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berriman

blackberry freeze

berriman
9 years ago

I grow 10 cultivars in my yard. Only 2 survived the winter unharmed. that being Darrow and Cheyenne. This is year 3 with Darrow. Last year the druplet formation on Darrow was very poor. They resembled wild blackberries, it's early but it looks similar at this point. I had prolific production on my 3rd year Chester and Triple crowns last year. Those plants had total floricane freeze. New growth is doing well, but I am not expecting much. Floricanes froze on my Kiowa, Chickasaw, Apache, Arapajo ,Ouachita, and Black satin. I have 4 Primark 45"s, That may be my saving grace due to their primocane bearing. It's disheartening, but that's the life of a suburban berry guy..

Comments (2)

  • drew51 SE MI Z5b/6a
    9 years ago

    I'm in the same area, and the same thing happened to me. I'll protect them this winter. I have trailing types, Wyeberry, boysenberry, and Tayberry which I will protect. Easy to protect them, just lay them on the ground and cover with leaves. It worked well this last winter.
    My Navaho and Loganberry were unprotected and died outright.
    I added Loch Ness, rated to zone 5, I'm still probably going to try and protect. Thornless semi-erect. I may use chicken wire and fill with leaves.
    I also added Black Diamond, thornless, trailing, easy to protect
    Columbia Star, thornless, trailing, outstanding flavor, easy to protect.

    I have Chester, Triple Crown, Wyeberry, Bosenberry, Tayberry, Columbia Star, Loch Ness, Black Diamond, and Natchez.

    Black raspberries are also beasts, much like blackberries. Huge canes. A lot more cold hardy though, my Allen black said "what winter?" The primcanes are thicker than my thumb! Impressive plant! The first year canes are now floricanes, they have a smaller diameter. These new primocanes are three times thicker! But these little floricanes have hundreds of berries. I'm going to get a huge crop. I can't imagine next year though! I added Jewell, and Niwot black raspberry (primocane fruiting) this year. They are growing well especially Niwot.

    This post was edited by Drew51 on Sun, Jun 8, 14 at 23:26

  • jtburton
    9 years ago

    I'm still having some late winter damage appear on my Triple Crown (TC) blackberries with canes that have blooms suddenly wilting and dying. I probably lost 30-40% off of the TC's but it seems the remaining canes have doubled up on the blossoms. TC's are probably only hardy to 6B (-5F) before they start taking some damage. Once they get to 6A (-10F) they can have complete dieback.

    My Prime Ark 45's lost 50-60% of their canes (floricanes) but have sprouted quite a bit of secondary growth that is blooming. I have noticed some of those blossoms fail to fruit, probably a result of the winter damage. The Prime Ask 45 flouricanes are probably only hardy to 7A (0F) and but start taking damage once they start into zone 6B.

    My KiowaâÂÂs were nearly a complete dieback. I would rate these a zone 7A(0F).

    My Ouachita must have had some cover from the cold winds because they didn't have much dieback and are fruiting really well for their 2nd year. Hardy to at least 6B (-5F) although temps were down to -7/-8F.

    I have 2 Black SatinâÂÂs but they were pretty small and probably had help from the snow cover this winter. They didn't have any winter damage and are growing well.

    My wineberries had complete die off last year, but are recovering nicely. It appears that they are only hardy to between to 7A (0F).

    All of the raspberries appeared to have little to no damage. I had a couple of canes from the Anne and Cascade Delight that died but IâÂÂm not sure it was entirely cold damage. All of the raspberries have exploded in growth this year. I just ate my first raspberries off of my Caroline's although they seem to have pretty bad sunburn on them.
    I won't get into the trailing blackberriesâ¦I have posted on them previously.

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