Still getting berries. Not many at a time but enough to keep the blackberry taste fresh on my mind…
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Does it bloom too early to be susceptible to frost damage?
We had a late freeze here this year. One peach tree got hit bad, no fruit. The other is fine. All my blackberries fruit late compared to stone fruit, even the low chill types, so I doubt this will be a problem with any blackberries as in my observations even low chill, or western types that are not really hardy here, but survive with some protection all flowered and produced for me this year when we had a very late freeze even.
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I went to Lowe’s today and found a robust potted Prime Ark Freedom blackberry there for just $11. I had been intending to eventually obtain Osage for this ripening timeslot, but there was PAF sitting right in front of me. The cane already has berries forming on it. I liked the idea of: no shipping cost, primocane fruiting, and its ability to ripen berries in early summer AND the fall. So I bought it. I buckled it into my kid’s car seat to bring it home!
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That’s funny. Well, if you gave it its own seat, and buckled it in, did you give it a name?
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Yeah. “PAF.” Short for Prime Ark Freedom. Pronounced “Paff.”
PAF is my new baby.
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Looks like it has found a good home. I have been moving some of my fruit trees around and my PAF has been temporarily set back. My plans are to start back focusing on it because I think it has a lot of potential. My experience is that it does ripen about two weeks ahead of Natchez but it blooms so early some of my flowers are killed from frost. As of now PAF is the best tasting blackberry I have tried. I was hoping that the fall crop would ripen late enough to escape the hot summer but it did not. Hoping I can figure out a late pruning tactic that will push the ripening into cooler weather. Let us all know how it does in your area.
Today is April 27, 2017. This past week, I planted a new Prime Ark Freedom cane from Walmart. I don’t know where it was grown, but it’s already trying to ripen a berry.
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Aw, look at little Paffy, already producing! What a proud parent you must be…
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I ate this little jewel today-- first berry of the year. It was a little tart, but was sweet too. It was pretty good! I cheated. This berry came with the plant when I bought it.
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PAF primocane berries alongside an unknown berry that ripens between the floricanes and primocanes
Katy
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Paffy does it again!
Prime Ark Freedom today; sweet up front with a funky earthy flavor on the back end. Incredibly low on acid for a blackberry:
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Matt,
I picked my berries off since the plants are only a foot tall. They tried to produce around a dozen fruits.
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Just a follow up on this older thread. Of y’all (@k8tpayaso, @Auburn, @c5tiger, and others), who have grown PAF over the last few years I have a few questions.
On the 2nd year canes (floricanes), does the fruit ripen before any of your regular floricane blackberries? If so, what varieties do they precede? Are they the first floricane berry to mature? Also, how long do the floricanes produce, and do you usually get more fruit off them or the primocanes?
For those who have been able to get primocane fruit to mature when does that season start and how long does it last?
And, which canes seem to produce the best tasting fruit?
Also, how does PAF’s production compare to other thornless floricane BB’s?
If you also have had any PA Traveler’s to fruit, please comment as well.
I just ordered both PAF and PAT, along with Osage and Ouachita, and was curious about their fruiting times, and general productivity.
Thanks for your replies.
I can’t answer several of your questions but some of the others can. My PAF is the first to ripen. One to two weeks before my Natchez. It has large berries and the best tasting of all the others I have tried.
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My floricanes ripen before my other Unknown berry. In fact they are winding down as my other berry starts to ripen. I get a much bigger crop of floricane berries. They start ripening the end of April and last several weeks. My other berry ripens the end of May to june. I may get more berries from my Unknown floricane but the PAF berries are twice the size and more volume. Plus I have more PAF than the other. PAF have a better flavor but my other ones are close if I let them get dead ripe.
My primocanes ripen the first of July and last until frost but no big crops. I may have picked as many as a quart at a time of primos. You can delay the primos by tipping them.
I think the primo berries may be a bit sweeter but 1) it is hotter when they ripen and 2). I may actually not be in as big a hurry to pick them and tend to let them ripen more.
I do not have Traveler
Katy
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Thanks, Katy and Bill. Wow that’s an early primo crop, but I know you’re in a much warmer locale than us.
I’ve read folks in hotter areas don’t get a lot of fruit from the primocanes, but we might be able to do well in that dept. We rarely get into the 90s in the summers we’ve been here. Although last summer was the hottest, we had quite a few of 90+ days. Do you have your plants in any shade to help lessen the effects of the heat?
So it sounds like this would be the floricane ripening order of the BB’s I’m getting, provided the canes do well this year and survive next winter:
PAF
PAT
Osage
Ouachita
Triple Crown
These and 10 raspberry plants are coming in in April, so I’m already planning where to put all these. When the soil dries out a bit, I’ll need to start prepping some plots.
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I do have mine in afternoon shade.
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Thanks, Bill. Were you able to get any fruit off the primocanes last summer/fall? Do you also keep your plants in partial shade?
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