezes through 100 degree days and tastes great.
Speaking of Primocane Blackberries, None of mine have started making any flowerbuds yet for the fall, I wonder if I should give up expecting them or if I’m just being impatient…
- Prime Ark Freedom
- Stark Black Gem
- Prime Ark 45
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If you read the paper on PA Freedom, Dr. Clark says that it pretty much depends on if they were tipped and the variations of that. Also depends on climate. So anywhere from July to October is a possibility as far as ripe fruit goes.
I still struggle to get the timing right and it just seems strange to tip them at 1.5ft… and i have had alot of fruit get zapped by frost before ripe.
So i mostly just use the PrimeArks for floricane crops due to how early they fruit… and if/when any of them fruit on primocanes thats just a bonus of sorts.
I dont really want fruits in August due to SWD…and i dont want fruit in late Sept/October due to frost…
The only thing i can tell is that without tipping that i will get fruit here in Octoberish on 7-10ft canes… which i need in order to get a decent floricane crop…as the top 1/3 or so will be spent.
If i tip correctly and have a fairly nice primocane crop… then i will end up with 3 foot tall plants for a floricane crop…which makes for a smaller crop…not to mention picking on my knees.
Im sure that things are different in warmer climates without fear of winter damage…which some years i have lost PA Freedom and Traveller floricanes.
You can force them to bloom with super bloom. Or stress them out a little bit. Mine are in pots and they try to bloom around July and August last year in Colorado.
Have to restart this year because the water in Colorado killed them earlier this year. I had no idea until months later cause it was hard to figure out due to how they were acting.
I, too, have a problem with my Prime Ark Freedom giving a primocane crop. It has been in the ground 4 years or so and I have never seen a bloom on any primocane. Normally I do not tip them at all, but this year deer tipped half of them for me at around 2-3 feet. The other half have grown to 7-8 feet tall. Both tipped and untipped look green and healthy, but nary a bloom to be seen anywhere. I fertilized a bit this spring, but some years I don’t.
Winterkill on the floracanes also happens here in some years but this year we had a mild winter so I had a better floracane harvest than usual.
I wish Freedom was a bit more hardy in my area, as I actually really like the taste and the berries are large too. I guess I will be happy with a decent and early floracane crop in some years, ripening before the dreaded evil SWD makes its wormy presence known.
Sandra
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I did hit them with some bone meal about a month ago, I figured that would have the same effect due to the NPK of it… but nothing.
I’ll just wait and see what happens. It did just come out of the 100’s a week or two ago, and all the plants just started growing again, so maybe it will still happen. Our average first frost date is listed as Nov 13th so I guess I still have time
Use half the strength of this. I use a little under a scoop for a 2 gallon watering can. Usually within 2 weeks, I’ll see blooms. Water soluble is quicker for them to eat so results are faster as well.
Hmm… there might be another yellow raspberry.
Honey Jewel
I emailed the seller… asking if it was perhaps Honey Queen or if they are calling another yellow by that name…they replied no. They said that its a new yellow raspberry. I can find nothing on it on the innerwebs at all.
They also sell a variety called Ruby Jewel red raspberry…which really doesnt exist either… there was a Ruby red raspbery bred a decade or so ago…but i cannot find anything on Ruby Jewel either.
They sell Anne, Honey Queen etc…so it doesnt make sense to make up a fake name for a known plant really…
Tough call… i did my diligence… maybe someone can do better. I guess i will buy them both and see.
As far as i can tell this is a pretty honest nursery… i have bought from them before. And i can find no other trees or things that they sell with made up names of any kinds. So maybe they are something new?
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Kind of steep at 40$ a bundle…i wanna try one but that’s so pricey
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looks like I was just being impatient!
Funny, I actually ordered that bloom booster you linked which should arrive today… but I walked out back and found this on my Prime Ark 45
left to right in this pic: Kiowa, PA45, Brison
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can you tell them you’ve never heard of that variety before and ask where they source it from?
I’m a bit cynical so my first thought is it’s not true
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My PA traveler. Yay to pot life lol.
Yeah for 40$ for possibly 3 canes, i wanna know the source too.
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I think i may have figured it out… the name Jewel is used by Berryworld breeding in Europe etc. They are breeders of berry plants.
I am fairly sure that Ruby Jewel (the red one) is this one… as it is the same pic that they are using on their website sort of.
So far it seems legit but im not sure of the details on how they got them…or who is breeding them etc.
No clue on the yellow one… the innerwebs are tough to navigate when you try to filter out european yellows from our yellows… and some even call them golden or gold.
My guess is that they are both legit. I dont see any other signs of that nursery making stuff up.
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if you currently use Google, try switching to Kagi
I know that’s kind of an unrelated thing to say on a fruit growing forum, but it may help you in your investigations
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This could be ‘Honey Jewel’… pics are similar. I did reverse searches on all the images… which is how i may have figured out he red one. Hard to tell really but i guess i will just have to give them a try. Im giving up and just going to buy them.
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