Here is the whole salt shaker then. From Chad Finn and Patrick Moore.
Joan J and Himbo top were pretty good until the Cascade Series was released. Old news.
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im trialing Colombian giant . got it covered with a heavy fleece blanket under lots of snow. im anxious to get fruit. most people up here dont realize we can grow blackberries here. our deep snow is a excellent insulator so in theory i should be able to grow at least 2 zones higher, we will see come spring. trailing blackberries are easy to lay down and cover. not really a test year as its been warmer than usual but i still think it will work out. also got triple crown and Chester in ground in case Colombian giant doesnt make it. until i grew out my nelsons, my wife, believe it or not, had never ate a blackberry. now its her favorite fruit. if these others work out ill probably remove the nelsons. they are wicked thorny and the fruit is small. taste is good but if i dont need to deal with the thorns my hands/ arms will be thankful.
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Im friends with a guy in Fairbanks Alaska that is growing blackberries fairly consistantly. He grows several west coast trailing varieties. I am supposed to get some Stenulson starts off of him in the spring… not much known about that one…i think its from Wyoming?
I think that i have Ebony Hardy plants but i wont know for a couple of years… i get confused with the ‘Balsor’s Hardy’ and ‘Hardy Black’ names maybe they are all the same?
Anyways the Alaska guy lays his west coast trailing down and puts burlap, straw and leaves on them and lets the snow do the rest. Seems to work. I think the thornless ones are less bendable and a little less hardy than the thorned ones.
I think i am getting Wyoming Purple rasp in the spring. I already have Amethyst which is very very cold hardy.
Final note- I got some Illini Hardy plants from a lady in Minnesota and she reports that the canes die back almost to the ground every year…however the new canes that come up produce berries…she showed me pics of the crops and i have no reason to doubt her… Perhaps they adapt? Ive never came across similar reports its interesting.
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I am very happy with my HRs… dont see a need for any other reds at this point.
I would like to have more blacks… and in that article that Kris linked to… Munger seemed to be the fav.
Munger, vigorous, med size, very good flavor, yield med.
But the two purples they listed are up a notch or two per their description.
Brandwine, vigorous, large to extra large, excellent flavor, yield high to very high.
Royalty, vigorous, large to very large, excellent flavor, yield high.
I may have to try a couple purples.
I know some of you grow Royalty… and have read good reports here on that one.
Anyone growing Brandwine purple or munger black ? If so… how are they doing for you ?
Thanks
TNHunter
That makes no sense. The Cascade series are summer bearing and both Joan J and Himbo Top are fall bearing, so they are not competitors.
Also Cascade Delight came out in 2003 while Himbo Top came out in 2008. Old news indeed.
i have Royalty. it got root rot from all the rain we got last summer but 2 of its shoots started next to it. i can give you some cuttings next spring…
where did you get balsors black? only place they have them is in Canada that ive found. if your friend can grow blackberries in Fairbanks i should have no problem with Colombia giant here. its warmer and we get alot more snow.
@steveb4 … i hope to get a new raspberry bed started this spring… so will most likely just buy some purples and blacks to start it out.
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Not trying to argue at all… im always learning myself. Some folks dont like fall bearing due to the SWD etc. And to me the Cascade series is a good start to a known issue which is root rot. Developed for the PNW where it is an issue… and is often an issue on the East Coast. Heritage is very good at resisting root rot… however Cascade berries are almost 2X as big… so just another tool in the toolbox if you have issues with SWD or soggy soils. I think Joan J is excellent for folks that need/want thornless Canby is also another good candidate for thornless but i dont like the berries much.
I am trying Cascade Gold as well… due to Drew51 reports… however it is not good at resisting root rot etc.
This will be my first year growing Honey Queen as well. I know it will be inferior to Cascade Gold but i want to grow it. It is supposed cold hardy to Alaska etc. whereas Cascade Gold is not as cold hardy.
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If you are ok with late bearing… hard to beat the taste of Mac Black…it is very different… it has purple and black tastes…
If i had to pick one to give a try in your area it would be Allen. Gary Pense convinced me to give it a try as he has grown them all. I am trying Blackhawk this year as well. If you want to try Munger dont be afraid to buy Cumberland instead… they are the same plant now… but way back when they were separate plants.
As for Purples… as far as what is in the market Glencoe and Royalty. However dont buy Glencoe from Lowes or Home Depot or any potted plant… for some reason they have invented a red raspberry name called Glencoe. At least thats what i found to be true.
I think Brandywine is junk… but thats me.
Amethyst (Univ of Iowa) seems to be the most superior of all purples but only me and a few other guys have even seen it in the past decades. It is an absolute monster of a plant with large berries. I am waiting to see if someone will bring it to market again… It has been gone for a long long time. Wyoming is another purple that got lost up in Canada… but a few of us are trying to bring it back…it is inferior in berry size and can be crumbly…not worth chasing but its a nice cold hardy plant.
This is one of the few reports ive ever seen about Amethyst.
If you really want to nerd out on black raspberries for the NorthEast this is a fairly good report.
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cascade gold has struggled here with root rot even on shallow mounds. i got to move it to a better spot.
i really would like to try amethyst if you could spare some cuttings of it next spring.
yes i saw that in the notes about it…its very susceptible. I think Fall gold is also.
I have some cuttings going right now… and sure no problemo. I got my Amethyst in April of 2022 as tiny plants and by November they grew to about 10 feet with laterals everywhere. Its a beast.
I was going to start a thread on it but i doubt any interest but…
I have talked to many folks and there still is a very unclear method of success from cuttings that i have found.
I think TNHunter and myself along with others have really struggled figuring out any kind of tried and true method.
I am trying two new techniques that i have never seen done on any forum… they are Rose propagation methods…so no clue if they will be better or worse.
Technique 1- toilet paper along the bottom of the cutting. Ive seen this work on roses with near 100 percent rooting…
Technique 2- scarring the opposite side of the bud. Scrape the opposite site of the bud to the cambium and roots will grow… ive seen proof on roses…no idea on Rubus.
I have stuck cuttings on every season and tried everything but bottom heat… not much luck at all.
I did however stick some climbing rose cuttings i found beside the road in some dirty river sand and they all took on their own… maybe sand is the secret? or maybe roses strike different than rubus?
I have been playing with root cuttings and except for TNHunters Illini Hardy all root cuttings seem to produce plants with ease.
Its a PITA to dig roots for propagation and it takes a year longer to have plants… which is why i want to find some way to get cane cuttings to strike consistantly.
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have you tried tip rooting?
Tip rooting is good for a few plants but nothing like what cuttings could do especially since those canes get pruned anyways… and not to mention its very complicated with erect varieties… i think Illini is another variety that doesnt tip root well if at all from what i remember.
Since you asked for cuttings…obviously you have had success… whats your method? You also specified Spring… why Spring?
i do spring because that when i prune and stick the cuttings but lately ive been sticking fall cuttings and had even better results but both work. Rubus dont root as well as currants but ive had about 60% success rooting in ground with mulch around them. i stick them late april/ early May and usually by early June they’re pushing growth. i only water if its dry but may/ june here are very wet.
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A friend of mine gave me a bunch of Joan J runners that she dug up today. They have about 4"-6" of green growth, and about 4"-6" of root. The roots are just thick, straight roots (either T- or L-shaped) with almost no hairy feeder roots. So I stuck them in a pot for now, my thought being that I can give them some wood ash or other fertilizer to help their roots grow for a few weeks before putting them in the earth. Was that the right thing to do?
I was planning to wait until maybe early May, and then plant them in mounds along a fence that’s in between my house and my neighbor’s house. It gets decent sun there between maybe 10-11am through 5-6pm during summer, but would be shaded by the houses in the mornings and late afternoons. Would that be enough sun?
I’ve never grown raspberries before, so any tips would be much appreciated. Thanks!
@dpps – you might put them in a indirect light only location for a few days… so they don’t wilt too bad.
Keep them watered…
You can slowly increase the light… once they look Ok in indirect light only a few days, move to a morning sun only location for a few days… and eventually out into full sun… and once they do well there for a few days plant them out in your bed.
It would be better if you had each root shoot in a pot by itself… some may recover and look good quickly, others may struggle a little longer. And when you plant them you don’t have to disturb the roots so much (again).
Good Luck !
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@TNHunter will do, thanks so much! The pot they’re in now is on the north side of my house, so they’re shaded most of the day until mid-afternoon. I’ll give them a good watering now. Will they need fertilizer now, or wait until I plant them in the ground?
Alas, I don’t have any smaller pots available at the moment, they’re all full of other things. The runners were a nice surprise as she was gardening today, so I wasn’t prepared for or expecting them.
I did the post above a while back.
Raspberries are pretty easy to prop by rootshoots. I put mine in individual pots filled with a mix of garden dirt and compost… and that mix had my usual mix of organic fertilizers mixed in… bone meal blood meal gypsum greensand epsom salt.
Babied them a while… moved them to more sun as they looked ready for it…
Bought 6 raspberries and a couple years later had 100 or more.
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