I’m hoping to expand a small orchard this year with a row (or few rows) of Logans & Boysens. I love their flavor and desperately want to grow them in our orchard, but am a little concerned with their viability in my climate. Would love to heard any feedback and advice you might have!
Also, if anyone knows a place where I could source cultivars Ly59 or Ly654 Loganberries, I would greatly appreciate it!
I’ve got Loganberries and Boysenberries (though I;m not sure which is which at this point). Hardiness has been ok (though I am in a very special corner of the state). I planted them 2 years ago and got a few fruit off of each last summer.
I will check on them for new growth in the next couple weeks.
Scott
I have talked to David. already, but to go over it. I didn’t have any luck with loganberries, and replaced my Boysen with Wyeberries, which are almost exactly like Boysen, same flavor, except berry is bigger, and ripen a week sooner. Also are more cold hardy. Boysen was marginal and produced poorly. I got tired of removing dead floricanes in the spring. I got some every year, but last year all but one cane died. Whereas only one cane of wyeberries died, so I pulled them. I am the only source of wyeberries at present, well besides anybody I gave plants to. Edible Landscaping sold them on and off, they have not offered them in some time now. It is where I got mine. Full name is Anastasia wyeberry.
I would try but don’t be buying 50 plants. Buy a few and see what happens. Having a high tunnel or some kind of winter protection would help.
I would also suggest tayberries, they are fantastic. Not super hardy but I grow them here and get OK yields. Well a little low, but these are so good, People are all different, I have heard some do not like them, but I think they are fantastic.
I’m near Scott and we probably live in the warmest area of Michigan. He’s at Lake St Clair! I just went to a party at the war memorial, it was good to see the lake!
Anyways your concerns are warranted, you can grow them, but you may not get very many berries. Far from ideal plants for this environment.
Thanks, @Drew51. I really appreciate your insight. Wyes & Tays might be a really intriguing alternative over logans and boysens, I hope I can find some to taste this summer!
Here are some wyeberries from last year.
These look red, though when fully ripe are burgundy in color. I cannot tell the difference between wye and boysen by taste. They taste exactly alike. Rich, and on the tart side, at least ripened here with a western exposure. My trees shade stuff out at times.
These are tayberries. Smaller, usually more red. Some tayberries produce a more barrel shaped fruit, mine are not that long, really good though. Tayberries are eaten first, says it all for me. Also to note they ripen early July, photos were taken 2018 07 03. So tays and wyes ripen about the same time.About a 2-3 week window where the vines ripen fruit.
Do you still grow wyeberry? I’ve been looking for them for a while and stumbled over some posts here so i joined up. Long story short, I grew up in SoCal. Disneyland is awesome, but I always preferred Knotts Berry Farm. By the end of summer i was probably 70% boy, 30% funnel cake and my blood was roughly 50% “Boysenberry Cooler” from the little stand next to the Calico Mine Ride. Now I live up in SF Bay Area, and the boysens are fickle up here. The cold bay breeze seems to slow them down to the point that alot of berries rot before they actually get sweet enough to eat. A few times I’ve even had head high bushes with hundreds of flowers… and not a single fruit.
So that’s why I’m looking for some wyeberries. The cold hardy part isn’t super relevant, as we never freeze/snow. But if they ripen earlier for you in the midwest I’m hoping that will be even more pronounced here in the Bay. I get pounds a year of Marions, (started fruiting few weeks ago, goes until ~november) but as good as they are its not the same.
If you have any info you could share on tracking some down Wyes I’d be game to go on the hunt.
I still grow them. I can’t legally send you a plant to California. Nobody is offering them. We had a fairly mild winter. Looks like a good crop this year.
Bummer. Do you know if they were ever stored to seed bank? It’s a PITA but we’ve resurrected things before, although that was mostly beer yeasts from Europe and a few cacti from Mexico.
I’m also interested to hear about your Tayberry plants. Never heard of them before. Interesting that you prefer them to boysen/wye. I love bosyen for the sweet tart aspect, and if a tay is a cross of a red razz and a black that seems like it’d be in the same ballpark.
Tays are mostly sweet. Not really in the same taste profile as boysenberry. I like both a lot. And New Berry and many others too. The closest thing to taste like tayberry are strawberries. Which I’m rather fond of too.
On the west coast they may be too sweet. As the intense sun adds more sugar to fruit in the west coast compared to the Midwest. We grew up on sour and just a little sugar tastes sweet to us.
Interesting. I’ve mostly experienced it as requiring a combo of sun and some heat. We get plenty of sun, but since the cold bay water is only 2 blocks away we never get real heat. I get bountiful crops of mandarins, but they’re not very sweet. Lemons and limes no problem. Pomegranates same thing, bland fruit lacking sweetness. Strawberries are ok, nothing special and quite often better store bought. The marions are great for us since they’ve got the tart thing mixed with sweet, it actually works out well.
Do you have any Wyeberry Plants you could send to Maryland? Ironically, I just learned about them at a farmer’s market from a place that used to grow them and live 15 minutes away from Wye Mills, Maryland, yet cannot find them anywhere.
I have a lot of requests this year. If any leftover I’ll let you know. It’s just like boysenberry I think it’s a little bigger fruit and ripens a week or two earlier.
Otherwise it’s identical. Probably a seedling of boysenberry.
I have grown loganberry here in southern middle TN since 2018 best I remember.
The first several years had great luck with them…
They make gobbs of long canes and produce lots of good size tart berries.
If you let then hang long until they get deep purple… they do get sweeter… quite delicious.
A few years back we had a 3F night … and the next spring all my trellised canes were dead.
We had 8F a previous winter and no problems with the canes… but 3F one year killed them all.
I have also had a couole years including last year where late summer or early fall… i discover that the canes have been ravaged by our southern red neck cane borer.
Huge swells develop in the canes… they are goners when that happens. My canes would grow 15-20 ft… and then one day you see them looking all wilted… the southern red neck cane borer enters the canes very low on the cane… so you cant prune them out and have good cane left. That years primocanes are just lost.
That has been my only 2 problems with them… but those problems mean major crop failure for the year.
My logan crowns are pushing canes up again this year … one is about 8 ft already… no cane borer found yet.
Hope to get a crop again next year.
TNHunter
Big beautiful berries…
Thank you. I thought it was more heat and cold tolerant than Boysenberry.
I can’t speak for heat but you’re right it is slightly more hardy. About 90% of boysenberry canes die over winter here. About 40% of wyeberry canes die, but 60% do survive. This year 80%made it, some were removed because of borers. They seem to favor this variety.
Do regular blackberries do well for you? I find they are quite a bit easier than raspberries here. If you do have extra plants after sending some to the people you have lined up, I would be happy to purchase some. I could also send you a few Marshall Strawberry (rare) plants as a trade if they were of interest.
Yes, blackberries do fine here. The strawberries I would interested in. I’ll try and get one going for you.
Hey Andrew I’m over in Saugatuck on other side of the state in 6b a mile from the lake and have some boysen berry starts as well as caddo and tayberry. Do you wrap canes in burlap or use wilt proof?
I love what you’re doing with breeding too. Was thinking about crossing clarks healthberry with Caroline raspberry. Im guessing they should be separated from the others and pollinated by hand. Am I on right track? Should I chose a different raspberry for cross?
Thanks,
Mike
Sounds good. Fall would be the best time to ship them, correct? Do you want the strawberries shipped in soil?
