I’m actually thinking about ripping out all my Prime Ark 45s and changing it over to another row of Freedoms or a row of Ponca. What does everybody think the best way to go about this is? I would really like to stay away from herbicide, but maybe that is my only option. These blackberries will not produce in my location, but I bet they are really hard to kill.
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45s do well here but freedom dont yet. They do have very small thorns but nothing notable. If you take out your 45s feel free to gift them to me they do well here. If the freedom dont start earning their keep i may send them to your house.
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I wonder if one of us got the wrong variety from the supplier. My 45s are very very thorny like little daggers everywhere. My PAF are completely thornless, not even little ones.
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Ate a handful of blackberries today from prime ark 45. These berries are a welcome fruit on the 17th of October.
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i wonder if these would survive my z4? I’ve heard conflicting accounts but some claim they are z4 hardy.
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@moose71
I dont think they are hardy to zone 4 but they could be with a little zone stretching. If you have a large body of water like my pond that adds some cold resistance. My favorite trick is planting something between two hills or on the southern side of a hill. My family grows many things at the bottom of their “Hollers” that cannot be grown elsewhere. I do not have “Hollers” in Kansas but with a bulldozer i have been known to make smaller versions of some.
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problem with me here is my neighbor has a large hedge of 30ft. spruces that completely shade the south side of my property and I’m at the bottom of the hill from my neighbors.
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Blackberry grow like weeds up here— especially
the Himalayan. We also have the Evergreen, which is less aggressive, ripens later, and keeps better.
The Native trailing blackberry has the best flavor, but male and female are on separate plants for this species, and it is less productive.
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-17 temps were not kind to my PAF and 45’s. New canes are coming up good, but all the floricanes got smacked for the most part. The freedoms took the cold a little better than the 45s which surprises me, figured the thorny variety would be hardier. I am getting the first few floricanes berries on the 45’s, right next to the base of the plant, a few plants have about 6 inches of cane still alive. @clarkinks I’m not sure how your Freedoms do in wind. With my sandy soil, I have a bunch of dead canes after a wind storm. Seems like that wind will just break them right under the surface if they are not tied good to a trellis. I don’t have this problem with 45’s, they are not quite as rigid and upright and no down canes after a wind storm. I do have some moles that tunnel through my patch, they might be a reason the freedoms break under ground in the wind.
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Yes it got slightly colder here with some die back on the tops but nothing like what you had. Maybe half the plant died back. They are planted in lome and heavy heavy clay so we have no issues which you describe. I love it when i see moles but they are rare here now. It seems everything likes to eat them and they make a lot of noise digging. My dogs hunt rodents constantly.
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My Babycake blackberry canes didn’t survive, still waiting to see if new canes pop up, but everything else has already started pushing new canes so not very hopeful. I got some Ponca, black gem, and Kiowa canes last fall, and two out of three of each pushing new canes/growth up. Polar berry woke up no problem and pushing new canes all over.
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It was about -20f here this winter so i have had a lot of questions asking if i got die back and the answer is yes i did on 45 and freedom. It was not a signifigant problem but its shown here.
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Freedom and 45’s both did well this year. Hard to believe they have been in the ground this many years. Suppose I can hardly consider them a test crop any longer it’s time to consider them a success. Hope everyone is getting some of these in your orchard by now.
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Can anyone recommend which combination of these are most disease resistant Zone 7 and give longest overall season:
Prime Ark Freedom; Osage; Triple Crown; Caddo; Ponca.
I see Ison’s not selling Osage any longer; did something replace it? I loved its taste a friend offered me. For now I’m ignoring potential SWD, don’t see it in my figs so, so far so good.
Thanks.
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Can’t speak for the others but Prime Ark Freedom is a good blackberry which I recommend. It gets stronger every year here. The pictures above say it all early and late crops and in between. Maybe they don’t do as good here as elsewhere but I have a confession this is the first Thornless blackberry to ever produce a good crop. Never gave them an ounce of fertilizer. A test crop to me means treat them badly then baby them if they survived. I’m satisfied once established they are excellent.
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Ponca is said to produce a small secondary crop but I will not have a chance to see it until this summer. That secondary crop may lengthen the harvest season
The primocane fruiting blackberries like PA Freedom don’t do well in my area so I have not tried them but they can produce two crops per year like an everbearing Raspberry.
I believe the ripening sequence is Ponca, Caddo, Osage with Triple Crown much later. I read that the plant breeder indicated that Ponca has superior flavor. I have seen that same claim made when new varieties from Arkansas like Osage were introduced.
An older variety called Navaho has a very long harvest season but it is very susceptible to orange rust
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Great summary, thanks…
Don’t know where you are but I have a couple dozen Ouachita in far North Florida and they produce giant juicy berries twice a year. Just ate some off of a plant today 
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The 45s and freedom produce a June. July, August, September crop for me. 45s are better than freedom for me. Very seldom are they without berries and blooms at the same time…
they are seldom without fruit more than 2 weeks during that time. Saying 2 crops may not do them justice.
See June 1st pictures above this was a long winter last year.
See July 19th photos above
See August 20th pictures above
See September 20th photos above so all that month they produced.
@k8tpayaso you have grown these much longer than me what are your yields like in Texas?
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I usually get really good yields on the floricanes and then a large picking or two when the primocanes start. Then a few berries on the primocanes here and there through the summer and fall.
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