First Year.
-Black Diamond(trailing). Actually more than 1-yr old but had to be pruned back to crown. Primocane grown impressive for the variety at 10-12ft x 4 canes.
-Wild Treasure (trailing). Actually more than 1-yr old but had to be pruned back to crown. Primocane grown impressive for variety at 10ft x 6 canes.
-Columbia Star (trailing). Newly planted. Good growth. Primocanes up to 8ft.
-Newberry (trailing). Planted late 2013. Very good growth at 12-14ft. x 6 canes.
-Tayberry (trailing). Planted late in pot. Slow growth.
-Von. Planted 4 and they all died. Planted 4 replacements, and they all died as well. I'll take that as a sign that I can skip this one.

Next Steps in 2015.
-Adding some additional Tayberry.
-Adding Loch Ness.
-Looking forward to 3rd year full production from Marion, Siskiyou, Wild Treasure, and Black Diamond.
-Looking to taste Newberry and Columbia Star for first time.

Thanks for the review!!!

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Some of the primary reasons:
- Low winter temperatures
- Shorter chill hour requirements, so they come out of dormancy too early
- They appear to be more prone to leaf fungus in our more humid climate

Despite these challenges, they can be grown with additional effort and preparation.

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.

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.