From reading this thread the erect thornless taste winners seem to be Osage, Triple Crown and PAF. Unfortunately TC and PAF are dead ducks here with SWD. Well one out of three is pretty good in baseball.
@hambone
I think you could cut off the fall crop , if not wanted, and manage for the floracain crop in the spring.
In a large planting ,SWD could be very difficult to manage for a fall crop ( heavy infestation)
For me with a short row, if I thoroughly pic every day or 2, just as they turn ripe, I think it’s worth my while to have the fall crop.
It’s the over ripe berries that go unpicked that seem to be the problem .
I try to keep a milk jug 1/2 full of soapy water hanging in the row. When I find SWD infested fruit ( over ripe) I put them in the jug as a trap. When it gets near full I screw the cap on, loosely,.start another… If I keep things picked , not leaving "any "over ripe fruit hanging around on the plants, and enough “bait jugs” I can get enough fall crop to make it worth the trouble.
( I do this with my Figs too )
This is not a perfect solution, but it works to some extent.
And those fall berries are so good.!
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Man thanks for that tip on picking every day! That opens up some of those fabulous fall varieties like PAF, TC, Anne, Fall Gold. Your tip should go in a reference file here.
So SWD goes after figs too? Because over-ripe is when figs taste best. Darn. Didn’t see any sign of them in my figs last year. Fingers crossed.
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Yah.
Figs too.
And most soft small fruit.
I used to be able to let things “hang” and accumulate more sugar / flavor, but now most need picked as soon as they are acceptably ripe. … A few more days … I can taste the off flavor
Of SWD.
They may be " in there" even at that early stage , but you can not taste them. 
Yes, a bummer. I use organza bags, but they have to be on perfect, else they still get in.
My premium figs develop late and usually by then SWD is gone.
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So your SWD infestation ends before frost?
Yes, once cold out, 40 at night, SWD can’t really move around much. It’s not much time, but some. I also have raspberries both primocane black and reds ripening at that time.
It’s only a week or two, then it’s too cold. I have figs ripening till the end, and beyond if I bring them in. I usually do not. Too hard to get them to go dormant. I don’t need to grow them all winter.
Anyone else growing PAF in California Zone 9b?
I planted PAF in 2018 and it behaves much differently that other cane berries I have growing. The canes don’t seem to enter a hard dormancy like others do. It also blooms during the coldest months of our winter (Dec/Jan). Of course those flowers/fruit become frost damaged. Still flowers later in the winter/spring though. Here they are right now.
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Mine are blooming in 8a. Never go completely dormant here. Winter before last we had zone pushing temps to 8F and still no dormancy. Our cold never stays around very long.
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I’m actually glad to know it spreads, so i don’t have to buy more plants to fill out the row. 20 feet though…
Same in 7a this year. Can’t remember the low but I think it was around 10 or 12°F
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You will have suckers coming up everywhere—up to ~20 feet away!
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That’s what I am planning on doing. Harvesting floricane crop and cutting off the primocane berries. This year I am totally revamping all my brambles to summer crop only. Hate the SWD. I actually, knock on wood…don’t have a problem with them in figs as long as it’s not a big open eye or split fruit, and no brambles supporting their evil cause. I had more problems this last fall with cucumber beetles chewing on my figs than anything, which all in all wasn’t the worst of problems to have as I would take that any day over SWD.
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My PAF had most of its early blooms damaged by frost. Do I need to remove all the flowers with burnt out centers to save plant energy or is that really not worth the effort? Thanks.
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So glad I come across this tread! So far for what I read is that this variety is rust free besides been some of the other attributes!
Have any of you have had any issues with rust ? The reason why ask is because I have Triple Crown blackberries for three years and the last couple years I have noticed rust damage on them.
I might going have to get me a few canes to try them out, they are good looking and huge.
Thanks for sharing!
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We had a warm winter here (also 7a) and mine never really went dormant. I might have crazy early berries this year.
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Even here in NE Kentucky, mine is starting to push some fruit buds out, along with Traveler (both were planted two years ago). Never have seen floricane fruit off them yet, had a few primocane fruit late last year, but late freezes put the kibosh on that.
My other floricane blackberries haven’t shown any buds yet.
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Freedom and Traveler are having a hard time getting established here in my perfect river bottom soil. They seem to be much more susceptible to cain borer that other verietys.
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@39thparallel
As you know cane borers are susceptible to my heirloom blackberries. Im joking but only somewhat! Little is not susceptible to my grandfathers favorite blackberry. The berries were passed down through the family over 100 years now until they are more wild than tame. They were named health berries not because of how healthy they are for us but rather how healthy the plants are! I spent 15 years improving the variety until they adapted fully to this area Blackberries by the gallons . I just helped the plants improve themselves by selecting the hardiest plants and making rows from the hardiest plant over and over. Most of the original plants i planted died. You can go back to growing those Mike if you need or want to but i suspect they do to well in river bottom soil. In heavy clay they seem to do the best often where nothing else grows they can reach 20 feet in height. My second favorite blackberry to the heirloom i grow is primeark45 which are exceptional. Have lots of hope 45s will fully adapt. I think 45 are the ones with the best genetics ive seen. Freedom does ok here and again im observing their growth habits hoping to someday make a cross of berries. They will adapt here in time.
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