I randomly pick the only thornless raspberry name Joan J from Nourse Farms when order my Ponca blackberries. I have never seen a raspberry work this hard. I removed all my Home Depot raspberries a few years ago because low yield and thorn. Joan J is very heavy yield on its floricane and is looking good on its primocane. The plant is completely thornless and sturdy. They are pushing 6’ tall now. The floricane begun to ripen Late May in VA 7a. The primocane is beginning to ripen now (late June) and is still making flowers. I did a bit of research now and it looks good from other sources too. What do you guys think of this variety? Are there any other one that’s heavier yield, thornless and taste better?
How do you have them planted? As discussed in a different thread, the varieties I have are ground-level and we had so much rain that the floricanes died from root rot. I noticed as a result, however, that the primocane berries are much larger than usual so my routine next year will be to cut the raspberries down to the ground (if they are primocane fruit-bearing).
Joan J Red Raspberry, A thornless high yielding Early fall bearing primocane ripens 10 to 14 days before the Heritage Raspberry. Berries are large and firm with very good flavor, Great shipper Raspberry, and best of all it’s thornless. Yields have been very high on this variety, makes an early June crop if left through the Winter.
…
Found that on the pense site.
I have a bunch of Herritage reds…they produce a large spring crop (May 20 to June 20)… and then start PCane fruiting Sept thru Nov.
Pense says JJ ripens 10 to 14 days b4 HR… but I think they are talking about the Pcane fall crop there.
I don’t really want my fall crop to be earlier… my SWD normally disappear by mid Aug… and then my HRs start ripening. Perfect timing.
Fortunately, my property is on the top of the hill. So I don’t have any drainage issues. I just plant them normally. My primocane is about 6’ tall now. I read that it’s going to be like this from year 3 onwards.
I like the taste of my HR … they are not super sweet but have very good Raspberry flavor. To me they are just sweet enough especially when the heat is on… like the past few weeks.
I will have to protect against bird. They are eating both my thornless blackberries and thornless raspberries. I still get a lot to eat from the abundance of raspberries. Not so good with my blackberries yet. As not many have ripen.
The only Raspberry I’ve tried is Caroline and it was the bomb to me for size/weight. I’m going to put in a row of a Red raspberry and hadn’t considered anything else until I see some of you are growing others that look on Nourse Farm’s website to be dense/heavy like Caroline. Joan J for example. Anybody know if being in NW IL if Caroline is a good SWD choice or not?
its later fruiting than joan j so should avoid SWD issues. if you want a longer harvest and try a bunch of cultivars, Indiana berry allows you to by a single plant of each.
Glad to read this thread, I planted 5 recently of this variety, one Caroline, and two other varieties. They are in container and in the bank, so drainage should not be an issue.
Joan J is definitely a great producer for me. Of the dozen varieties I have, only Royalty may out-produce it here (but in a much shorter timespan). I like my raspberries somewhat tart, and Joan J mostly suffices there. Joan J is also much more ‘polite’ compared to Royalty, the canes not being anywhere near as long. Also doesn’t sucker as much as many varieties. And finally Joan J seems to deliver better under drought and heat than most others for me. I definitely recommend it.
" Perhaps the most root rot resistant of any raspberry, Cascade Delight can grow in darn near boggy situations for all you folks with wet heavy soils."