Yes. I had some at my last house several years ago it was somewhat invasive I don’t know if other people have had that issue but mine spread 12 ft into the other blackberry rows. Not sure if that is normal for a BlackBerry to spread underground that far?
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Very invasive. I have had trouble keeping it out of my asparagus!
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So I was looking at these PAFs on 3-4 different nursery sites and they all list different zone compatibility. Has anyone in zone 5/6 had these for a while now? Do they do well? Is there a hardier variety that would be better?
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@PA_Fruit_Grower
I put these in last summer and I have berries growing on the plant and I also have 2 volunteers that came up this year already. I’d say they are doing pretty good here.
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Hello PAF Growers,
I am highly anticipating my first floricane harvest from the PAF I planted last year. Today I noticed quite a few spent flowers with no green berry in the middle. Can’t tell if the birds got it or a berry just never formed? What do you think?
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I’ve not had birds bother mine when still green, so ….
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Not birds just unformed berry
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I don’t have any problem with birds prior to my berries turning black, but have an ongoing battle with the birds over the ripe berries.
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For anyone looking for Freedom Ark, saw it in lowes(VA). Its a nice healthy plant, i saw it right after i got my plant from indiana berry.
Some interesting varieties this year at local big box, like Osage and Sweetie Pie
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My PAF has been bearing fruit for a few months now, it has quickly become a family favorite.
And after several years of waiting, I finally got a sucker!
I was worried I would eventually lose the plant to senescence. It wouldn’t propagate for me no matter what I tried, cuttings, layers, tip rooting, none of it worked. I bought a second plant in the hopes it would have an easier time suckering in a pot instead of my heavy clay soil, but the original plant finally suckered. With this, I can rest easy knowing I can renew the plants as they get older.
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I have propagated paf from tip layering a couple of times. Paf seems to be much slower than my other varieties though. Just be patient with the tip layering, try to lightly injure the cane where you insert it into the soil. I’m zone 9a and paf does give me some problems with cane die back in the heat of summer. The plants are so vigorous that the new canes that are pushed in early fall after cane dieback grow enough to give a good harvest the following spring. Mine start to bloom in early February here. I have not gotten a successful primocane harvest either I think because of the heat and humidity. The berries are huge and tasty on the floricanes and that is good enough for me. This year we had a late freeze that destroyed most of my flowers so I only got a few berries, most of which the birds consumed. My Ponca are just starting to come on so at least I have that to look forward to.
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I planted two Primeark freedom seedlings from a 4 inch pot this spring the plants have established nicely and responded to tipping by creating a bush structure. I am not expecting any harvest this year since the season here in PNW will wind down in a month.
I want to know if I need to cut it to the ground this fall and how much yield can I expect from two plants next year.
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Prime Ark Freedom blackberries have two crops of berries per year. The bush that you have now will form berries in the spring. During the spring new canes will grow and these will start forming berries that will mature after the first crop. If you cut your bushes to the ground this fall you will only get one crop next year instead of two. Some people elect to do this especially if they live in an area that wouldn’t support two crops ripening. As a rule I get early berries in May and then my second berries start around early July and continue producing a few berries until frost. I have a long growing season from mid march until mid to late November. You may want only one crop of berries to grow.
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Thank you, I just noticed one of my plant is forming a flower bud 
our growing season (warm weather) is from June to September. In this case, should I leave them without cutting and just get a crop from this years canes? or will it grow back faster if I cut it down this fall since its not a seedling anymore.
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Don’t cut them down!!! Your floricane crop is much bigger than the primocane crop. I repeat do not cut them down. Over winter the plants and enjoy a the berries in the spring!
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Thank you! we still have a month of hot weather left. Should I keep pinching them to get bushier?
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You don’t want them to grow terribly tall but you want the canes to grow some length and the more laterally the better. The berries will form up and down these long canes so let the canes grow even if you need to provide support. They will fruit next spring and then after those canes fruit you can cut them back. By the time the canes growing now fruit next spring the new canes will be coming up. The new ones will produce a few berries next year and then those canes will produce your first crop the following year. Basically each cane will produce two crops. The spring crop is called “floricane crop” and the new canes that come up in the spring will produce your “primocane crop”. Floricanes die after producing and you trim those out. The primocanes produce and then produce the floricanes crop the following spring. I only cut mine down after they produce the spring crop and start dying off.
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My plants have set a few berries. However, I don’t think they will mature given weather here in PNW is cooling and probably couple weeks of 70F days left. Do I need to cut remove the unripened or fruited this season part of the plant? they have turned into a monster bush even in a pot, one of the cane is 6ft all.
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Your plant is fantastic. I don’t ever bother cutting off unripened fruit but you can if you like. Because the primocanes have an ever bearing nature you will nearly always have unripened fruit at frost. They are very aggressive massive plants so expect to to get even bigger next year. I haven’t tried growing one in a pot but I would expect it to try its best to get out of the pot somehow.
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