Sorry to hear that as I have 4 Arapaho and Apache plants fruiting for the first time. I also just purchased 4 Hull plants from the local nursery with 2ft canes. I think I read that they should be cut back to 12in when transplanted. Anybody?

I do think most thornless blackberries are sour(but big) so put them in a cobbler or get out the sugar shaker.

My Arapahos produced nice sweet/tart berries last year. I've never tasted a sweet blackberry down here, but the dewberries we used to pick were sweeter.

noss

Blackberries are generally sweet here. Arapaho isn't all that good here. It does have the advantage of being early, but I pulled it out in favor of better quality berries.

Navaho is very good quality here. The berries are small like Arapaho, but they are much sweeter. Navaho is supposed to be somewhat winter tender. I'm surprised you can grow it in CT. Maybe it doesn't get that cold there?

I wonder if these berries take more sun or heat than is in your locale in order to properly sweeten. Here blackberries are significantly sweeter than raspberries.

You might try sticking with your wild blackberries if you like their flavor. The only drawback is that sometimes wild blackberries carry viruses which could be transmitted to your raspberries. Raspberries are very susceptible to bramble viruses.

Uh-oh! I was out and looked at the tags on my blackberry plants and the newest of them I thought was Arapaho is actually a thornless Apache, so now I have 2 Arapahos, 1 Navaho and 1 Thornless Apache.

How do the Apaches taste, if you know?

Thanks,

noss

We get from 100 in the summer to 0 in the winter. Most of the time it's 20's in winter. This winter was abnormal and we are a month ahead of where we usually are for plants blooming..

I think I had one navaho, not sure if it survived or not.I didn't label them in the ground. I had several arapahos. I just pulled the blackberries out completely ( i think heh ) yesterday.
I eat those raspberries right off the vine they are so good.
I was thinking of getting a triple crown plant to try.
The wild plants I took when they were small. Kept them inside in a pot for a year and then moved them outside. Long drive to vermont and I wanted to make sure they did well before planting :) I hope they are disease free. just took some out of the pot yesterday and planted in regular ground. They usually fruit the end of august.

Bobkatt,

Triple Crown is a good berry and is hardy down to zero F.

Blackberries in general aren't as sweet as something like peaches, or a really sweet apple, but they should be sweeter than most strawberries and raspberries. At least that's my experience.

Noss,

Apache is a good berry. It's sweet and very large. About the only drawback is that the seeds are also bigger and it's a bit more prone to white druplet.

Do you get enough chill in LA for these blackberries?

I have all of those blackberries in SoCal, they all sweeten up well for me, sweeter then anything I can buy at the store. For me at least triple crown and Navaho are the best, I would think you are not getting enough sun t sweeten them up.

Sorry to necro-post, but I stumbled on this thread in search of some new recipes. Re. sour/tart blackberries... my favorite way to eat them is with some sweet honey flavored yogurt and a bit of granola for breakfast, or just a simple scoop of vanilla ice cream for dessert. The tangy taste balances out the sweetness of the 'dairy' and makes a great taste. I'm growing 'Navaho' here in Dallas and it's a great producer for me. The berries aren't as sweet as wild types, but they are bigger, and I get a LOT of them. They are tangy, but not so mouth-puckering sour as to be unpleasant. I've had my DH gather wild berries when he goes down to the river bottoms and I mix them with the garden berries for cobblers, dressings and the like. That makes for a good mix of berry flavor, not too sour and not too sweet.