I got one from bay Laurel nursery this year and a tiny tissue culture from usda as well. I read one report of success in Virginia on garden web and one of failure in Virginia as well. We’ll see how it likes north Georgia
Bay Laurel was one of the nurseries I had ordered it from a couple years back…
Scott
Hey guys,
I purchased the same Fall Golds as Joycece @ Walmart here in Calgary, AB. Its been snowing here so Its been indoors the last week and a bit. However, this might have been for the best as some of the leaves are getting bright orange spots on them!
It appears to be yellow rust, a fungus that doesn’t go away 
sure it does…just rip off that leaf and get rid of it…
Scott
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I have said this before, but it bears repeating. I have not been able to test all raspberry cultivars. So many exist. I have tested about 20 of them though.
Two stand out, many have great attributes like excellent taste and excellent size. But every single raspberry cultivar I have has run into problems over the years except two of them Prelude and Himbo Top have now for 8 years produced lot’s of berries year after year after year. If you’re looking for a dependable raspberry their you go. If you want a processing raspberry Prelude is it. It is rather tart, and the flavor hold up in cooking, a fantastic jam or syrup from these. Himbo Top is very sweet, low acid and easy to eat fresh. These two have outperformed everything else. I grow a number of cultivars that struggle, yet because of their excellent unique taste I keep them. I would have few berries every year if not for Himbo Top and Prelude.
My main problem here is not borers, or mildews or rust it is Phytophthora root rot. These two have proven to be extremely resistant to this problem. So if this seems to be a problem in your area, these are winners. I also have some problems with borers, and they do not seem ever to go into these two either, but that may be just by chance?
Something interesting is that my next best performers are whatever is next to these two!!
They are in different beds, and both have my next best performers next to them. It appears that their resistance to rot/borers spreads to nearby cultivars.
I like the flavor of many others over these two, but if you’re sick of failure, and need reliable plants, I just named them. I’m guilty of over hyping some fruit because it has such a fantastic taste, like Cascade Gold. But Cascade Gold seems extremely susceptible to root rot. So I never get more than a couple dozen berries as most canes die. Seems to grow well then the cane wilts, I believe from rot, but also from borers. I replaced this plant once as it became so weak I thought if I want a few I need fresh stock.
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Could it be that the Prelude and Himbo Top are established on a better plot of soil, with superior drainage or other beneficial factor? That might explain why the plants next to them do well also, but just offering an alternate explanation.
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I have 2 beds. Himbo Top is in one. Prelude is in the other. All my other cultivars are in these beds. If they are close they are doing OK, the farther down the beds away from these, the worse the plants are doing. One faces north-south, the other east-west,
One is in ground 2 x 15 feet. The other is a raised bed with dimensions being 2.5 x 24 feet.
One is native soil, the other is garden soil, both mulched every year. They have different soil, different light exposures. Yet the results are the same. The soil is very consistent both in the raised bed and in ground. It doesn’t appear to me location is a factor.
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thats strange as we get a lot of rain here and my soil is heavy clay and I’ve never lost canes like that of any variety. I’ve lost apple trees due to root problems that cause other diseases. but my raspberries are planted in flat ground with no issues. i did over fertilize last summer but never lost a cane but no fruit. just monster 8ft. canes!
Drew, I have Prelude ordered this spring. My Canadian supplier describes harvest as being mid-late June. Currently my earliest raspberries are Boyne and Red Bounty starting around mid July. In your experience is Prelude really that much earlier? I actually prefer my raspberries with bit of tart, so I look forward to tasting Prelude.
I fertilize, but do it lightly. It may be a local problem, the rot problem. . Still the two I mentioned are outstanding producers. Nourse thinks Himbo Top is the top producer of all they offer.
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It is my earliest. Himbo Top is right there too. Prelude is named properly!
i saw a review of northern raspberry cultivars and himbo top was a low producer with poor taste in their review. reason why i never tried it but like you said if a it doesn’t survive you don’t have anything anyway. Maine cooperative extension says prelude isn’t hardy in the north here so I’ve never tried it. killarney and nova are popular cultivars for summer bearers up here but I’ve never grown them. autumn britten, joan j, polka and jaclyn have all been consistent producers here with autumn britten my favorite for taste. got 5 acc eden coming soon from nourse. has good reviews.spine free. it was developed in nova scotia. don’t know why but raspberries grow like weeds here. if i didn’t want bigger berries the wild ones would fit the bill perfectly and taste fabulous!
We bottomed out near -35F at my place and most of my Prelude canes made it through the winter and are leafing out now. Plus, you seem to get a lot more snow than me, I bet they’d do ok for you.
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i thought so also but I’ve heard conflicting reviews. usually cooperative extension is pretty good at giving recommendations that are hardy to my area. i might try some to see how they do.
The key is to find what works in your area. I have high standards. Most produce fairly well. The two I mention just stand out as exceptional. At the peak of production, daily harvests are quite large.
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I have Killarney and Nova, planted last year. Nova has a couple 2-3ft canes with all its leaves, no dieback. K has one decent size cane, and its other cane had about half its cane not make it. Also have Prelude, it has a couple scrawny canes mostly leafed out. All of them are starting to set fruit buds.
Prelude has sent up the most primocanes this year, followed by K and Nova. My Anne and Fall Gold have really pushed up a bunch of new canes.
Also have Eden, planted two years ago. It has struggled, it put up three canes last year, longest was 3ft, most of that cane and a shorter one didn’t make it through the winter. It’s only sprouted a couple primocanes, too. Disappointed in its performance, but some plants just don’t work sometimes.
Will report on their flavor later, if I can keep the birds and deer out of them!
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now thats a beautiful thing!
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I think this has gone beyond the original intent, but it’s a great thread. Tulameen has awesome flavor but I have to lay the canes down in the fall and lightly cover them or they freeze.
In my locale, CO, Anne and Caroline are carefree and fruit heavily especially Anne. SWD love them both though, so I end up picking early and going from there. I plan on trying to put a large amount of potted petunias around my rasp and blackberries this year to see if that repels them at all. Other plans are to gradually switch over to summer bearing. I will be planting Rosana soon, hope I have better luck than Drew. My neighbor has an unknown summer bearing red that is fantastic tasting, I plan to try that one. In her yard they don’t get much direct sun though and are not very productive, so I hope given sun they become more productive.
Meeker was never very impressive taste or production-wise and needed winter protection, so not worth it. Royalty purple, such a let down. Beautiful foliage and berries which are very nice size, but almost flavorless here. Jewell black has great flavor, though small and kinda seedy it’s worth it. Plus SWD don’t bother it.
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royalty is ok tasting here. more for processing than fresh eating. anne and caroline are too late bearing here to get a full crop most years. I’m leaving the canes to get a summer crop from them also. I’m also slowly starting to switch to summer bearers. putting acc eden and some preludes in next week.
do you just eat them together like that, mixed in yogurt and smoothies? would make a fabulous mixed berry jam! call it 6 berry jam. 