Holy blackberries! Looks like they are about to go all venus fly trap on your daughter!

How old are they? How much berry weight do you get off of them each year? Do they all ripen at the same time? Do you do a lot of pruning or anything?

Nice pics. impressive berry growth. Wish i could get a panorama shot as all mine form a half square. Looks like youve got some starting to turn red, not long till you get some ripe ones :)

I planted them all last year. Very impressive growth last year and even more so this year! The Chester is ripening first. I've heard the Triple Crown was supposed to, but that's definitely not the case here (unless the plants were mislabeled...).

We were only in town for a day earlier this week when I snapped this picture. Word now is that the Chester is loaded with some very big black berries now...

Nice setup.

Triple Crown is a late-season berry. The mature berry gets a distinct lumpy shape in the black phase. Fruiting stems can be very long. Tends to have a dozen or fewer berries on each stem.

On a roughly 20-foot row one could expect 50 to 100 pounds of combined-variety berries in favorable conditions.

This year will be my first full production year on the Chesters. With the amount of blooms on my 35-40 foot row i can imagine I'll have quite a bit lol.

Larry,

Is Triple Crown later than Chester? I've asked before and been told that Chester is later. Well, my plant that is supposed to be a Chester already has some ripe fruit while it's all still very green on my Triple Crown.

Great photo I like tell the story of Blackberries and your Daughter or any small growing developing child the advantage she have eating a lot blackberries is with her veins and arteries will grow several more years the eating blackberries are blueberries make wall those new veins and arteries strong this keep round all her life so they stay in her flesh and not flaton and come out flesh to skin even spider veins stay in flesh. In future life they be no bypass around Heart. And no unsightly veins to keep covered up.

Triple is usually a few weeks earlier than Chester in my experience. Only have 2 of the TC. Like a previous poster was saying they get that bulge in the middle when completely ripe.

Not many Chesters planted out West; I have no experience with them. Photos show them developing in fairly tight clusters; Triple Crown has very spaced clusters; each fruiting stem has longish sub-stems, etc.

Not many Chesters planted out West; I have no experience with them. Photos show them developing in fairly tight clusters; Triple Crown has very spaced clusters; each fruiting stem has longish sub-stems, etc.

Agree with Larry on the spacing as I have both varieties. Very tight spacing on the Chester's. I counted 84 blooms within a 1 by 2 foot area this spring on them. On my TC's there aren't even close to that many.

Interesting information on the spacing, etc. I'll have to look closely next time I'm home.

Triple Crown has very pure white flowers while Chester has a blush of pink, right?

In general, flower color is not a reliable way of telling blackberry varieties, and many fresh pinkish flowers fade to white. My TCs start out quite pinkish and quickly fade; later-blooming TC stems have nearly all-white flowers.

So the flower color could vary by variety, region, time-of-season, etc.

Yeah, I pulled out a Triple Crown because the flowers were pink so I thought it was mislabeled.

The replacement from a very reliable source ;) also produced pink flowers.

They were planted in a position that gets a shaded much of the day, so maybe its related to the heat and sunlight.

Chester has a lavender purple bloom that fades to white. When it first blooms its pretty spectacular looking if you have a row of them.

drewbym,

How does black satin taste compared to TC and Chester? I planted a couple of black satin plants this year and was wondering. My TC's were generally sweet and the Chester's I tasted were sort of bland.

I planted Chester a couple years ago and had to wait for fruit.I bought some Chester berries at a farmers market the year I was waiting for mine to grow.They looked really good,but they had no flavor.So I was wondering if mine should be pulled out.
I'm glad I waited to try them because I liked them.I think the key is to let stay on the canes as long as possible.
I also planted Black Satin and should get fruit next year. Brady