Here wild blackberries are too sour and small for my tastes, plus they are thorny, so not an attractive resource for me, although my wife likes them. I prefer our thornless domesticated varieties.
We also have wild black rasps, they are sweeter and just taste better, but they are outnumbered by the blackberries by prob 5 to 1. We have two tame varieties, Bristol and MacBlack which should produce their first crop this year.
wild reds are weeds here. you clearcut a forest and you have a field of raspberries until the trees start to shade them out. taste is excellent but berries are very small. my family used to pick them when i was young. i just recently found the 1st wild blackberry here. didnāt think they grew this far north. berry taste is very good on a nearly thornless cane but like rasps. is small. about the size of a medium rasp. still i dug some roots and planted a patch in the yard. hopefully under better conditions the berry size improves some. they should produce a crop this summer. i like the taste of both rasps and blackberry but a nice big autumn britten red rasp is probably my fave off the cane. berries the size of a average blackberry. perfect balance of sweet/ tart.
Hello in Spain (center) all the raspberries are dying.
This year I have tried two varieties āParisā and āVersaillesā and it seems that they go a little better.
What if they go well with heat are the Tayberry style hybrids
regards
Itās unfortunate that Raspberries donāt do well in the south except at higher elevations.
Dorman red is called a raspberry but is has a dewberry parent and taste like a pineapple to me. I believe was developed in Mississippi.
The best advice I got from the experts when we were trying to grow raspberries is āwhen the weather gets very hot, backberries thrive and raspberries dive.ā
Hi, Iām from Spain, so Iām also hot. The same thing happens to me with raspberries, this year I have tried two new varieties: paris and versailles and it seems that something else holds up.
Have you tried hybrids?
tayberry, boysonberry ā¦ they suit me very well
Cheers
Couldnāt agree more! I moved here from the Peoria area in 2014 to the Piedmont area. Also have some Nachez blackberries doing well but need to transfer to our farm down the road. Am going to try some Nantahala and Fall Gold raspberries in 2021 - on a hill with part/most shade and usually a good breeze to mitigate the extra heat!
Houston, here, zone 9 a/b
Forget raspberries.
Planted varieties for the deep south
All died
This is what happened to me
Dorman Red is not an actual raspberry but a cultivar of Wineberry Rubus phoenicolasius. That is why it grows in the heat and has a bland flavored, raspberry-like fruit. Possibly it is a hybrid between the two.
I know this is late, but the only raspberry Iāve had success with in my steamy zone 8a is Prelude. It has no problems with our winters and gets its fruiting out of the way early. Then you could cut it back and sacrifice the late crop and let it put on fresh growth for the next spring. I give mine morning sun and afternoon dappled shade. Edited to add: I got mine from Pense Berry Farm.
I am in southern middle Tennessee zone 7a and have had Illini Blackberries since 2003ā¦ I have a 30 ft long bed of them and they produce quite well. Big BlackBerries with true wild blackberry flavor (as the catalog said)ā¦ except they are 2-3 x as big as the wild blackberries on my place.
4 or 5 years ago I started noticing a problem they were having (thru research, double blossom, rosette ?) but I have kept working with them, taking good care of them, pruning off infected parts, and even though they still have that, and it does affect production someā¦ I still got a HUGE harvest of great berries last year.
But also just in caseā¦ last year, far across my property and upwindā¦ I started a 30 ft bed of Ouachitaā¦ and they grew like crazy last year. I topped them at 4 ft, and they branched out like crazy. Expecting a good crop of those this year.
In the same location I started a bed of Raspberries tooā¦ Heritage Red, and Fall Goldā¦ and they grew like crazy last year too. I topped them at 4 ft and they branched out nicely too. And last fall we got lots of raspberries off the top 1/3 of the canes. They were both excellent. I like the Red Heritage best, and my wife preferred the Goldā¦ the kids loved them all.
I also have a loganberry that I planted spring 2019 (2 plants)ā¦ and that thing covered a 8x12 trellis and ran off the ends. We got so many berries off it last year (2020)ā¦ we ate all the fresh berries we wanted for a couple months and still froze lots of pints of berries, that we are still eating this winter.
It is a big purple berry and for me has been a super producer so far.
They have excellent flavor, but are more tart than sweet. I like to eat them mixed with other berries, like blueberries or grapes.
Here in Zone 7a, TN, my first loganberries were getting ripe May 22ā¦ which is a full month ahead of my Ilinni blackberries (which is nice).
So far I have had no problems with raspberries, or loganberriesā¦ have had issue with doubleblossom on the illinni blackberries but with some care they are still producing LOTS of great berries.
I have only had the raspberries and loganberry for a short time thoughā¦
Below is what the Loganberry looks like.
PSā¦ I think I am going to add some black raspberries this spring. A variety called Jewel is what I am considering.
Best of luck to you.
TNHunter
Bringing this old post up from the dead. Was considering getting a few more raspberries but Iāve heard from multiple sources they really struggle in the South. Iām in South Carolina, def hot and humid summers here - how are the berries you mentioned holding up? So far Iāve had some luck with tayberries but not much production, a mystery red raspberry that died for unknown reasons, some Carmine goumi berry success, gooseberries and golden currant very minimal growth and no production but the bushes are hanging in there. Thanks for any updates.
@blacklabel1783 ā¦ I had great luck with loganberry for 3 or 4 yearsā¦ unbelievable productive, large berriesā¦ tartā¦ but if you waited for max ripenessā¦ a nice mix of sweet and tart.
Thenā¦ red neck cane borer showed upā¦ and started killing all primocanes towards the end of their first growing season.
The same thing happened with Obsidian blackberryā¦ RNCB wiped them out.
West coast blackberries or hybridsā¦ those long thinner canes are just super attractive to the southern RNCB.
After several complete or near complete failuresā¦ I took them out.
They grew well hereā¦ put out lots of long primocanesā¦ but ended up dead from southern RNCB.
I have tried several varieties of raspberries and the only one to survive and thrive here (live fruit and reproduce) long term is an older variety Herritage Red raspberry. They tenaciously reproduce by root shootsā¦ and double crop wellā¦ producing near 3 months in the fallā¦ and a little over a month in the spring.
I bought 3 HRs in 2020ā¦ and by 2024ā¦ had 100 canes or more in production.
Some fall crop HRs.
Goumies do very well here. I have red gem, sweet scarlet, carmine and raintree select. They all grow and produce very large crops.
I am in southern middle TNā¦ zone 7bā¦ not too far from the AL state line. It is hot and humid here.
TNHunter
@blacklabel1783 ā¦ no luck with gooseberry, jostaberry or red currantsā¦ or even clove currants here either.
My latest attempt was with crandell clove currants and Jeanne gooseberryā¦
The results I get with all of thoseā¦ sure looks like it is just too hot and humid for them to thrive.
I got 3 or 4 berries off jostaberry and red currants in 4-5 years. None off Jeanne gooseberryā¦ well last year my two bushes did produce 1 berryā¦ and I suppose a bird got itā¦ it disappeared. My crandell clove currants grew well and produced some berries the first seasonā¦ but the next spring about half of each bush had canes with no leaves on them.
They were still aliveā¦ but failed to leaf out.
Just not happy here in the hot humid south.
Persimmons and mulberies do well hereā¦ low maintenance, no spray, grow like weeds, produce good fruit. I have 10 persimmon varieties now and 5 mulberry varieties.
Going with what works well.
TNHunter
Great insight, Iāll def check out Heritage. I donāt mind putting in some work like spraying and pruning my 5 or so stone fruit, but Iāve also started converting to lower oversight fruits like figs and persimmons; Iāve looked into your persimmon recommendations. Asian pears seem to grow well here too.
I guess I was hoepful some small fruit crops like berries would be an easy supplement to my trees, but Iāve only had a little goumi and tayberry success after a couple years of trying.
Most do, yes.
@krismoriah has a few that have done well for him which are supposed to be heat resistant.
Heritage does ok, most other varieties just die.
Iāve had decent results with Tayberry and Loganberry in part shade. My best performer so far is Bababerry.
Be aware that Willis Nursery lists Bababerry but itās actually just wineberry, Rubus phoenicolasius. Donāt buy from them.
Wineberry is pretty terrible by the way.
Iām growing Dorman Red or Dormanred which is an older hybrid from Mississippi thatās mostly Rubus parvifolius, though the parentage is a bit complex.
I expect initial fruit this spring. Iām mostly growing it for making crosses as I donāt expect it to have good flavor.
At some point in the next few years, I should be able to start distributing some European raspberry x Mysore raspberry hybrids, but weāre not there yet.
Blueberries for sure are worth trying. Rabbiteye varieties in particular are tough and reliable.
Huckleberries are fun too if you donāt mind small berries. Vaccinium eliotii is very tolerant of soil conditions and makes for a big, very pretty bush that has pretty good berries. Woodlanders has them I believe. Some of the other native huckleberries could be good, but most are hard to find even online.
Youāre far enough south to grow some of the more subtropical mulberries (though not all of them). Iāve had great results with Valdosta. Iām testing Siam Jumbo, weāll see if it needs protection or not.
Similarly, if you donāt mind giving some winter protection and fertilizing more then normal, satsuma mandarins are otherwise extremely easy in the mid-South and extremely tasty. Some other citrus are also doable but require more protection or arenāt as good tasting, satsumas are fairly hardy and easily top 5 best citrus in the world.
Jujube arenāt really berries but the good sweet ones are pretty small. Very, very easy in the South if the deer arenāt too bad.
Goumi are a safe bet. Elaeagnus x ebbingei has fruit that are pretty similar but extremely early since they bloom in early winter and ripen as soon as warm weather arrives in the spring when most plants havenāt even bloomed yet. Very astringent until fully ripe though.
If you donāt mind the pruning, Razzmatazz is a excellent small table grape with a very long harvest window that does well in the South.
@blacklabel1783 ā¦ I do have some nice rabbiteye blueberriesā¦ and they produce wellā¦ but you have to protect them from birds or they will get most of them.
A rabbiteye blueberry really needs to turn fully blue and then hang on the bush about a week for max flavor and sweetness.
That is when the birds wear them out.
I protect mine by setting up a frame of tposts and garden stakes and covering that with bird netting. It is a painā¦but we get lots of nice blueberries as long as we protect them.
I have two older varieties of blackberriesā¦ Illini Hardyā¦ and Kiowaā¦ these have stout canes and lots of wicked thornsā¦ they produce lots of nice berries.
With the very thorny varietiesā¦ I dont have to protect from birds or deerā¦ the thorns take care of protecting the plants and fruit.
I have tried a few low to no thorn varieties here and most end up as deer foodā¦ if they do survive to fruitā¦ the birds get most of the fruitā¦ unless you bag or bird net them.
I have a Chicago hardy fig that produces around 400 figs yearly. I do have to protect the fruit with organza bagsā¦ but man it is worth it.
I have Oh my and Isons muscadines ā¦ and am adding Oh yes muscadine this spring.
Oh my and Oh yesā¦ are seedless and the skins are edibleā¦ you can eat the whole dime and it is very nice.
I have a concord grape vine (seedless) that produ es well (no spray). I do have to organza bag the clusters when ripening or birds will get most.
Some really disease resistent strawberries do well hereā¦ I have 3 beds of thoseā¦ SureCrop and Eversweet have done well here.
I have two CHE treesā¦ they produce a mulberry like fruit in the fall, mine are red and seedless and taste like a mix of watermelon and raspberry.
So all of those thrive here and produce well with no sprayā¦ but some have to have bird and other critter protection when ripening.
Woopsā¦ I see I got a persimmon picture in there. That is my IKKJiro asian persimmonā¦ first fruits this yearā¦ delicious and no spray.
TNHunter
Polka and Nantahala as well as Tulameen or Tula Magic have reports that i have read growing in Z9.
Hard to try them all but good to know that some have tried with success.
