Blackberry in Bloom

Nice shot of 5 year Navaho. Rows are about 400 feet long and plants are spaced about 3 by 14

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Great Shot!
and here is a Jewel Black Raspberry

Good stuff! Cool!

Looks Nice, They are some healthy looking plants and flowers.
Thanks for sharing the photo.

Rick, those look REALLY nice.Even though we’ve been pinching ours back when they reach the recommended height, ours look more like semi-trailing canes.

I cant believe that you are only about 2 - 2.5 hours north of me and we only have a few final blossoms on ours right now. The berries from the first to open blossoms have stated to develop pigment. These were just planted last spring. So it’s the first year that we get to experience them. I do like the extended bloom time because it will give us an extended season to enjoy them. Right now we’re scarfing down on the wild ones that have declared our property home. One of the daughters made blackberry sorbet from them the past weekend. Delicious way to end the day.

MuddyMess

This picture was taken about two weeks ago, so the blooms are now gone. Hope to have ripe fruit on the Natchez in early June. Navaho is a nice strong erect cane, where Natchez is pretty trailing. I much prefer the Navaho, but since it is off patent, it is not hyped as much as the the new variety. Our trellis is a little higher than suggested, but we normally get a 6 foot high wall of fruit.

Be carefull with the wild blackberry. They often carry orange rust which can infect the cultivated blackberry

Moley

That is an incredible picture!

Here is the latest addition to my blackberry patch, just finished building it last week. Arapaho is in the background and added triple crown in the middle row and Apache in the closest row. Blueberry, why do you prefer Navaho? I have read the berry is on the small side and the taste is average.

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University of Arkansas which developed it rates it as the best tasting of all it’s releases (at one time). Not sure where you got it is average? It’s the only U of Ark plant I have. Rated higher than Apache.

Chris

Your trellis looks great! I can see a huge wall of fruit just a few years away

Never tested triple crown or Arapaho but of the 6 or 7 Blackberries I have tested - Navaho is best.

Sweeter than other AK blackberry, Its a little small, but many of my customers ask for by name.

The plant breeders and extension no longer promote it since it is off patent so no royalty.

I’m interested in how the TC do in a hot humid climate like GA

Blueberry, I recommend you give Triple Crown a try, it was the most productive variety for me last year and is noticeably sweeter than the the other varieties I grow. I was concerned it would not perform well in the deep south but I have been pleasantly surprised. Its looking like I will have another big crop of TC this year.

I think if my place were left on its own, it would be nothing but pine, cedar, sweet gum, oak, hickory, poison ivy, wild blackberries, wild strawberries (yuck), greenbriar, Virginia creeper, Bermuda grass, trumpet vine, Japanese honeysuckle, nettles, polk weed, and a passion flower that I once planted that decided to naturalize itself. You probably wouldn’t believe how much time I spend yanking blackberries. New ones pop up every day, even in places that I’ve repeatedly cleared. I pull a batch a day of new little blackberry plants out of my strawberry patch.

After my daughter finishes picking what she wants from this year’s batch I’ll go back to yanking out the vines in those areas. But, like Schwarzenegger, they’ll be back.

Muddy

I understand, I fight the Va creeper and trumpet creeper like crazy. Roundup does not work on a lot of these perennials and like yourself I’m constantly digging these things out of the ground. I had lust a little bermuda grass a few years ago and now its everywhere! I put a sharp edge on the swoe hoe and I’m walking through the orchard today and cutting the tops off a lot of the creepers around the plants

Hello blueberrythrill,

I have no blackberry so I have no clue of its growth behavior. From the conversations between you and MuddyMess, it sounds like blackberry is invasive if unchecked? Like Raspberry from underground?

If it is, then how do you control its creeping into unwanted territory?

Very nice setup with tons of fruits, you must have a farm stand to deal with the excess?

Tom

It’s the wild blackberry that’s terribly invasive, Tom. Those crawl along the ground and put out lots of underground runners. Their seeds must also get spread because I’m constantly pulling out little new plants from my gardens. I have only a couple of types of cultivated blackberries. The varieties that I have are upright and thornless. The new canes from those come up close to the fruiting canes. If any canes grow up outside of the zone set aside for them, they could be cut down. So far, mine have been very polite and stayed right where they are supposed to. Raspberries spread farther from their pimocanes than the blackberries.

MuddyMess,

Does that mean if I get few Triple Crown in my garden, it’ll behave in its designated spot?

Tom

Triple Crown is not a variety that I have, but it would probably behave well enough for all practical purposes. If it didn’t we would probably be hearing a lot of complaints from people who had planted it and wished they hadn’t. :smile:

The wild ones are wonder to find - in the wild. I have fond memories of repeatedly slipping off on hot summer days and heading to abandoned (forbidden) places to fill buckets, thinking that I could get away with hiding my delicious harvest. Ha ha ha! Of course, coming home with my clothes ruined with tears from the thorns and covered in clay mud and myself covered with scratches and berry stains always gave me away. No matter what the punishment, I had no regrets.

It’s only now that I curse them as they tear into me while I try to remove them from places they don’t belong.

I have never grown TC, but I grew several similar USDA at one point and root suckering was not a problem, however if a cane sets on the ground long enough it will tip root and produce another plant

What beautiful rows of berries you have. You must sell commercially.

Johnnysapples

You are right! We have been selling pick your own black/blueberry since around 1985.

Working on Apples and Peaches now, but they are more difficult to grow than we expected