I began my blackberry journey in June - probably the worst time of year to plant them. I kind of went crazy and just kept ordering variety after variety, like “gotta catch 'em all” or something… since then I’ve been watching every single video and reading everything I can find on blackberries (and raspberries). When I get into a hobby I really go all in!
One thing I’ve noticed is that since the weather has cooled down from 105 highs/90s lows, to 85 highs/70 lows, is that when I first planted them all of the fresh tender new growth was bright green - but now that it’s cooler all new growth coming out is dark purple!
I started the same way but the quest led me down a different path.
For the most part you have chosen varieties that i have grown but pulled out… in lieu of the more uncommon and hard to find varieties.
I guess kind of like the pawpaw guys, the persimmon guys and the fig guys… it starts to become a bit of an obsession to grow the oddballs eventually… i hope that you dont get the bug like me and are satisfied with what you have.
Since you seem to enjoy videos and learning… join the Blackberry Growers group on FB and watch all of Jim Elliott videos from 2019ish… i thought they were all entertaining and he is very educational to just starting out. He shows the differences in trellis as well as how important mulch is as well as tying and tipping. That is if you want a somewhat compact plant that is highly productive and easy to manage.
If however you want to do the opposite then you can look at American Berry Growers and learn about not tipping and training all canes horizontally. This will give you more production per plant…but you will have to space plants much farther.
Both to me are similar in the math. But Jim’s way i think is much simpler and much easier to manage and the most useful of space management.
I like the U of Maine extension videos on Youtube… for rasps. They make the most sense to me.
Not sure if you have seen the thread on here about blackberries rasps and hybrids…but i show alot of different techniques on trellising and pruning that i have found in my journey. As well as talks of various cultivars.
thanks so much for that FB group recommendation, I will join and check that out!
as for the uncommon varieties that you grow - I’m sure that I would have chosen those too if they were available anywhere, perhaps I’m lucky that I couldn’t buy them (or just didn’t know where to buy them)
Honestly this all started because when we were kids, our family had blackberry bushes in our back yard (mid-late 90’s, Arlington, TX - Zone 8A) and would eat them every summer and loved them. However since moving out of that childhood home, every time over the past 20 years every time I’ve bought blackberries in the store they just make me sad. Plus one day when I was at the store with my wife buying them, she told me that she just doesn’t like blackberries… I realized that she had never tasted the ones that my brother and I had as kids fresh off the bush and her whole life she had only tried store-bought blackberries. As soon as I had that realization I vowed to fix it and bring back my childhood memories at the same time. So I went online and ordered a few from Starks. Then I sat there and wondered “what if it was a different variety we had though?”, and began falling down the rabbit hole… eventually buying every variety I could find in order to both see if they would grow in my area and see if I liked the taste… even though I won’t know the answer to either for at least a year! If you’ve made it to the end of this story it might interest you to know that I’m fairly convinced the blackberries we had as kids were very likely rosborough, since the bushes were well established when we moved into the house in 94, did very well in the Texas heat with no upkeep from our family, were ready to eat shortly after school let out for the summer (end of May), and had extremely large thorns like rosebushes. Surprisingly that variety was the hardest for me to get, but I finally got it (was one of the last I purchased, and had to get it from an ebayer who had it labeled “rosenborough”) - maybe now I can be satisfied for at least a year…
If it was the guy that showed pictures of the plant tag… and he was from Texas… you will likely get a Rosborough. He gets them where i got mine for about $6 per.
If there is anything or other cultivars that you are looking for just ask in the thread i linked and i will tell where i got mine if ive had it or have it.
Is there an easy way to find these? I’d also be interested in watching.
What would you recommend if I have a lot of space but not a lot of time?
Even though I wish I could spend more time in the garden, I have too many plants and land to take care of and my job… well, I have to do that so I can keep buying plants!
@PcChip I also wanted to grow blackberries because I ate them a ton as a kid off the bush. Though mine were the wild ones in northern CA - which now I know are probably some Himalayan hybrid most of the time.
I am busy just trying to get the blackberries and raspberries I have (only 6 types, but ~50 feet worth) to grow. Only 50% of them made it through the summer.
Mostly they have been damaged by animals (deer, racoon, groundhog) that have been desperate this summer for food due to drought and a late freeze. The berries are in a fenced garden. Last year that was enough to deter the critters, but this year they’re too hungry.
Type that name in the search bar of the group Backyard Blackberry Growers
That will pop up his name near the top of the page and then you click on his picture… dont add friend or anything else just click the picture. When you do that all of his posts in the group pop up. Then scroll down until the mid 2019’s and he posts videos.
Once you do it once you will understand it…
Use a trellis that is 2-3 feet wide with two top wires on opposing sides. Snake the canes every once in awhile to the top wire and let them go.
Prune hard to your liking in the Fall… and enjoy fruits the coming year…and repeat. Using just one top wire trellis…u will have to tie and tape or do work… The double wire costs more…but just acts as keeping the plants in bounds…without tying or taping…and in the end is less labor. Tipping forces laterals…but stunts the main canes growth. Fruiting laterals are not the same as primocane laterals. This was proven on a video i posted on raspberry pruning on the other thread. Much better quality fruits and larger fruits…versus smaller fruits and lesser quality. If you want to sell at a farmers market you want the most cane length producing the most berries. For personal use…the opposite.
If it was the guy that showed pictures of the plant tag… and he was from Texas… you will likely get a Rosborough. He gets them where i got mine for about $6 per.
Indeed, it was him. Initially I didn’t want to buy it because I figured if he couldn’t get the variety name correct then how could I trust that it’s actually a Rosborough and not one of the other TAMU varieties?
i will tell where i got mine if ive had it or have it.
Out of curiosity, do you happen to have a running list posted somewhere of all your varieties? Maybe a google sheets document?
I noticed you speaking highly of “Victory”, yet I can’t seem to find it anywhere, know how I could get one?
What I’m ultimately looking for is a great taste with tartness, and maybe a little sweetness… but I won’t like a berry if it’s super sweet with no actual taste, or if it has some kind of soapy or bitter aftertaste… so I have a feeling I’m going to be disappointed in a great many of the varieties I planted - but hey, gotta try 'em all right?
My list is in a notebook and on plant tags. Its my hobby…i dont really do much social media except to chase things i dont have.
Victory- Myself and my friend that i got it from named it. It has a foreign name and a coding number that i cannot really pronounce let alone type. Its from a non english speaking part of the world and was bred to be highly productive for processing like jams and jellies and cooking as far as i can tell. It is similar to Triple Crown in some ways but different in others. Triple Crown is very vigorous and productive… but Victory is one or two steps above it. It fruits a little earlier and a little longer. I have several other varieties from that breeding program but they are all trailing. Many other countries and continents have breeding programs…
I have plenty of plants…you are welcome to try one or a couple if you want. So far nobody on here wants them… eventually i will sell them on Ebay.
I like complex flavors… sweet and tartness. Victory is very good for my taste… I also am enjoying Prime Ark Horizon. I am waiting for the new USDA releases to come out… and i will plant some Zodiac for sure.
I have all of the other releases like Twilight, Galaxy, Eclipse… all will likely be somewhat similar to triple crown…with various stages of ripening and flavor profiles… they seem dead in the water as far as people wanting them or talking about them… people dont like change or new things very much.
I am 1000% for trying new things and change… which is why there arent many folks on here for me to talk to.
I got your PM and i will reply there with those questions.
Been picking lots of blackberries lately. Most of them are Freedom, with some Traveler and Ponca. The Freedom berries are huge, almost thumb sized. My wife picked about a quart this evening. Still lots left on the canes, too.
Has anyone eaten a Twilight yet? Really supple canes may work for a RCA - maybe my only hope. Laughable that I keep wasting my time and money in zone 4. I’ve kept stuff alive but barely even can get a green berry by fall on the PAF.
Do you let the canes grow out then wait for the flower set?
I think the trick is to tip the primocanes at about 3 feet which should get you fruiting bud laterals in July ish… otherwise if u let them go you will get fruiting on the main canes in October…all the energy is wasted in growing the cane for possible floricane fruiting…which obviously you probably cant do. Took me way too long to figure that out.
how much snow do you get there? you could plant a trailing variety and cover with a tarp then snow. i do that here. i have Colombia giant i over wintered the canes from last winter. come spring tie the canes to your trellis. nelsons from fedco are z4 hardy but the fruit is small and the thorns wicked. if that doesn’t bother you they are very tasty. then there is Baby cakes. they only get about 3ft. are thornless have a floricane and primocane crop. good sized tasty berry but not very productive. also z4 hardy.
The twilight is trailing I’ll see howit goes next year. It seems like Fedco is the only one that sells Nelson and they won’t ship it here due to our soil import restrictions or something. May give baby cakes a try eventually
(Sorry I know this is a late reply, but might be interesting to you and others.) I’m pretty sure the source of these flavor ratings is a 2014 PDF put out by Oregon State University’s extension (I can’t link to it here but if you search for “Blackberry Cultivars for Oregon” you’ll find it)
…I don’t know how they evaluated these berries, but this jibes with hambone’s guess that the “evaluator was in PNW”
From one of the OSU reports:
(search: blackberry flavor rating method)
“…and enough fruit was harvested
to do a blind evaluation of pure´e in Dec.
2011. Pure´e was again evaluated by another
blind panel of experts in Feb. 2014…”
Blind tests and puree is used because the “experts” can identify whole fruit by sight, plus a large portion of commecial harvest is used as puree.
- such a nice guy
