The only blackberry I can comment on this year is Ouachita. Its on the sour side but I love it and makes the best jam. The berries are enormous but even though I net the birds still dive-bomb into the netting and destroy berries. Mrs. G

I'm hoping Triple Crown satisfies the need for fresh eating berries, and use the rest for jam. My wife wants the fresh ones, I want the jam, so many that are tart is really more what I need.
JT is looks like the tip rooted wyebrry cane died for unknown reasons? I will investigate more. I will tip root three next year, I have one plant for another member if he decides he doesn't want it, i will pass along. More in PM later this week.

Thanks for the review!!!

We had a hard freeze (26F), actually our first frost too, this weekend so I spent some time on Saturday moving the trailing blackberries off of the wires to the ground. This helps prevent them from getting cold damage from wind while they go dormant. A few days ago it hit 81F here, so the plants are trying to go dormant but keep getting pulled back. It took me a good 20 minutes to untangle one of my mature Siskiyou blackberry plants because the canes grew so long (20ft) and had tiprooted at least 6 times. I'm hoping with all of that cane length I get some good production next year.

I have 6 Siskiyou blackberry plants in the ground now and they generate so many tiprooted canes that I started throwing them away...it pained me to do it but I have enough of this variety. Same goes for Marion but to a lesser extent.

The pesticide I used for red neck cane borers seems to have worked. I noticed just a couple of can borer infected canes on my trailing blackberries this year compared to a 30-40% infection rate last year.

Next up is packaging and covering the trailing blackberries for the winter. I'm going to try some revised methods this year based on my learning from last year.

scottfsmith,

How did your Newberry trailing blackberries taste and perform this year? I have a couple that I'm waiting anxiously to taste next year.

No Chester?

It is a lot of work to pull all the blackberry canes. Some are thorny?
How close are the blackberry plants?

I don't have any Chester but my parents do and it is highly productive. Taste is OK but I went with Triple Crown instead. I did add a couple of Loch Ness, which are similar in growth habit but supposed to have a tart flavor...good for jam.

The plant spacing is different by variety. Triple Crown needs, in my opinion, at least 6ft between plants but 8ft is even better. Ouachita, on the other hand, can be planted closer at 3ft. Most of my trailing blackberries need space to tie up their canes that can reach 20ft but you can plant them about 4-6ft apart and overlap their canes going in both directions on the trellis wires.

This post was edited by jtburton on Sat, Nov 15, 14 at 9:11

jburton, my blackberries got damaged badly the previous winter. I have not been putting canes on the ground; my goal is to find really easy ones to grow but I may make an exception for Newberry. I did get a few berries and they were of course excellent, the best! They have a great deal of raspberry in the flavor, almost more raspberry than blackberry.

My main hope these days is new experimental Oregon berries that Chad Finn has bred. They are a cross of trailing and eastern varieties. I planted a bunch of them last spring and they are looking much happier than the pure trailing ones and I hope they are more hardy.

Scott

Scott,

I know you grow a wide variety of fruit, so I completely understand the time commitment for covering up the trailing blackberries. I just finished winterizing mine today and it does require a lot of effort and I still lose some to the cold. With that said, I still enjoy the challenge of growing the trailing varieties and really appreciate your earlier posts that inspired me to give it try.

If Columbia Star works out I may reduce the varieties of the other trailing blackberries I grow. Thornless varieties are so much easier to manage.

Let us know how your new varieties work out next year.

Was it just last year's extreme winter, or blackberry plants can get injured often?

I plan to grow my TC behind my grape trellis. Not sure if the grapes can shield the blackberry canes.

Triple crown can take -5F before significant damage occurs. Protecting the canes from direct winter wind is also beneficial. During the winter, your grape vines will not have any leaves, so I don't think they will provide any additional protection.

The 'trailing' varieties can lay almost flat on the ground and can be covered more easily during the winter. The trailing varieties tend to be the least cold hardy though, getting damage when temperatures fall into the mid-teens during the winter.

Is TC one of the thornless trailing blackies? So it takes winter temp better than others?

If the plant spacing is good, then bending the thornless canes are doable. Do you cover the canes with mulch or soil? You probably do not want the canes to take roots.

TC, Black Satin, Chester, and Loch Ness are all semi-erect blackberries... meaning that they share characteristics from both trailing and erect blackberry varieties. Trailing varieties are typically grown in the Pacific Northwest and California but they also include dewberries which 'trail' and grow wild across the US.

Trailing blackberries only take the cold if you cover them with something like straw and a row cover. If you left them out in zone 6 winter temperatures, they would freeze back to the ground or just die outright.

Some of the erect varieties tend to be slightly more cold hardy (-10F) than Triple Crown and the semi-erect varieties.

I'm including a link that goes over the type of blackberries.

Here is a link that might be useful: Blackberry Cultivars for Oregon

Many of the books do not even mention semi-erect. So I'm used to putting TC, chester and Black Satin as thornless trailing group.

So you moved the west coast type trailing canes down, not the TC/Chester type canes?

I try to avoid planting borderline hardy plants. So I only plant raspberry and the (semi-erect) trailing blackberry.

So you moved the west coast type trailing canes down, not the TC/Chester type canes?

Yes, mine will break if pressed down too much.You can move them somewhat, but not much. Natchez is also like this.semi-erect thornless. The trailing are "limp" compared to these stiff cane types.
I'm the semi-erects I'm throwing a couple feet of leaves at the base, and spray the exposed canes with wilt-stop. If we get a warm spell in the winter, will spray again too.If the exposed canes die, the two feet covered will still fruit, and the plant crown will be fine too. My TC and Chester were exposed to -14F and all canes died last year, but the plant crown lived and it produced all new canes. But no berries if I cannot keep canes alive. This winter may be as bad or worse.

I grow some of the semi-erect ones, like TC. So I'll be very careful about the night temp. Do not want to lose all the crops....

What kills them is desiccation. The roots freeze, unable to move water, the canes dry out and die. Covering them with leaves keeps conditions constant. The freeze at night, thaw during the day is what is bad too. So covered the temps are contant. You want them cold, and to stay cold and not thaw till spring. Wilt-Stop sprayed on them seals the canes and they lose very little water.
If I lose canes this year on the uprights, and semi uprights. Next year I will cage them with chicken wire and fill the cage with leaves and cover every bit of the plant. I think though wilt-stop should work.

The crowns lived in -14F temps. Now to extend that to the canes. I see this as very possible. I will experiment until I get it done.

I'm not worried about the trailing types as the leaves will keep away the drying wind, the ground will radiate enough heat, they will be fine. I know this works. Last year I covered half my trailing and left half exposed. All those covered lived and fruited this summer. All exposed died.
In the spring I will put the trailing floricanes on the trellis and leave primocanes to sprawl on the ground. Repeat cycle.
If it is too difficult to keep the semi-erects alive I will remove them. They take a lot of room up compared to the trailing. All I want is berries. i don't care how. Hey Triple Crown is good, but the trailing Siskiyou is better. So I still can have quality fresh eating berries.

For trailing types I have
Siskiyou
Columbiia Star
Tayberry
Marion
Wyeberry
Boysen

Since Boysenberry is marked at hardy in my zone, I acquired some this fall. So it seems I need to lay down the canes every winter.

Since Boysenberry is marked at hardy in my zone

I have seen many even to zone 5, and I feel it is just not true. Well it is true, but deceptive. They may live to zone 5 but canes will die every winter. Crown can survive. So yes, I would protect them. Yeah I may not fair well with the trailing types either. What I should do is cross them with the wild ones around here to give them some hardiness genes. We had a good crop of wild blackberries this year. I forage them every year.
Last year though they made it through 13 days of below zero weather, it just doesn't get any worse and I had a few boysen, tay, and wyeberries. Maybe not a lot, but had some. I feel I can protect them. In mild winters I should get bumper crops.
Yeah I did not have one Triple Crown this year as I was unable to protect the upright canes, they all died right to the ground. I had 4 Chester berries, a few inches of floricane survived. One of 4 Natchez canes survived. Navaho died to the ground and I thought the crown was dead too. It threw a cane in mid July that grew about 2 feet this year. it was hit very hard. Loganberry canes and crown died. I can say for sure if we have another harsh winter and you leave your canes unprotected they will die.
I have a good spot too, the low winter sun does not hit them for long, so no thawing and refreezing, yet most still died. I took my leaves, and my neighbors, ran them through a leaf blower shredder twice, and I'm in the process of covering them up right now. Best get all covered before we go below 20F.

Well, this is discouraging. You are in a colder zone than I'm. Not sure what big difference this makes.

I had my Black Satin over the past many years. Grown like a wild one since I did not take care of them. They came back year after year. I do not think any canes were winter damaged. But I did have the blackberry psyllid problem, I think.

This year, I'll be growing the TC and Black Satin, along with the new Boysenberry. I plan to cover the Boysenberry, but leave the TC and Black Satin on the trellis (still cover the crowns). But I still need to watch the weather.

Yeah, see how it goes. it sounds like I should maybe get Black Satin just to have berries! Well at least i have my blueberries, raspberries and currants, so I had lot's of berries. Look at Scott's post in this thread, he is in a warmer zone than you.
Trple Crown is an awesome plant, it sure grows like crazy, and probably most winters can survive. The berries are excellent. Mine is against a chickenwire fence, put there to keep my dog from running in and out of the patch, gives me some support for leaves. I may put another on the other side and bury the thing in leaves.

I finally got around to making jam from my 2014 blackberries (primarily Triple Crown). The jam tastes good but not as good as the jam I made (well, my wife made) from the Royalty purple raspberries. The blackberry jam has more noticeable seeds, which has me thinking about removing the seeds during the next batch. I read through a few of the postings on removing seeds, and it seems that using a food mill and then a fine strainer is the way to go. Any thoughts on that approach? Would this approach also work for grapes?

I have a knockoff of the Victorio Food Strainer and Sauce Maker and it works fine.Different screens can be attached for various fruits and some vegetables. Brady

I have both a food mill and a fine strainer. You can use either, but don't need both. Grapes are tougher and some food mills work better than others with grapes. I really only have limited experience with grapes. Others maybe can suggest the best equipment. They have different size strainer filters, so you can change size. The ones for berries is the smallest. I only use my food mill for tomatoes. The strainer is fine for berries. They make different sizes, not sure on size? But it is very fine.
I use a Kitchenaid strainer with a pestle to press berries through. You could use a wooden spoon, the pestle works very well.I heat them and breakup with a potato masher before straining.
To make better jam mix the blackberries with store bought blueberries, kiwi, or backyard mulberries. With Kiwi I blend it down to a pulp, and use that. The seeds are left in as they are very small and not noticeable. It makes the jam look better too. If you want chunks you can leave some whole pieces. All of these will turn your jam into something awesome. The blends are top rate!
The kitchenaid strainer is so fine it even removes strawberry seeds. Some pulp is lost also that will not go through the strainer.
For blending I really like using an emersion blender. Which is a blade on a stick. It takes five seconds to clean, easy to take out and put away. Has only two parts, I use Cuisinart smart stick. This also is the only way to make authentic humus. It gives humus a smooth texture you cannot get from conventional blenders.

Also I like using the no sugar pectin. You can use a lot less sugar, I add 1 cup of juice too, whatever is on hand, and 1/2 cup of lemon or lime juice. I also sometimes use a calcium gel agent. You don't have to use any sugar with them. Best to use some. The brand I use is Pomona.
This is great for low pectin fruits that are hard to gel. Like strawberries, Blackberries and raspberries easily gel, so I use no sugar pectin. The acid in the lemon or lime juice help in the gelling process.

Even if you need the food mill for other items, look for the strainer. It's a lot easier to use and clean, is fast and quick! The food mill has numerous parts, hard to set up, hard to clean, etc. The strainer is smooth and easy!

This post was edited by Drew51 on Mon, Dec 29, 14 at 11:10

I use a strainer called a 'Chinois'. It is made for removing the seeds from blackberries and grapes. Blackberry seeds are very large and must be removed to make edible jam, if not you think you are eating blackberries with gravel. You can buy a Chinois on ebay (used) they should come with a wooden pestle. Raspberry seeds as you know are tinier but still do not get through the Chinois. Mrs. G

The Kitchenaid is a lot cheaper, but probably could not handle grapes. The Chinois looks nice! I would buy it on Amazon, buy something else for 5 bucks (like Pomona calcium geling agent) and get free shipping. The ones on Ebay are just as expensive and shipping is steep!

I made some jam/jelly out of blackberries, elderberries and currants this year which turned out very good. I say jam/jelly, as I didn't strain with a jelly bag, but I still filtered with a colander. It is enough to keep most of the seeds out, while still letting some light pulp through.

3 quarts of blackberry
1 zip lock bag of elderberries
1/2 pint of white currants
1/2 pint of red currants
Pre-wash weight: 4 lbs

Sugar: 3 lbs, No pectin

The elderberry harvest was pretty sparse this year (I let them get too big, then did a bad hack job), so I picked them as they ripened, then froze them in a bag to await jam making.

The currant's taste doesn't really come through in the result, but they add enough pectin that I didn't need to add any more. Even though there were more blackberries than elderberries, the elderberry is stronger and its flavor really comes through.

Sounds good Bob! I only had a few elderberry flowers and made tea out of the flowers. i made a currant, wild blackberry, and mulberry jam. The best of this season followed by the 2nd best black raspberry, a mix of wild and domestic. I can still make yellow or pink (Double Gold cultivar) raspberry jam. I often though put them in my oatmeal, just to have a few berries everyday.
I want to grow many more berries, added black currants this year, and yellow caps. Besides more blackeberries too. i should have if they make it through the winter ton's and ton's of blackberries next year. I'm also expecting to have over 1000 black raspberries next year, off of one plant. The Allen black raspberry produced 11 canes this year. I kept 9 of them, last year each cane produced over 100 berries. I also have Jewel, and Niwot.

Thank you for the advice everyone! I think my approach next year is to have certain berry varieties dedicated to processing and to fresh eating. While my Royalty purple raspberry tastes fine fresh it does tastes excellent as jam. Considering I harvested a gallon of fruit from about 6 canes this year, it is also very productive for a raspberry. I have about 30-40 canes this year before thinning them. I'm expecting a lot more black raspberries (Jewel and Black Mac) this year too, during their 2nd year of productivity. Black raspberries may also be dedicated to processing, assuming I have successfully acquired the tools to remove their seeds. I expect Boysenberries and Newberry blackberries would also add some distinctive flavors to jam, so I should have some of these available next year too but probably not enough for a standalone batch of jam.

Here's a photo of me removing seeds from wild raspberries, black and red that I made last year. It's very easy, and my setup costs under 20 dollars.

So for those of you with all this great Blackberry experience, if you were going to pick one blackberry to plant for the northern Virginia area (near DC), what would you suggest?

I'd like flavor and early enough so that I avoid the main SWD pressure. Also, anything that you think might do okay with only partial sun would be great.

I was thinking maybe Siskiyou or Marion, but didn't know how much work they would be around here and of course it can get pretty hot here in the summer.

Thoughts?

I'll have to try making jam out of Royalty next year. They are pretty mediocre for fresh eating. Since the problem is a lack of tartness/flavor, I had assumed that it would make even more boring jam. But, they are very productive and finish just before SWD starts to hit.

Triple Crown are great, but the 2nd half gets hit by SWD for me. I'm not sure how it would be in Virginia (faster berries, and faster SWD?).

I have a potted Marion, which gave me a handful of sweet flavorful berries. But, as it is fully trailing and thorny, I imagine it would be fairly high maintenance, similar to Boysenberry.

Speaking of Boysenberry, I've had professionally made jams from it which were very good. I'd love to produce enough to make my own. When the spring is long and warm (2013, I think), they were great right off the bush, probably the best, extremely flavorful, berry I've had. But this past year they weren't all that good- pretty sour to eat fresh. They are also a lot of work to tie up (sharp thorns too), so I'm not sure how long I'll keep growing them.

zendog

Siskiyou and Marion are both great blackberries but would require you to cover them in the winter. If you have a spot with partial shade, you might be OK in the summer with the heat. I have not had any problems with either of those varieties in the Summer heat near Cincinnati OH, but you may need to keep them watered.

But...if you are only going to plant one variety, it is hard to beat Triple Crown. Like Bob_z6, I did get some loss to SWD at the second part of their fruiting season but still managed to get a lot of great tasting berries.

bob_z6

I agree, Royalty is not a great-tasting fresh berry but the jam from it was really good.

Thanks JT! I love reports like these.

Thanks JT and Bob.

So if I go with Triple Crown and the SWD start showing up part way through harvest, can I just cut the remaining fruiting canes off and let the energy go into the new canes for the following year? I'd hate to leave all those berries growing just to have it aid the SWD population.

Yup- I think jtburton did that (cutting down the primocanes). I just pick them a bit under-ripe for jam/jelly.

The TC's fruit is on the softer side, so SWD tend to infect the TC berries pretty easily. It's probably a good idea to get rid of the infected berries and the fruiting canes (e.g. floricanes) once you get the remaining good fruit to deny the SWD a reproduction path. I do the same for my Fall bearing raspberries. My Prime Ark 45's have berries with tougher skin, so I just go ahead and eat them if the berry isn't leaking juice.The berries probably have SWD eggs in them but I'm not aware of any health concerns by just eating them as is.

Sounds like I'll go with a TC. Thanks all.

And I think I'd like to try a Siskiyou as well, but the only place I found has a $22 minimum on shipping. They weren't available at the other places I'm ordering from - One Green World, Raintree and Nourse, so if anyone has a recommendation of where you can buy them with reasonable shipping let me know.

Thanks again.

Try groworganic.com. They have reasonable prices for shipping on small quantities. The caveat is that they only ship during the winter. I purchased nice Siskiyou bareroot plants from them and the plants survived the shipping to my home in mid-winter.

I'm in NC, that's a good observation about Triple Crown and SWD.