I planted some Heritage Reds. Tasting my first few berries. They look very nice, but taste kind of bland. I’m Zone 5. Do they get better in subsequent years? If not, are Carolines that much better that I should rip out what I have and replace them with Carolines?
ive had several recomendations of himbo top so i put 5 in this spring but no fruit yet. i liked my heritages but they fruited too late for me to get a full crop. i really like my autumn brittens. ive also heard carolines are good but its another one that fruits too late here.
Yes I find heritage one of the most pedestrian flavor wise. I think you’ll like most other reds better but heritage is generally a strong, healthy grower
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This year I planted Caroline, Ann, Bristol and only recently put in Ohio Treasure. I found Caroline decent. If you like red raspberries they are good. The Ann yellow I thought was amazing when allowed to ripen however. I do like sweet things a little more and found when ripened have a amazingly sweet flavor fallowed by tartness.
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I overhauled and expanded my garden this year, and decided to do away with several Heritage bushes I had for several years. The flavor was not enough to motivate me to keep after the bugs! Maybe these recommendations will encourage me to try again next year. For now, I have just one black raspberry I am trying to tip root into more bushes for next year.
I started 3 Heritage spring 2020… thru propagation (mostly root shoots) have 20+ now and my daughter has some too.
They taste good to me… better than any red raspberry I can buy at local stores… and they produce plenty of fruit too. Spring crop from may 25 thru end of june… then fall crop Sept Oct November… we got our last berries last year on Dec 3.
Would prefer a sweeter red berry… but I do have fall golds and ohio treasure blacks and a mystery black. Golds and blacks are our favorites so far… but keeping my heritage…
Heritage reds are a little like loganberry… if you wait for them to get perfectly ripe… past red to deeper purplish… much better.
For me the spring crop ripens b4 swd show up… and the fall crop after they are gone here. Ideal on that.
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The sense I get is that the first year crop tastes worse than subsequent years. I’ll see how next year’s crop tastes and then decide.
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So I did both. I ripped out most of my Heritage, except one, and planted Caroline, Anne and Jewel
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Caroline is great but I dont currently grow it (I did and liked it a lot); it is both larger and more productive than Heritage as well as starting primocane fruit 2 weeks before Heritage, so a lot more bang for your buck; we have Jewel and Anne now also. I have Himbo Top and Joan J as my “early” reds but I would recommend Caroline as well.
Given you are zone 5, you should try and have an earlier primocane red
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