I use a China cap and ladle, my arm gets tired cranking the food mil, especially during canning season. I don’t mind seeds in my jams, however not in my tomato sauce.
I like seeds in the jam, but I give away most of it to family and friends, and they are no seed type people.
I gather blackberries are another of those fruits where the commercial varieties are much better than the wild ones? I just found a volunteer on my land today, and it tasted about as poor as the ones I foraged as a child. I always ended up going for the wild raspberries instead.
I keep trying, though. Can’t resist free food.
Not necessarily.In the the area where I live,the Pacific NW and probably beyond,grow the very invasive and thorny Himalayan and Evergreen Blackberry ,but the fruit is better in my opinion than some of the cultivars I have grown. Brady
Thanks for all the helpful information here. I think I might look into the more upright varieties that I can attach to a t-post. i also kind of like the thought of a primicane berry that I can mow down at the end of the season.
As for wild blackberries. They never seem to be as sweet as the commercial varieties. At least the ones I pick. However, I kind of think of them as I do pie cherries. They are perfect for making deserts like cobblers and buckles. They aren’t so insanely sweet that it ruins your desert and the added tartness give the desert more balance.
I already told the story of my mother making the worlds best cobbler. But sometimes if we had excess berries we would put them in a bowl, sprinkle sugar over them and then add milk. Similar to how you would eat your corn flakes. My dad had an interesting alternative in which he would take a big slice of fresh baked home made country bread, add it to a bowl, sprinkle sugar, and pour over with a little whole milk or creme. The bread would soak up the milk and juices from the berries. After first being appalled by the idea I remember he talked me into tasting it and it was dynamite. Sort of like a poor mans cobbler. Bread quality was very important though. I would try Wonder bread! haha
[quote=“speedster1, post:1, topic:1892”]
… what would be the best recommended varieties for 6A that are sweet, large, and productive?[/quote]
Depends on where you live?
I really liked the variety “illini” but I cut it all down because it can be invasive like wild blackberries- it was way out of control. The berries of illini are medium-large and very tasty. The plant is very productive. Triple crown is twice as large of a berry. They are freakishly large. They taste amazing. The triple crown plant will benefit from a supporting trellis, and it is not as winter hardy as illini but will probably not die back most years in zone 6a. If it does die back to the ground, it will still grow canes for you.
Yes, Triple Crown would be a good place to start. I’ll post photos of mine when ripe. Still not ripe. Which is way cool because wyeberry, boysenberry, Natchez, and Columbia Star are ripe, and that is all i need for now. Chester, Loch Ness, Navaho, and Triple Crown are turning red. This is great for me, no SWD yet, so the extended season is very nice. That may change if the fruit fly makes it here. So I’m enjoying it while I can. I have Marion, Darrow, and Newberry starts that will be added to the mix, and I also will be getting at least one more in a trade.
I agree with Bradybb. I have found some wild blackberries which are just as big and better flavored than any store bought berries I’ve ever tasted. If I could only keep the logging company from mowing them down every five years. I hope to get some root cuttings this year from them and start them in my yard. I have also found some wild raspberries which are very large and much sweeter than the ones I grow. Maybe it’s just the soil and nutrients.
Many years ago in Russia my dad used to go foraging in the forests and he brought loads of wild blackberries and raspberries. The blackberries were small soft and tart, but I think that they tasted better than those that I have now in my garden, i.e. Triple Crown and Chester. This was in the area near Moscow. Then I happened to go to the North western Ukraine and there had been the blackberry season there. The wild blackberries grew in the big thickets in the pine forests on a sandy soil. They were loaded with blackberries, so many of them. The taste was very good to me. I was surprised by the quantity and the quality of the blackberries, but it seemed that nobody who lived there cared about the berries.
So far nothing has come close to tasting anywhere near as good as Marionberry. I still have to try others. My next favorite is the tayberry as they taste like raspberries to me. I don’t care much for the blackberry flavor. My wife does, so I grow lot’s of them. You really have to pick them dead ripe to be good, even Marionberry. Which i do like very much.
This year I should get 20-30 of them, not a lot, but I only had 4 last year. Late ripening though. And also not really hardy here. i have to grow in a container and keep in the garage and the floricanes still look rough. I’m going to try and cross Marion and Darrow a super hardy blackberry. I also may try crosses with wyeberries, and tayberries just to develop a unique taste profile. But I must admit I’m not getting good germination of crossed seeds, and they might not cross as ploidy level may be different. Ploidy is the number of sets of chromosomes in a cell. They have to be the same for a cross to work right. Blackberries vary a lot on ploidy levels.
Store bought blackberries aren’t worth eating, even if they were free, rather than exorbitantly expensive.
The logging company is likely doing you a favor. Cutting them down every 5 years is probably helping keep them productive and accessible. Otherwise they tip root, interleave, and overgrow. Everyplace they touch the ground they root, so they make loops like velcro.
After the second year the canes die and become hard. Each successive year new canes have to grow taller and more aggressively to reach the light.
I’ve had Himalayan blackberries at my place reach near 20 feet high after 5 or so years of neglect (although some are growing over elderberry and other brush).
The canes sure make a distinctive, sweet smell when pulverized and mulched with a brush hog.
Hello all. Here is a picture of my Chester’s or Triple Crown’s (not sure) flower… All flowers are like this (7 to 10 pink and odd looking petals). Is this normal? What could cause this?
Mine have five petals, both Chester and Triple Crown. The color is normal. Not sure anything is wrong? it may be a variation? It may be another blackberry?
Could just be a twinned flower, see if it goes on to produce a doubled berry, this happens several times per thousand berries for some varieties, not sure why all your flowers do this.
Research blackberry rosette, or double blossom disease, to see if it fits your plants symptom.
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Thank you! It does seem to fit!!! I have another healthy plant that I hope won’t get sick from it. I’ll remove this one today,… to bad I can’t confirm … I can’t even compare, I couldn’t find any picture of this disease, only description.
They are definetly one or the other. I just forgot to leave the tag… and don’t remember… 
It is an unusual flower, again though, not sure you have blackberry rosette disease versus some natural variation? Keep us updated.Some info!
http://www2.ca.uky.edu/agcollege/plantpathology/ext_files/PPFShtml/PPFS-FR-S-3.pdf
http://www.lsuagcenter.com/profiles/aiverson/articles/blackberry%20rosette
Thank you ! Now that I read this… not sure it is rosette… ! Will keep you updated for sure…But the petals are so thin and pink… it’s really odd. The canes are also very thin and not as long as they could be (6 feet or so).
It could be another fungi, virus, borers, etc. Pink is not that unusual. Both of mine (TC and Chester) have pink flowers right now. It still may be best to remove. Tough call.