I bought 20 or so different berries from Ison nursery this winter as bare roots. The prime ark freedoms are not growing as vigorously as I thought they should and I have not seen any fruiting buds on the primocanes. Has anyone bought prime ark freedoms from Ison. If so, have they not fruited the first year of planting?
I know they did not send me the correct Dormat Reds, I can tell by the leaf and the raspberry they sent me are erect and not trailing which the Dorman Reds are. I now have to pull out those raspberries get rid of them and try to find some dorman reds I’ll need to do the same with the prime arks if they are not truly prime arks.
Prime Ark primocanes will come up quick and grow vigorously to the sky. I did have a few primo berries the first year but not many. If you just planted them this year you will not have true primocane growth until next year. The plants you have now will bear fruit next spring and the primocanes will emerge next spring.
I have tipped them at 6.5’ tall maybe that’s why I haven’t seen any fruiting buds the paf I had in Atlanta grew huge with thick base and spread everywhere this one just has a normal growth pattern of a thornless. I’ll keep my eyes open, I might have to give it another year to see if they fruit on primocanes.
I had same experience with PrimeArk, very slow to grow the first year and they don’t really spread underground as much as I would like (I want more of them).
In comparison the raspberries planted a few feet away are growing like weeds.
They did produce abundantly this year, but I really need it to spread more so I can get more fruiting canes.
They don’t spread like raspberries. You’d need to bend a cane to the ground for the tip to root or get root cuttings which will sprout into a new plant.
The PAF I had in Atlanta spread over 10’ into my other blackberries. Not sure if they were actually under the ground or just ran under the black silt fence I had laid down?
I’m just now picking floricane PAF berries… I’d expect any primocane crop they may produce to be a ways off into the future. Or does your higher zone put you that far ahead?
As far as the mis-labeled berries, if they taste good, who cares that “name” is attributed to them?
I’m not sure when they are going to fruit since I just moved to Florida last September. I’ve planted 11 different types of blackberries (55 plants) to see which I like the best as well as which will grow the best in our humid climate. I’ve had some thornless at my last house and was not impressed with the taste so I have planted (PAF, caddo, ponca, osage, sweetie pie, ouachita, loganberry, kiowa, boysenberry, marionberry and tayberry) thorny plants as well. I’ll pull out any that I don’t like later and plant more that I like.
Below is a link on how to use roots in propagating blackberries.
Root Cuttings
All blackberries can be propagated by root cuttings. This is
the fastest method to produce new plants. Cut roots ¼–½
inch in diameter into 6-inch pieces. They can be directly
planted in the new location
I bought root cuttings of my PAF’s. I received 13 pieces of cut roots in the mail in the spring. They were no where near 1/4 inch in diameter and only about 3 inches long. I planted in pots and 11 of the 13 cuttings grew into super nice plants. Late august I transplanted them into ground.
