When I see fruit varieties from Eastern Europe I generally pay attention. Those folks breed some damned good varieties and overall appreciation of fresh homegrown fruit is MUCH higher than here, where its mostly a fringey curiosity even in the current times of nursery stock flying off the shelves. I didnt see your post or your offer, but if I had Id surely have taken you up on it. Exactly what I was poking around trying to fond out from you is what that yoi grow that’s really great in terms of quality and ease of growing. Sounds like ‘Victory’ is on that list
you were talking about that on the other thread a couple of days ago. I get the advantage of having them bush out with laterals at the right height, but surprising theyd fruit that much earlier when tipped. Ill have to try it. I assume you mean to tip them at the end of the season rather than while the primocanes are still growing. Where did you come across this method? From your primocane growing friend you mentioned?
My favorite (since thats really the subject of the thread) is a wild blackberry I have growing here. Rubus taxonomy is a hot mess, but this particular type is waist high with long cylindrical fruit nearly 1” long. They are seedy but very flavorful.
I have a dozen or so in gallon pots that i propagated… nobody was interested so i have been giving them to neighbors.
Primocane blackberries respond very favorably to tipping. As the primocanes reach 12–15” in height, break or cut ¾–1” off the tip to force the cane into branching (laterals). A second tipping should be performed as the lateral branches reach 30”, again breaking or cutting ¾”–1” off tips. This process stimulates earlier fruit development, increases yield and also keeps plant height in check for easier management and harvest.
I have tried just letting them go and doing their thing…and also tipping at 3 feet… this year i will try 18 inches… maybe 12 inches on some. Sounds weird i know. Just letting them go is very hard to manage and some fruiting occurs at 10 to 12 feet and is not advised. Tipping at 3 feet made tipping the laterals at another 2.5 feet wasnt very good either because that was over my head with picking once some of those laterals went onward.
As you can see with proper pruning the production is pretty insane… much better than i have achieved in my trial and errors.
Over the years, I have attended Caneberry Field Days at NWREC, and one popular feature is the ice cream social that pairs soft vanilla ice cream with blackberry puree. A variety of fresh whole fruit is also presented so the growers and others can determine their favorites.
I have tried fruit from Sweetie Pie, Navaho, Osage and Baby Cakes so far. My favorite is Osage. Pretty rose-like pink flowers, good flavor and subtly sweet.
Those are only worth growing for novelty really except for Rosborough which is a good berry… but not as good as Choctaw or the others like Shawnee, Cherokee and Cheyenne. That is at least in my climate. Perhaps they do better in more arid or deep south climates than mine.
This are the best resources that i have seen i think that kind of compares and contrasts them.
Black Magic is thorny. Black Gem is Black Magic x Arapaho, and is thornless. Right now, ALDI is selling Arapaho for $5.99. I bought a couple Heritage there, and two more blueberries, all $5.99.
This year I’m going to tip my Travelers. Last year they got about 7 feet high with no support. I like their growth habit better than my Freedoms. Something that’s underrated is the old Prime Jim. The floricane berries are not great, but the primocane ones are sweet and flavorful. Since they went off patent, I’ve been planting them around town, in parks, etc. Sometimes with permission, other times not. I call it, “guerilla gardening.”
Last year the St. Louis ALDIs also had only Arapaho. Maybe they have different varieties for different climates.Years ago, I got a bunch of Travelers at Lowes, marked down 70% off, so I bought a bunch. This year they don’t have anything interesting. Just a couple of old, off patent types. Do you know if anyone in the USA has the thornless tayberry, Buckingham? The only source that I could find is a nursery described by you and others as disreputable (Roots Plants).
Probably a good idea to tip them. I didn’t do that much last year and I ended up with a lot of long canes that were subsequently killed by the extreme cold (for us) last winter. I have a handful of canes that survived. Can’t tell which did better, but they all got hit pretty hard. I have a row of:
