Looks like there is a new raspberry variety available to us folk in the USA by way of Canada. I wanted another summer bearing raspberry to avoid SWD. It’s spineless which is a big selling point to me. Anyone else ordering this for 2019 to try out?
https://www.noursefarms.com/product/eden/
http://www.inspection.gc.ca/english/plaveg/pbrpov/cropreport/ra/app00008657e.shtml
I have this one. I think I got it from Indiana Berry a year or two ago. It’s early, produces firm berries, and tastes good, but the vines aren’t as upright as I’d hoped for.
I also have this berry, planted it last spring ('17), like Steve I got it from Indiana Berry. They sold it as AAC Eden. It was one of six varieties that I planted. It and an Anne rasp were the only ones that did sprout, and both of them survived last winter.
The Eden plant grew two pretty long (2-3’) canes, but didn’t give us any fruit this year. No thorns on it.
We planted 8 new rasps this year, and all of them sprouted, but 3 didn’t survive the year. It would seem that raspberries don’t grow well here after a couple years of trying, whereas the 5 blackberry varieties we’ve planted this year have thrived.
most raspberry varieties don’t like a lot of heat but really do well in the colder areas. we have wild ones everywhere around here. id like to try eden . i may get rid of my aronia and put in a patch of them next spring.
I didn’t realize or notice that this had been available previously at Indiana Berry! Great to hear the fruiting qualities are good, and thanks for the tip regarding the canes not keeping so upright. I’ll have to figure out how to trellis them properly.
That’s interesting that they didn’t produce anything even later in the season. I planted Prelude and Nova, which are summer bearing; they produced a modest primocane crop in the fall the first year planted.
My luck seems to be the opposite of yours. My raspberries are more consistent than blackberries. I might remove some underperforming blackberry varieties this year. They grow fine, but some have very poor fruit set.
just ordered 5 to plant this spring. was looking for heavy cropping summer bearing raspberry to try. i have only everbearing right now. will be nice to get some summer raspberries.
I just ordered some as well. A few extra plants that weren’t on my mind initially somehow found their way into my shopping cart when I checked out 
We also have Prelude and Nova, planted last spring. Prelude gave a few primocane fruit, along with Killarney, Anne, Fall Gold and Caroline. Nova didn’t fruit at all. Some of the primo fruit, though got frozen in October.
Of the blackberries, I got a few primocane fruit off our Prime Ark Traveler, but the fruit on the PA Freedom got frozen also.
Yeah, it’s odd the Eden floricanes didn’t fruit last year, but they weren’t really big, I think there were about 3 canes, each 3ft long or so. Compared with my blackberry primocanes, they just look puny and thin. I’m going to give them a dose of fertilizer and mulch this spring, so maybe they’ll respond well. I think once they get established they’ll take off.
Deer have been stripping leaves off all my bramble canes, along with pruning the canes themselves. Just hope they survive this abuse and this winter’s weather. Provided they make it through this, we ought to have a big blackberry crop this summer of the mentioned PA plants, plus Triple Crown, Osage and Ouachita. Not as optimistic about the rasps.
Yeah, they sold it last year but I didn’t see it in their new catalog for 2019. But, Nourse is selling it now, first time I’ve seen it on their site. I’m sure they’ll be fine, they sold me some strawberries in '16, and they have done well. The only thing I don’t like about them is they make you buy 5 bramble plants minimum, whereas with IB you can order just one if you want it.
Funny how that works out.
At least with berry plants, you’re not out a lot of money if they don’t make it, compared to a fruit tree. Plus, you don’t have to wait more than a year to get your first fruit off them. We planted about 20 fruit trees in spring of '16, and none of them have produced anything yet, but this may be our year to finally get some apples, and maybe some peaches, if the freezes don’t fry the blooms.
raspberry plants of any kind are so prolific here, they’re hard to control and keep in rows. i have to till around them 2xs a year to prune the suckers or they will take over the lawn ann my other plants nearby. i tried no till a few years ago and spent all summer cutting dozens of suckers coming up everywhere!
Yeah, I hope they will send out some suckers this year. As long as they make it thru this winter, they should. We are zone 6, so they should do OK here. Maybe in a couple years I’ll have the same problem as you.
We have lots of wild blackberries here and only a few wild black rasps. Maybe it’s the soil more than the climate.
our soil is probably the worst. heavy , rocky clay. and raspberries love it! overly fertile soil will produce a lot of green growth but no fruit. I’ve learned to watch the plants and fertilize accordingly. most times a little compost and a 3in mulch of wood chips is all thats needed. the mulch holds moisture and keeps the roots cool.
if they make it in my zone 3b. they should be fine for you.
I bet it’s tough growing veggies in such soil, along with the shorter growing season. Some of our plots were pretty poor, so I had to really up the nutrients and lime to get them somewhat fertile and less acidic.
Thanks I’ll keep that in mind. I think the rasps would benefit from some fert, the blackberries, um, probably good for now. Amazing how much they grew in just one growing season, from little sticks with a few roots to beasts with many thick canes, some over 6ft long. My PA Freedom plant is yuuge.
How would you rate your raspberry crop for last year, taste and production wise?
where my raspberries are grown was my veg. garden about 5 yrs ago. just gave up trying to use it for such and made raised beds to grow veg. instead. i had added quite a bit of amendments of peat, coir and compost before i planted the berries. i made the mistake the 2nd year of growth and fertilized them. i barely got any berries but lots of huge canes. the 3rd and 4th year i had probably 15 gallons from them without fertilizing… last year i figured id fertilize them again w/ a little 10-10-10. less than what is recommended. again i got very little fruit and lots of big canes. talked to a neighbor that has a patch of boyne. he told me he only gives a little compost and mulches with wood chips and his plants are healthy and produce like crazy! seems our clay soil has most of the nutrients they need. i should have done a soil test 1st. it would have told me that. when i plant these edens I’m going to make a long, low mound of bagged soil with compost added and plant them in that so when the roots get down to my native soil they hopefully won’t need any amendments for a long time. too much work digging into my soil to plant anything. besides mounds aid in good drainage preventing root issues. my best tasting by far are the autumn brittens. they also don’t send up as many canes as my other varieties so they are easier to control. put in a few caroline , september red ,joan j and fall gold. got a few berries from each of them and fall gold and caroline are very good but still don’t compare to autumn britten flavorwise here.
Have you tried Natchez? I planted 2 in 2017 and they produced an amazing crop in 2018. I was picking pounds every couple of days for a couple weeks. I can only imagine how much will be produced in 2019 after they sent out suckers and made several new plants.
No, I’ve heard Natchez is a good thornless BB but went with the ones mentioned. What is your opinion of their taste, and do you have to wait a long time for them to sweeten up? What about the size of the berries?
With four UA plants and five TC plants with a lot of canes, we ought to swimming in blackberries this year. I’m not a big fan of the fruit, but we tried some thornless BB from an orchard a couple years ago, and they blew away the wild ones we have growing here as far as taste and size was concerned. So I had to order a “few” plants.
Our Traveler gave us a few primocane fruit their first year in the ground. They were a bit tart but still much better than any of the ripe wild ones.
Natchez tastes a little tart, but sweet enough to be decent for fresh eating, and excellent in smoothies. They would change color pretty fast. I’d pick the ones that came off easily when lightly pulled. The harvest period was only a couple of weeks, so hundreds of berries within a short period. They were large berries comparable to PAF, about the size of my thumb.
I like Traveler’s growth habit, because the canes are very upright and strong. However, they produced poorly for me last year despite being huge plants. They might get pulled this year.
I tried AAC Eden raspberries at a berry orchard in Quebec last summer, Les Petite Fruit du Clocher(sp?). They grow mostly honeyberries, but also had some blueberries and several rows of raspberries. The Eden AAC were very impressive in size and also had good flavor, so I would recommend that variety. Im sure they are plenty hardy, at least to z4. My only concern (for my location)is I am not sure that the full crop would ripen before SWD pressure begins in midsummer. For that reason, I wouldnt plant any ever bearing variety. I am considering putting in a row of Prelude and Eden nevertheless…
Yes why i avoid Nourse. Raspberries are like rabbits once established.
I planted out my 2nd home made cultivar in a new spot. I’m calling this one Andrea after my daughter. It is a yellow with a slight pink blush when ripe. Very good flavor. Unsure of the pollen parent? The mom was Cascade Gold. I had a third that was a huge firm red, but it had a super strong acid taste so I scraped it. A shame it was such a good grower with very strong canes. Oh well. I have a 4th i will evaluate this summer.
Since it is summer bearing I would think it would be ripe before they come. I guess it depends, but all summer bearers ripen before SWD for me.
I got rid of most of my berries that ripen in that window and I had very little SWD last year. They did go after stone fruit, but most have a tough skin. They attacked them after yellow jackets broke the skin. Yet amount of flies was way down.