That gives me some home. My PAF has that dead look now. Big, sturdy, vigorous, dead looking canes. Triple Crown looks like it did sirvive the winter but not 100% sure. Arapaho, whichi was tempted to cull, so far looks the best of the three, this year now.
I wonder if my PAFs’ vigorous growth has a lot to do with my relatively warm climate. no frosts occur here.
my cascade gold rasp, on the other hand, was visibly dormant till last week. there are now a few spots of green on floricanes and a smattering of tiny primocane suckers. but nothing as monstrous as the PAF primos or bud-laden floricanes.
that was my experience here. but once they start you can almost see the growth.
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I want to say many many thanks to @hydro for recommending PAF.
After reading it last year, I found a seller on eBay, bought four very tiny tissue cultured PAF, about 3 – 4” tall, from helloorganics and planted each in a 10g pot on 5/31/18.
This is what they look like now, loaded with big berries. The full size berries are as big as my thumb. Tasted the first one on 3/8/19… so happy to have them.
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hey, all. was wondering whether i should be concerned about these red leaves—do they represent usual senescence, or is there a disease afoot? the primocane leaves are entirely green and healthy-looking.
also, what factors could lead to some berries getting mummified? i’ve seen excessive heat do that last summer, but my area hasn’t had that kind of weather yet this year. thanks in advance!
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had that happen to my baby cakes dwarf blackberries. gave them too much N. margins of the leaves turned brown and some were crinkled also. looks like you have some of that too.
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thanks, moose. will lay off the fertilizer.
I see leaves like that on my floricanes after they have gone through the winter. Mine do not go dormant and I’m sure yours don’t either. I take it as just senescence. Those canes die after ripening their berries. What berries I have that are like that were winter born berries that were exposed to cold.
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cool, thanks, K8. earlier this year, it was colder than usual around here.
and if i ran my own north american country, its flag would feature a red blackberry leaf in the center. 
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My third year with PAF, first 2 years were in growbags and were disasters. Zero berries year 1 and birds ate all dozen or so berries produced in year 2. I built them a raised bed this past winter on a hillside with sporadic pine shade and they have put on a decent amount of floricane flowers. Fencing has kept the deer out of them, will need to net them before long.
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'cause dr. john clark is da man.
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sure wish that cornell would come out with a z3 blackbery. i just bought 5 nelson blackberry starts from fedco. they are supposedly z4 hardy maybe z3. I’m hoping they work out here. i have a wild one i found here a few years ago but the berries are small. hb usa has a z3 hardy pequot blackberry but they won’t have any available this season. i tried to get freedom to overwinter here but the canes didn’t survive. would send up new primocanes but our growing season was too short for the berries to ripen here. too bad as they grew like nothing I’ve ever seen.
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My big PAF floricane was totally toast from the deep freeze this winter. Such a shame as it had many long cane off-shoots that could have produced a bunch of berries this spring. I ended up cutting it down to the ground. It was about an inch thick at ground level.
But, the good news is that there are already at least 5-6 new primocanes coming up, including a couple near the newly cut cane. There are also a couple of them are about 2-3ft from the crown, so apparently the plant suckers well.
The other Prime Ark BB, Traveler, did survive the winter with most of its canes intact, along with the other BB’s. But, they haven’t put out a lot of new canes yet.
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PAF will sucker 15-20 feet away here!!! They are invasive.
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Well, that’s kinda good, I guess. I suppose the cold didn’t kill the crown, as it sure is putting out the suckers. Maybe cutting the big cane down to the ground will induce more suckering.
Has yours started blooming yet? Do you think you’ll get a big crop this year? When do you usually get your floricane crop?
I have small berries now. I usually have floricanes ripe in May and primocanes in early July. I’ll make more this year than last year. I’ve been topping my new canes at three foot for over a week.
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Yeah, I’ll have to do that this year with my primocanes, didn’t do it last year, and while I got some really long canes, not tipping them cost me fruit last summer. Do you tip them the first time at about abt 2ft, and after they start growing vertical again, tip them again at about 3-4ft? Or do you just do the one tipping?
From what I read then, you almost had too many last year. You’re gonna need a new freezer to put all those berries in!
I had a lot in 2017. Not many last year. I let my canes get too tall and we had NO rain. I’ve been cutting them…about 6-8 inches down when they get to be three feet. I’ve already had some of them fall over before I got them tied up. I’m trying to keep them shorter and then you don’t lose as much fruit
I’m not just tipping them this year. I’m cutting the top out. Trying to get the laterals to actually run laterally instead of straight up.
dr. clark tipped his PAF primocames to 50 cm, or about 20”. I find the plants to be nice and sturdy when I tip them similarly. my largest primocane this year was 27” tall; tipped (or topped—either term is cool with me) it to 20”.
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