The Indiana Berry folks say I don’t want the plant to fruit in year one, one reason to give it a haircut at planting.
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Well more important than that is the unknown diseases/pests/eggs that are on the live plant that you received.
The reasons that university trials are done by root cuttings is so that there is lesser risk of these issues…that way all plants have the same chance of being disease free.
Lets say you buy a beautiful plant at a box store…and plant it at home… there are likely larvae/eggs/bugs/diseases either on the plant, in the cane or in the root system… you just brought those things to your garden.
Bare root is much better than that… however there could be some kind of disease on a leaf or the cane… so best to trim it and inspect it well.
Plugs- much less chance of anything on them… some are certified virus free…
Last but not least… you want root growth year one… if you are making flowers and berries there is less energy for roots.
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A quick aside, while we’re on the ‘propagation from root cuttings’ deal…
I recently lifted suckers of some Chickasaw plums to send to a friend. A couple came out with 2-3 ft of horizontal root. Anybody got ideas about whether I can cut those off and cut them up into 6-12 inch sections and send along for him to plant, and have success with them sprouting new plums?
[Lucky_P Those roots will grow .
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Thanks. I thought they probably would
Im not sure if we will be able to buy this one…but its a new release from U of Ark.
Mary Carmen-
" highly precocious cultivar. It initiates fruit production three to four weeks earlier than other primocane blackberry varieties."
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On that 3 to 4 weeks earlier… assume he is talking about the first crop on primocanes.
Not on the floricane crop… the next season?
PAF … I have heard is quite early on the floricane crop already. May early June ?
I need a primocane crop to ripen late August forward… not earlier.
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That was my translation. Which also leads me to believe that it will likely be another release that will get winter damage on primocanes. Probably start wanting to flower in April and more times than not get frost damage if you are in an improper zone.
If you watch his videos each one is the best and most exciting.
They also ‘released’ more Primocane fruiting BBs.
Black Gem (thornless) and Black Magic(thorny) to Stark and Gurneys.
PAF is very early on the floricane crop. I have a blackberry that is just getting a hint of color this morning. The heat and humidity in south La have killed every attempt at a primocane crop thus far.
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Anyone know of a US source for Blackberry ‘Twilight’? Seems to be available in Canada in 1 gal containers but I have not found it here. Perhaps a Canadian grower can help? I have several varieties I can trade or pay.
The USDA releases from Corvallis and Chad Finn are under rights by EMCO CAL which sends them all over the world never to return back the US.
https://www.emcocal.com/usda-osu-program/
I have heard that you can get some of those releases at local nurseries in Oregon… but have not seen any that ship plants.
Your best bet is to go to the blackberry group on FB and see if you can get a start. You cant ask for plants on the other boards… they frown on anyone wanting a USDA plant that you cant buy here in the US.
Crazy if you ask me.
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We had about an acre of Shawnee 30 years ago.
It was the best blackberry I had ever tasted at that time. Much better than the Thornless varieties we were growing at the time.
Once we planted Navaho we removed the Shawnee and focused on them.
The thorns were a big problem that made it almost impossible to prune out the dead canes and clean them up
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I have decided to try Loganberry thanks to all the good reports on here and elsewhere. The person that i got them from told me that they were thornless but had thorns… after reading up it seems that there are two versions of Loganberry. I also contacted @TNHunter and he sent me pictures of his canes which are entirely thornless and smooth. I contacted a friend on FB and he also sent pictures of his canes that are devoid of thorns.
However mine are covered with spines.
Here is an excerpt from Stark on the history of Loganberry
- Thorned loganberry plants have spines like a raspberry, not flat spikes like a blackberry
- Thornless loganberry plant was discovered as a thornless sport from thorned parent plant (1933)
Wondering if anyone has grown both to compare? I think mine are rare and hard to find… i cannot find many reports at all of thorny ones.
I saw one report that said that the thorny ones have a bit stronger taste and sweeter than the thornless. Also that they are not exactly the same in that the thornless is a sport of the original.
We have the thorny one, but no thornless version to compare to.
I have the thornless version, got it from Isons nursery. This will be 1st year getting berries
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Sorry meant to say I have the thorned version
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Isons description- Loganberry plants are sturdy and more disease- and frost-resistant than many other berries. These plants are thornless and the loganberry bush usually produces about ten canes.
So you are saying that the plants that they sold you are thorny?
Yes, twice in fact. I thought the first one was mislabeled. But I ordered two more this year and they both have thorns as well.
If you dont mind will you describe the taste? Would you say it is sweet?
I know taste is subjective… just trying to see if there is indeed a difference in the thorny vs thornless versions.
So far on the Boysens i have not read a good report on the thornless ones. The ones that i bought from Pense had the nastiest spines ive ever seen outside of a cactus. Terrible plant. I gave them away.
Tayberry- A thornless one exists in England (Buckingham) but due to brexit… we will never get it in the US legally.
Reports are that One Green World sells the thornless that are actually thornless. @TNHunter shared pictures of his and they have zero spines.
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