Blackberries

[Hermitian]

The Black Satin blackberry cutting I purchased last month is displaying vigorous growth in the spring-like weather we've been having:

[Worth1]

This sort of post is making me want to get off my rear end and go get some.
Now where to plant.

Worth

[Sun City Linda]

Looks great where did you order?

[Hermitian]

Originally Posted by Sun City Linda

Looks great where did you order?

Purchased it at Green Thumb Nursery in San Marcos CA.

[Hermitian]

My Arapaho Blackberry is now pushing out lots of white flower buds. This plant is leftover from my nursery stock of days gone by. I originally purchased them as tissue culture from AgriStarts.

[drew51]

My blackberries took a beating with 13 days below zero here. Some look rough, hard to tell how bad damage is untill they break dormancy. Chester, Natchez, Navaho, and Triple Crown look great. Wyeberry is good too. Loganberry, boysenberry, and tayberry have some cane loss, hard to tell how bad. Loganberry was small, so as long as it survives I'll be happy.
I have a lot coming in too
Apache, Loch Ness, Black Diamond, and the new cultivar Columbia Star.

[Hermitian]

Originally Posted by drew51

My blackberries took a beating with 13 days below zero here. Some look rough, hard to tell how bad damage is untill they break dormancy. Chester, Natchez, Navaho, and Triple Crown look great. Wyeberry is good too. Loganberry, boysenberry, and tayberry have some cane loss, hard to tell how bad. Loganberry was small, so as long as it survives I'll be happy.
I have a lot coming in too
Apache, Loch Ness, Black Diamond, and the new cultivar Columbia Star.

Best wishes on those. It was a tough time of year for Loganberry to get hit with a blizzard.

[rags57078]

I was surprised to see a fewof my strawberries starting to popup , we had all the sub zero stuff to but no snow. I'm afraid my few blackberries I planted last summer are gone and the same with my 4 grape vines. Now I have to figure out who to order some plants or starts from

[bower]

We had an amazing year for blackberries last year. I have a patch in my garden that was either brought by birds or by seed on somebody's shoes - that would be me - since I know and visited a place where there's a wild patch in the woods. It has gradually spread out and formed a patch in my garden. It's not an upright bush but very low growing, no more than a foot tall. I thought it was a wild type that didn't produce much fruit ever, but last year they were all loaded with berries.

I don't know whether this blackberry is a native plant, or whether it is naturalized from stock brought by settlers hundreds of years ago.

[Hermitian]

My Arapaho blackberry is in full production with over a cup ripening per day, but the Black Satin will not have berries ripening for at least another week or two. When it does - Oh boy, there's at least a gallon of fruit on the plant.

I'm very happy to have the stagger in crops (here in my climate). The Black Satin typically produces 3 crops per year here, I'm wondering if the Arapaho will do the same.

[drew51]

Most of my floricanes were lost to winter cold. I will try and protect them this coming winter. I added a few too, but may have lost a couple too. Two have yet to produce primocanes, but for here, it's still early. I added Columbia Star, Lochness, and Black Diamond. My raspberries on the other hand suffered no damage. I expect 20-30 pounds. Currants are producing too, I'm going to propagate some of the plants to have a few more currants around. I harvested my radishes today and will be planting melons and beans tomorrow.

[Hermitian]

Originally Posted by drew51

Most of my floricanes were lost to winter cold. I will try and protect them this coming winter. I added a few too, but may have lost a couple too. Two have yet to produce primocanes, but for here, it's still early. I added Columbia Star, Lochness, and Black Diamond. My raspberries on the other hand suffered no damage. I expect 20-30 pounds. Currants are producing too, I'm going to propagate some of the plants to have a few more currants around. I harvested my radishes today and will be planting melons and beans tomorrow.

I am jealous of your ability to grow Currants, and Lochness as well -- I've read many a tantilizing script about that cultivar. It will also be a good time to plant melons and beans here too.

[drew51]

I want to grow more currants because at least they survive! Argh! I even had a peach tree lose it's central leader, it's still alive though, and putting out good shoots, so I will develop another central leader. I don't grow them with central leaders, but need one to form scaffolds. Even one currant was damaged by the cold. I lost a clumping bamboo plant too, and a lavender plant that was 25 years old. Hopefully it will be another 25 years before we have such a cold winter. I really appreciate the weather here now. 85 today, it was so nice!
I forgot to mention I have added some unusual Rubus plants this year. More a novelty than some great cultivars. A user here, Tormato send me a chance cross of a thimbleberry and a raspberry from his garden. Also on Garden Web a user sent me Burbank's white blackberry, and Nettleton's Creamy White blackberry.
The thimbleberry and Burbanks are showing signs of taking, hoping Nettleton will too. Flavor I guess is not great on these whites, just strange plants. I suspect the thimbleberry cross is excellent though.
Tyler on garden web also sent me some Yellow cap seeds. A wild yellow black raspberry.
So far no germination. I have been talking to a professional raspberry breeder, and he uses a rather difficult technique to prep seeds, but it works. These yellow caps though Tyler said he did the scarification and stratification, but so far, nothing coming up. He sent hundreds of seeds, so I'll keep trying.

[Hermitian]

Drew- you could probably succeed with Worchestershire berry and others from the German breeding program of decades gone by.

Burbanks White - amazing! Something to be cherished.

[drew51]

Originally Posted by Hermitian

Drew- you could probably succeed with Worchestershire berry and others from the German breeding program of decades gone by.

Originally Posted by Hermitian

Burbanks White - amazing! Something to be cherished.

Exactly!! Yes, I do for sure. Tyler who sent it is in Ontario, sad I had to go to another country to obtain it! I got three canes, and I planted one at my cottage, 2 here in the city. So it will be saved. I also have another rare cultivar Anastasia Wyeberry. It did will surviving this extremely cold winter.
Once all these plants grow bigger, if you want some, no problem. But I need a year at least to grow it out some. It's really up to us to save these cultivars.
Thank God for gardening. I'm usually sleeping by now, I threw my back out, so I'm medicating myself with Vodka, hoping to actually sleep. I had so much work at my cottage, I hurt my back. An old injury from a head-on crash. But hey pain let's you know you're alive! I seem to be very alive yikes! On a scale of 1-10 it's a 9! I'm in severe pain. I still got most of my prep for the pole beans and melons ready. I'm growing 4 different beans and 8 different melons.
My strawberries have ton's of flowers, it's going to be a good year for them!
Anyway gardening helps me cope, I really love it.
OK, time for bed, more later...