Opinions wanted: Favorite raspberry varieties?

I wanted to say a word about Fall gold raspberry. I bought it this spring from Lowe’s. It has very decent crop of berries, very prolific for a small plant. It became my favorite for fresh eating. It is very sweet with less acidity. The berries are small, orange when ripe and they fall down easily. But the good taste and the abundance make them very good berries.

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I like all the yellows. And they tend to taste different. My wife prefers the reds.
My favorite is Cascade Gold, it is a solid yellow, not really translucent, has an awesome flavor. Summer bearing. Fall Gold though is also right up there. I also have Kiwi Gold, Anne, and Honey Queen. I like the pinks too Double Gold, and Irene.

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Fall Gold is excellent. Good flavor. Need to plant a lot, and fight the weeds. The plants are not super productive, and are short in stature, but the color and flavor is there. They actually produce in June, but sometimes produce a bonus crop in the fall too.

I have waffled on Kiwi Gold but now I love it. It has finally grown up and produces a delicious berry that is tart yet sweeter than many reds. It has a hint of honey in its flavor.

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Yes, it does, it does not taste like Anne or Fall Gold, which to me are the closest in taste. Cascade Gold has yet a different taste too.

But my all time fav. Raspberry is still Caroline. Huge producer and a great fall crop.

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Caroline is a good one, I like it too. I also have Josephine and that is probably my favorite, great taste and berries are twice as big as all the others on average. Most other big berry types have no taste, Josephine stands out for excellent taste and size, unusual.
I also like Prelude because it is a workhorse, as is Himbo Top. Himbo produces more berries than any other plant I have, they are mild in taste with low acid and high sugar. At first I was not very impressed with this one, but the taste has grown on me, and the tremendous production when others were not doing well stood out. So glad I added this one.

I’m a big fan of Josephine. I was also impressed with Niwot black raspberry this year. It’s hard to pick a favorite because there are so many good ones, although I’m starting to lean towards earlier varieties after a first strike from SWD this year.

I thought the summer crop was great, but the fall crop was not tasty, still i was going to keep it. But it just died on me. I think it became too dry. So last year I had some volunteer black raspberries thanks to the local robins. One is producing primocane fruit right now, must be from Niwot! And the fall berries are better than Niwot. Probably a cross with Jewel. Photo taken a few minutes ago.

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Nice! Great to hear that you (and the birds) are having good success with berry breeding!

I think the birds are doing better than I am! I also kept a regular raspberry plant from the robins as it is growing so well from a seed. Both of these came up in containers nowhere near my raspberries. No doubt the birds while eating my currants pooped in the containers. This is another from the birds, a seedling from this year! Most never grow this well. So I have to keep it!

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Here is Josephine, compared to a large Anne raspberry from today’s harvest.

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my favorite is amity
and wineberry

i like winebery better as far as unique fruit
amity is classic raspberry flavor

wineberry is sweet and sour if picked just under ripe

but have a loganberry maybe i will get to try it next year it is on its primocanes this year and it is a floricane variety i belieave
and am getting an anne in spring
and a bristol black raspberry

also i have not tried to grow any other raspberries
the amity tastes better compared to supermarket raspberries

am going to try to make a wineberry anne yellow cross

then cross it back to itself to
try and get more vigourous growth and yellow berries so the birds leave them
alone

I have been growing Black raspberry Jewel for five years now. Each year there are more and more berries, but with little taste. The berries set in early summer and they do not have a fall crop. :frowning:

I have polka and Caroline. Both are great imo. Dug all my anne out this year add they were swd magnets and produced significantly less…

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I love my Nova raspberries, the only part I don’t like about it is that it’s a summer bearing variety and would be nice to have a harvest in the fall too. It was the only variety I was able to get at the time, but the plants are so strong and have no problem growing in zone 9b, just with some filtered afternoon shade. Lots of energy and they love to spread.

Anne raspberries are also very tasty, much sweeter and in my opinion a better flavor than the Nova. Novas are both sweet and slightly tart but still have a great, rich flavor. Only thing about the Annes is that the plants don’t look as vigorous as the Novas. I’m still waiting on my black Jewels to produce, but from what I hear I should expect some tasty fruit.

The novas even produced well on the bare root plant itself just months after the initial planting.

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Polka and caroline are my favs so far…

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Thanks for your report on Nova. I have considered adding that variety to our berry patch next year. Haven’t heard too much about it here in the forum. I know we’re in two very different areas, but still wanted to hear about its performance.

And, welcome to the forum. You’ll find lots of knowledgeable and friendly folks on here.

No problem and thanks a lot. I’ve already gotten more accurate information in just a few days on this forum than I have at my local nursery.

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I’m surprised you get any rasps in z9. Are you like in the Pacific NW, or coastal Cali? I suppose having them in the shade helps.

Anne gets good reviews from folks on here. I planted one back in June, and it struggled to get going. It put up one scrawny looking 1ft tall cane.

I hope to get a bunch of rasps and blackberries planted next spring. We’ve planted two dozen fruit trees over the last couple years, so I want to now concentrate on berry plants.

Are you growing any other fruit plants/trees?