Prime Ark 45 ripens June 9 in Ark. berry size 6-7G and 6-7 lb per plant yield when tipped at 45 inches.
Compared to Prime Ark Horizon which ripens 14 June in same location.
8G berry and 10lb yield/plant
Kiowa-
Ripening in mid to late june with a 10g berry and yields ranging from 7-12lb per plant.
This is according to patent info…and of course varies by location…and of course yields vary greatly depending on cane length.
Comparing these 3 i think Horizon is a winner due to the double crop, higher yield, smaller thorns than PA45 or Kiowa and more sparsely thorned. Also Horizon ripens eariler than 45 on the primocane crop.
As you can see in the video the yield potential is very very high.
Plus Horizon fruits longer than most any other cultivar… if you dont mind berries from August to October on the primocane crop. So you can have fruit from June to October in a favorable year.
Ponca is somewhat unique…
The canes have unique architecture with reduced leaf internode length that provides potential advantages in cane tipping management.
Ponca has demonstrated good secondary bud crop potential following cold injury.
Ponca showed no damage to during record low temps…while Natchez did.
Also to note is the secondary crop of Ponca which is also somewhat unique and helpful for early frost damage or winter damage.
Probably the best way to ensure these buds is to tip primocanes after harvest of floricanes… to have the most fruiting buds for next years crops.
So in summary… tip and prune them as you would a Primocane fruiting cultivar… as Ponca has two crops… one is early the other is early/mid. Folks that always get winter damage with conventional pruning likely only see the secondary crop and may have a better opportunity for both with early tipping to ensure the most bud formation. This is due to the short internodes and unlikely to form adequate laterals if not tipped early.
I’m still growing Prime Jims. The floricane fruits aren’t that good, but the primocane berries are great. U Ark calls them, “obsolete,” but that’s partly because they want you to buy the ones still under patent like 45. This year I’m going to try cutting the floricane blooms off some of them to see if that further improves the primocane berries. U Ark themselves wrote, “The flavor is sweet and mildly subacid, with a distinct blackberry aroma. The soluble solids concentration of floricane fruit averages 7.9%, and primocane fruit 12.0%,” and that has been what they’ve seemed like in my garden in St. Louis. 12% is pretty sweet.
@Bryan_G_Simmons … I read that prime jim has thorns… but looked at several images online of mostly berries and it looked thornless near the berries.
A mildly thorny blackberry will not survive my deer here. It will get eaten.
Even my kiowa took some deer damage last year… but managed some decent growth. They were a little too thorny for the deer to like enough to keep trying them. They do not mess with illini (wicked thorns).
Prime Jim is thoroughly thorny. I’ve planted it out in the country, and it hasn’t gotten eaten yet. Prime Jim and Prime Jan are the only primocane bearing blackberries that are off patent. Prime-Ark 45 has a little over 5 years until that patent expires.
Black Magic is worth growing here… i gave up on Horizon for now… for me it suckered way too much which took alot of energy from the main crown and was too much effort for too little reward. Fruit was very late on primocanes here…probably my fault for improper pruning.
BM may be worth looking at for folks that live in high heat…
I am going to see how I like the Kiowa berries before I try any other blackberry varieties at my new home site/new orchard.
Blackberries are a little higher maintenance than mulberries… so I am minimizing blackberry count in the new orchard and may end up with 8-10 mulberries.
I did not realize that mulberries could really compete with blackberries taste wise… until my Gerardi produced its year 3 fruit last year.
I am going to minimize raspberry too. I will have a few… but not 60 ft of raspberry beds like I have now. Too much maintenance.
I tried a number of blackberries back in the day. I settled on Triple Crown as the best for me. I grew berries for about 14 - 15 years. I gave up the garden, I’m all trees now, except for a few garden pots on the deck. The problem with my berries was I did not have the space to let them trail and produce new vines. If they are confined for too long disease sets in. They do best if they are allowed to spread some.
This is for the 11 trees I got this year. The shorter posts and fence are for figs. What a dream it would be if there were no deer problems here. But you need the deer to keep things mowed and to eat in tough times. Providing you got the teeth for it. But I got 2 meat grinders!
I had thought the deer won’t eat figs due to the milky sap. But deer chewed them up as well in the fall. Sap went down and they ate the young wood.
When I lived in West TN, I grew some Kiowa along with Triple Crown. The Kiowa were the biggest blackberries I’ve ever seen, but we preferred the flavor of Triple Crown over Kiowa. Kiowa was quite tart. We planted both here in PA, but Kiowa mostly froze out the first year.
