I've been going back and forth with my order of prime ark freedom. These berries sure sound good. But they're sold out now; next year. I did get vintage, natanala, Caroline, Anne, fall gold, and heritage. Even though I'm in zone 10, you'd think it was zone 7. Vintage just sprouted, Caroline, fall gold, and heritage came up too. Barely any growth on any of them, but fall gold is setting berries. Still waiting for natanala and anne to sprout. If these don't sprout I will buy some new ones next year, the roots were alive when I received them. My heritage were stolen from the community garden. I grew it last year and I really like it. If Caroline or vintage are as productive as heritage I may forego It. I only get the fall crop, but heritage just keeps pushing out berries for months. The taste is just ok for fresh eating from my container garden, Thats why I decided to try planting in the community garden. Still I prefer volume to flavor. Flavor changes every year, but my belly fills on volume. I'm not as good at berries as everyone else on here is. My boysenberry plant looks like a forest in the pot. Hope I get berries this year. Marion had one long cane from last year, it just put out a new cane. Last year I didn't know about pinching so no laterals. Think I will pinch the new cane when it gets a foot tall. They haven't fruited yet. The raspberries grow at a mannered pace that's easy to control. Blackberries on the otherhand seem to leap out of their pots searching for other pots to conquer. So for me blackberry must be grown in a pot near concrete so it can't excape to the wildlife. Fall gold bud in full shade Emerald blueberry shading peas, clover, and beans. Lettuce is going to seed. Boysenberry and beans, varigated solomens seal in the bottom of the pot. The fall gold is growing behind the chard leaf and gets very little sun. The beans have their own trellis in the pot next to the boysenberry but next thing I knew they decided that the preferred the trellis on the boysenberry pot. Now they're climbing in the hanging basket, and then to the moon. Marion berry is wrapped around the window first-time growing blackberry so I didn't pinch,it just has two canes. I just pinched them and got a small amount of branching. Would love to have a twenty foot long thorny branched cane. Well its not the prettiest but I'm eating good. Sunshine blue, and a volenteer tomato,please don't mind my spider webs, that's my only pest control besides ladybugs. I try to keep them in check, but on a rooftop berry garden is a fly eaters paradise, so they keep coming back. Spider mites are bad right now, but they're going for beans, sunflowers and weeds. Those plants all grown so fast who cares. The white flies came and bite the pineapple weed, it was instant death. They've learn to avoid the epazote but since pineapple weed is a native and looks just like pigs lettuce it was a killing field millions of dead white flies. FYI that tomato plant would be full of tomatoes if the local mammals weren't swiping them. I managed to get two amish paste because they filled up on every one of my super sweet pomegranates and sun ripened cherry tomatoes and then snubbed their noses at a bland paste tomato. These little blueberry seedlings are hidden somewhere in that food forest. Sharp, misty, and the ?. Only three inches tall, misty lost all her leaves but everyone else is growing well. Gotta get some peat and surround those tiny little roots. I think misty wants more sun, but at two inches in overcast may, it ain't going to happen. If she were a foot tall it would be better. June gloom is coming so I won't have sun until July. Hang in there Misty!

Honestly we just freeze most of ours to use later in any number of ways. We macerate some with sugar and freeze to use on ice cream and waffles and freeze the rest unsweetened whole. But the wife has made pickled berries (both blue and rasp) several times and they go great with meats and in salads or just to snack on. Have you considered pickling some? She doesn't process them, just keeps the jar in the fridge but most of the recipes for pickling berries I have seen are plenty acidic enough that you probably could process them like pickles. You can also ferment berries and dehydrate berries. Dried blueberries are a great addition to many things - especially hot cereals in the winter. Dave

The last two photos is the best I can do bec of the high sun above. There is the one in the ground . Very nice I guess and its 3 feet tall. The other photo is a patch or hedge of about 8 plants. Ok so.... I made a few mistakes before ordering. I should have been most concerned with the actual variety of blueberry. And best tasting berry. I live in an area where I can have northern, southern highbush and rabbiteyes. Not all of them but some northern, some southern and all rabbiteyes. I only ordered rabbiteyes. Wish I would have not done that. I should have ordered 2-3 great tasting northerns and 2-3 southern plants and 6 or so rabbiteyes... Because when you plant them.... That's it. There goes your prime sunny real estate.. Most folks only have so much area to use. so this is what I would do if I had a do over.... #1 Make sure the blueberry bush I buy can absolutely grow in my climate. #2 Sun and shade varies with large trees around. It varies on the time of year it is. What I thought was 6 or more hrs of sun in February turned into only 1-2 hrs of sun in June/ July. So I had to move 5 plants out of a shady area which was full sun 5 months prior. Numb 2 might not apply to you. #3 great blueberry online source. #4 very important Ask as many quest's about the best tasting berries for your area. There are a few good ppl on here that can help you. Guys like fruitnut ... He can help you and if he can't, he can tell you who to ask. He's a winner. He's willing to help. I do not recommend rabbiteyes but only climax... But rabbiteyes will work if it's all you can grow. They will work for you. #5 cheap simple soil test to giv you an idea of the acidity. My 5 dollar test came up very acidic so I was good . But others will tell you to get a much better test. They are right. But I did it cheaply and it worked. #6... 40 or 50 or 60% peat moss should be mixed into the ground at planting with natural soil. Then as as the months go by, your plants basically tell/show you what they need. If they look dry, they need water. If they turn yellowish reddish , they need simple acid fertilizer. Prob lacking nitrogen. Sorry for the long mesg. It's confusing I kno. Lol finally im just a beginner. I know nothing compared to other ppl on here. Let me know if you need any help. Good luck. -Otto

I was thinking sunshine blue too... but I think I will hold off until next year just so I can see how they do this year on their own. Unless I find sunshine blue on sale. Then I will snag it! How about for the raspberries? They look like they need the most help. The bees should be very happy to come around with the herbs and all... but any other tricks of the trade I should incorporate to get the most out of those poor, sad looking plants?