when we finally meet, I'm going to give you one heck of a thornless blackberry. My mother in law has grown it for 20+ years and it makes it through our winters here without even losing its leaves 2 out of 3 winters. (and similarly at her house in e-pointe). Puts out a crop of big juicy berries in late summer that are tart, but if you let them ripen until the shine is gone they're a good mix of tart and sweet. A few days later they're like a good red wine with a little fermentation happening (if the yellow jackets aren't pulling them apart.) I've got 1-2 which need to be pulled anyway (it tip roots pretty easily too!) as they've migrated from where I want them. ~Chills

I LOVE THe Chester. They survived up here in NW ontario with no die back. Last year (second year), they produced 12 foot canes and took over the entire 12x 8 area. The thing out competed yarrow! I cant give any comparison about flower time up here, but I can say the Chester started to flower in june all the way to the end of july. I never topped the canes, so there werent too many laterals to fruit on.

My dad grew up eating boysenberries way back in the 1940's in southern Missouri. He says they were better than any blackberry he had ever had (but he's only had wild blackberries). I've never had a fresh boysenberry. The few I'd have this year apparently got eaten by birds (so my dad told me today. Ugh!). Next year I should get quite a few, and the year after that a ton. I'm pretty excited.

When comparing the productivity of the two varieties, more information would be needed than just the length of the trellises. It is obvious in Don's setup that there are many more Doyle berries than TCs. I would be interested to know how many florocanes of each type there are, or even how many feet of laterals for each variety. Perhaps they were pruned and trained to have roughly equal amounts. TC is known for having fewer berries per cluster. The data that Scott posts is from the North Willamette Research and Extension Center near Charbonneau. Willamette is a small town some distance away and across the Willamette River. Not that any of you were going to get lost driving there! The Research Center has many varieties in the test fields, many of them take on a "wall of black" appearance due to the fruit density. The quest is to get more fruit and less foliage for ease of mechanical harvest.