What blackberry should I grow in 7a/b? (Place your vote)

General Fruit Growing
1

I’ve done a good amount of reading on blackberries and have hopefully narrowed it down to these three, and would like to further narrow it down to just two. Important traits to me are: productivity, extended harvest, low-maintenance, flavor (in that order). I am in a high SWD pressure area so that is also a consideration.

Prime Ark Freedom - (thornless primocane fruiting) Has exceptional fruit size, good flavor and grows upright with little need for staking. Bears some fruit the first fall of planting year, and either summers or falls after that depending on how it is managed.
Triple Crown - (thornless floricane fruiting) Very large berries, may need support under heavy fruit load. Ripens for about one month from end of July thru August.
Osage - (thornless floricane fruiting) Osage was developed with the intention of advancing flavor to a higher level in a thornless blackberry cultivar. Osage ripens mid-early(?). Summer Bearing Blackberry Plant bears fruit 1 year after planting.

Place your vote for what two black berry plants I should grow (Pick two):

  • Prime Ark Freedom
  • Triple Crown
  • Osage
  • Other (comment below)

0 voters

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2

I can’t speak for you in 7a Here Triple Crown ripne in the middle of SWD season. I have not grown the others.

Yes, because to me they are not very good with a rather unpleasant (at least to me) aftertaste. I can’t vote for Osage though as I never even tried it but have heard good things.
I myself would put in Siskiyou, Marion, Newberry, Wyeberry, and tayberry. those are the cultivars I like, and they do not taste alike at all. I culled Navaho, Triple Crown, Lochness, Chester, and Natchez. Many produced really well, huge berries, millions of them. But taste is my first criteria, and none of these made it. Rare these days is Eastern Blackberries and I’m trying out Darrow, but I probably will eliminate it.

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I agree with Drew. I only have one year of experience with blackberries fruiting, so take my word with a grain of salt. I also think I may not have waited long enough for the fruit to sweeten. I have both Osage and Triple Crown and I did not notice an appreciable difference in flavor. The very large difference between the two is how they grow. Triple crown is an octopus (that is what mine looks like at the moment) that you need to train regularly or it will lay on top of anything near it. Osage is upright and does not need much support, but occasionally a lateral will snap off the main stem. I guess I would give a slight edge to Osage in my limited experience. I have not grown PAF.

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I love polls!l. I ticked the other box. I grow Ouachita thornless up-right. I use them for Jams and Pies only and the taste is superb!

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I’d like to vote as I have PAF, Osage and Triple Crown, but they won’t bear their first fruit until this year. So, I can’t comment on their productivity, flavor, hardiness or insect issues.

From what I’ve read TC is pretty productive, and has good flavor. My first canes were all on the ground, so I had to put them on a wire trellis. The first year canes were very prolific. I don’t think it’s considered to be an upright variety. Since it ripens its fruit from July trough August, it might be in the middle of SWD season.

From what I’ve read on here, and other sites, Osage is considered one of the better tasting thornless varieties, and ripens in June-July, with Ouachita close in flavor. I have both and the canes are all pretty much upright.

You might have good luck with PAF, that is, you probably could get a primocane and floricane harvest. They have the biggest berries, and good flavor. My plant was a monster growth wise its first year, lots of long canes, which I should have tipped.

I also have PA Traveler, another primocane berry. It gave us a few fruit last fall, pretty tart, and not very sweet, but can’t expect much from the first year canes. Not as vigorous as PAF, but moreso than Osage and Ouachita.It has firmer, smaller berries than PAF.

Both of the primocane fruit on these two varieties might fall into SWD season, but only barely.

If you’re in zone 7 you may be able to grow some of the Western berries, but some folks like @scottfsmith, who isn’t too far from you, hasn’t had real good results with them.

6

I never covered them and my yard gets really hot in the summer which they don’t like. Back when I covered them I got a good crop. They do taste a lot better, I tried dozens of varieties to see if any one would work but none did.

Of yours I grew TC and Osage, both are good. TC was bigger but Osage had less off flavors relatively.

7

I voted for PAF and Osage.

Potential SWD problems may eliminate TC unless you want to spray. Entrust is organic and works well but its expensive.

All floricane blackberries from Arkansas taste similar to me.

Much current blackberry research is targeted to primocane varieties, but the results are less certain. They could be the best alternative, especially with 2 crops per year if you can make them grow.

Not many people grow dewberries anymore but they grow in zone 7 with excellent flavor. Very trailing with small thorns normally tied to a single post. Not sure about varieties or sources.

8

What’s the non-organic option? I don’t mind spraying if there isn’t too many applications involved. Thanks for your vote!

Do you think a raspberry style trellis would be suitable for managing triple crown? I’m thinking growing the blackberries in the same row as my raspberries.

I believe @ross grows PAF with good results and he is very local to me, so I am strongly leaning towards also trying it. I’m not sure if he had a summer crop for PAF but I do know that his later fall crop got hit with SWD.

9

Malithion, Mustang Max and Delegate are all labeled for blackberries in my state with a 1 day PHI. SWD are starting to develop resistance to the chemical in Delegate in some area so rotating chemicals is preferred if you have to spray a lot.

You can probably tolerate some SWD infestation if you don’t sell the fruit and are not grossed out by small fruit maggots.

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I would recommend. “Natchez”
Very early , very large, and sweet, productive . A good thornless berry.
Comes on befor SWD is a real problem.
Also Chester has done well here,

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11

I have a system similar to the one in the picture. For triple crown in the first year I topped the canes and wrapped laterals along the wires (both mid and top wire). In year 2 the “new” canes were topped and laterals growing vigorously before the old canes fruited. The new laterals have to go somewhere. If I trained the new laterals over the old laterals then it will be a tangled mess to cut away after the old cane fruited. So I kept my new canes/laterals mostly off the trellis which is why it looks like an octopus right now. I probably could have forced the new laterals back on the trellis immediately after cutting away the old canes, but I was lazy. Now the canes have no flexibility due to the cold and I have about 10 new tip-rooted triple crown plants to give away!

I have not resolved how I will train TC differently this year. I have seen some people on the internet coil the laterals like a rope and hang it off the trellis. I may have to go that route. My laterals are close to 20 feet long with no fertilizer.

12

Do you have to protect Marionberry, Scott?

@subdood_ky_z6b When do you tip PAF? I think I may have tipped mine a bit too early, they didn’t flower and I had to wait another month to tip again. Overall my primocane crop was a little weaker than I would have liked.

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Like Drew mentions… Triple Crown is right in line with SWD. It’s insanely productive, but it’s a no go. I ripped mine out.

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From what I’ve read, you’re supposed to tip them when the primocanes get to about 20" tall, just nip off the tip of the cane. Then let it grow up to about 40", and tip it again. This causes branching beneath the tip, kind of like when you head an apple whip.

@k8tpayaso has grown PAF for a few years and could maybe offer some insights. This will be my first real year harvesting any blackberries

I didn’t do that to any of my PAF (or PAT) canes and they grew inordinately long. There were a couple canes that got over 8ft long. I don’t have them trellised yet, but will this year.

I have trellised my Triple Crown canes, at about 24" and then at 48". Since they are trailing, they were sprawled all over the ground.Now that they’re neatly up off the ground, the deer have been stripping the leaves off them. They’ve also bit about 5 canes off at near the base. Stinking devil varmits :rage:

15

These canes come up early (for me) and they come up fast. I tipped last year at 3 feet and this year I’m not going to let them get that tall…about 30" I think. I read one article that said don’t just pinch the tip…let them go a bit higher and actually cut the cane below the top few leaves. I think that does two things: 1) makes sure the cane is strong enough to bear the weight of the berries, and 2) keeps the new laterals from growing straight up. This is the hard part of these berries. They reach to the sky and the berries are so big and so heavy. I pinch them and the two lateral continue to grow straight up and now I still have 5 for canes that break with the berries. I want to encourage true lateral growth. I’ve had some really long laterals that are supported the grow a lot of berries and don’t break but if you let them grow vertical then you better arrange for some strong support. Nice berries but the plants are beasts!

Katy

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Yes, it completely dies back if not protected. Its not all that hard to protect them, just put the vines on the ground, throw leaves over and then put row cover on top, but it takes time. Also even when covered my summer heat and humidity is not good for them. Maybe when I am retired I will find a good spot to put in some Marionberries and take good care of them.

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I recommended " Chester " in a post above.
It has been a real workhorse here for many years.
Now , with the SWD .they have to be picked early , to be any good , as they ripen when there is high populations of SWD.
Triple crown too.
I used to let them hang and get dead ripe, but not any more,
Now I pick befor they get soft, add sugar , blend up. Freeze , use for drinks, etc

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18

Thanks for the reply. I know you’ve had some big harvests, do you think this year’s will be bigger, or did you get rid of a lot of canes? Has the flavor been good for you?

You might have mentioned it before but what dates do you get your floricane and primocane crops? Is the primocane production hindered by the summer heat?

19

This year will be very low production. While a lot of you guys were drowning we had horrid drought and I fought just keeping all my plants alive. I was looking today and many of the upper canes are dead and need to be trimmed down to first growth area. Also, until now we have had only a few light freezes and I now have blooms on many canes. They are pretty cold hardy I think because they never go dormant here. We are supposed to get down to low twenties Saturday night and today was near 70. The poor things are confused. I usually have Floricane berries in early May and primocanes ripe by July 4. Last year last frost was February 28 floricanes were all harvested and I had primocanes blooming by May 30 and ripened by Jun 20. The drought and heat pretty much killed the summer season but then I had berries ripening into November after it cooled down. I have mine planted where they get afternoon shade to escape the heat somewhat. They would be better suited to a cooler climate. I personally think the taste is fantastic. Primo berries seem sweeter but that may be because I’m not picking them quite as fast or it may be because of more heat.

Today’s photo—a winter berry got nipped by last freeze and another bloom

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image3024×4032 2.81 MB

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