I lust after black raspberries, but they aren't terribly happy/successful in the hot humid south, so I've opted to pass and will just lust after other people's fruit.

I love avocadoes and pomegranates, but they are not worth growing in pots, too much trouble. So yeah, I feel your pain!

Caroline raspberries have maybe another week to 10 days and they will be done. Anne is not far behind them. Neither fruits that well in the Fall season which actually begins in early August when it is too hot. Double Gold raspberries have yet to bloom, probably about a week away from that.

Prime Ark45 blackberries started ripening about 7 days ago and each day I have 4-5 ripe ones. I have canes with ripe berries, red berries, green berries, and about half are still flowering. Probably have these until frost. Osage still has a few green berries but I think it is confused during it's first full growth season.

My last ripening blueberry, Tifblue, completed fruiting about a 2 weeks ago.

I ate the first ripe Caroline here today, but my growing area is not optimal (west facing)..tons of berries...bees have been working the flowers hard the last couple of weeks (bumble bees seem to hit them hard).

I'm also eating a lot of huge Fall Gold raspberries. Crazy good.

No black raspberries..t.hose were months ago. Still some blackberries (Triple Crown)..some reason the made it and flowered (snow cover is my guess).

I agree...if a person was to grow an "easy" fruit, a cheap price on a little container these days is a couple bucks and they freeze easily if you get sick of them.

I wish i could grow blood oranges, navel oranges...along with avocados and of course mangoes... :0

I forgot to mention my Double Gold, just starting to have flowers, may not make it. i may only get summer crops. Crimson Night also has fruit forming.The summer bearing all formed fairly nice canes for next year.

I bought 25 Jaclyn raspberries from Nourse this spring, and they are doing fantastic. For the most part, the floricanes didn't sprout, but the new primocanes are monsters that actually have fruiting laterals, something I've never seen before. I've picked about a cup of berries so far and they are terrific, and by the looks of things I should get about a gallon total if the weather cooperates. I was thinking about double cropping these next year but so much of the primocane is producing fruit it probably won't be worth the effort.

I take 2nd crops because I have to deal with summer bearers anyway, so might as well. What's surprising to me is how well fall bearers produce a summer crop. Some do not do well, but others are amazingly huge. I need a few more years to really get a handle on what fall bearers work well, and which do not. Fall Gold had one great summer crop, and one sparse summer crop. I do think though the cold winter did it.

So with summer bearing, black raspberries, and blackberries too I have to deal with primocanes and floricanes. So for me just making them all like that is actually easier to manage.
Also the fall crop is huge. having them bear in summer didn't seem to hurt the fall crop in any way. i dispute some university claims it does. My fall canes have laterals even! Amazing!

I was double cropping my Carolines the first couple of years, but the primocanes didn't start producing until the 2nd week of September, with a lot of berries falling victim to the frost. This year most of the floricanes didn't make it through the winter, and the primocanes are about 3 weeks ahead of where they were the last couple of years. Also the floricanes that did fruit were so low to the ground that the chipmunks got most of them. I think I'll forego double cropping these too from now on, and just stick with my summer bearing (royalty, boyne, kilarney, and taylor) for an early crop. I guess the decision to double crop is very site specific.

This post was edited by gnomeabram on Tue, Aug 26, 14 at 22:57

What is cool about fall bearing is having that choice. You should do what works for you. Nothing eats my berries except one robin did for a few weeks. He is gone now. Besides that nothing has ever touched them.
It's not like all the robins did, only one. Apparently the animals around here are extremely ignorant.
I think what it is is my subdivision is over 40 years old, and nobody grows raspberries anywhere near me. No wilds either. So the birds have no idea what they are. Generations never saw them. One lonely bird figured it out. I suspect that will change with time.

My Heritage Raspberries are just starting to go nuts. I have an overgrown plot. Needs dug back by like 50% next spring.

I have a variety called Rosanne that I'll try for the first time, it is running as late or maybe even later then Caroline.

I did the summer crap on part of my Heritage and I do see a reduction in the fall crop in that part. furthermore the summer crop was no big deal. That was my second attempt with exact same result. I'll never do it again. All will be cut to the ground in November.

Again I think whatever works for you. The summer crop works for me.
I got a summer crop off Polka, kinda thin from the cold winter, but the fall crop is huge with multiple lateral branching. I don't see how keeping the canes hurt it in anyway. I will harvest these huge 6-7 foot canes again next summer! I think certain cultivars may have better summer crops than others, Fall Gold 2 years ago gave me about 100-150 berries per cane. Himbo Top was good this year.
Prelude was massive, considered a Summer bearer, but not sure why? The fall crop is also massive! I have a hard time cutting down a cane knowing I'm scraping 150 berries. For me the summer crops are always larger either with summer or fall bearing.

This post was edited by Drew51 on Wed, Aug 27, 14 at 11:20

Drew51,

Can you tell much of a difference in flavor between the red raspberry varieties you grow? I assume that is Prelude in the picture above?

It's Polka in the photo. Not that much of a difference when dead ripe. All sweet. When almost ripe, more flavor is there IMHO.
They do taste slightly different. Hard to nail down I know what I like and Polka, Caroline, and Prelude all taste good to me. Prelude is the tartest, Polka the sweetest,
But others have said they were tart. It might when when one picks them. They are very sweet if left past bright red, to dark red. When falling off the core, they are very sweet. Himbo Top is sweet too, but not as much flavor. heavy producer, so it stays.
Also the ones on the east side don't get that much sun and may do better with more sun. Double Gold and Crimson night are there. Crimson Night is very sweet but a little bland. My wife likes them best. Double Gold is very sweet, and has a mild flavor, but I like that mild flavor. Anyway both are low producers on the east wall. Probably would thrive if in full sun. Himbo Top, Fall Gold, and Anne are also there. Anne is low production. Fall Gold medium to heavy and same with Himbo Top.
Rosanna is a low producer in full sun, but it's good, and different too. Flavor more complex. I like it. Worth growing even though production is low. It might like the east wall better? Encore tastes like Prelude. Both are very firm fruits, they would be good for shipping. Encore is truly summer bearing. Prelude is really a weak fall bearer and a strong summer bearer.
Cascade Gold was decent, summer bearer. Very large fruits, good taste, became golden red when dead ripe.
Kiwi Gold had no summer production, it really is Heritage, not a good candidate for two crops. If I had Heritage I would only take the fall crop. As Kiwi Gold failed to produce more than a few berries. for the summer crop. I'm going to give it another chance.
Taylor is a good berry but Encore, and Prelude out produce it.

In a way this is not perfect information. In my bed each cultivar needs to compete for space. Some are better at it than others. Allen Black Raspberry rips up any canes near it with it's huge thorns. It stands tall and proud overbearing all others. Rosanna is next to it and that may explain low production. Encore is on the other side and pushes right back, not intimidated by the massive black. It holds it's ground fine. They are planted too close. I would use at least 3 foot spacing. I used two, way too close!! 4 feet would be OK. Next bed I make, cultivars will be 4 feet apart. allow room for additional future canes.

Drew, what is your opinion concerning Taylor being the "best tasting berry" according to all the plant vendors? I was planning on adding some next year.

The two years I had prelude, they were the most productive and best looking berries that had absolutely no flavor whatsoever, so I took them out.

This post was edited by gnomeabram on Wed, Aug 27, 14 at 21:45

Taylor is a very good berry. Hard to say the best, but it is very good and worth adding. Top ten for sure. Decent plant too. It is not a super producer though In my bed. It is between Encore and Prelude in my bed, and has to compete for space. The latter two are very aggressive growers, so that may be why. It is having a hard time competing with them for space. I have a hard time telling it from Encore. They both fruit about the same time, are right next to each other, taste similiar. Taylor fruits a little earlier, and harvest overlaps, not exactly at the same time as Encore.
Anyway I will always keep it. It depends what you want. A more productive plant would be Prelude. Encore is also a little more productive. All of these are good berries.
I will keep all of them. If I had to pick, I would say it was slighly better tasting then Prelude or Encore. But I have only harvested one crop. I may change my mind about all of them.

Anne is once again the standout in my yard. Not only does it taste the best, but it is producing lots of large berries. It has always tasted great, but I don't remember it being quite this productive in the past. One downside is that ants seem to like Anne berries, while I almost never find them on the others. Of course, I see more SWD on the other varieties and I can't just blow on the berry to knock SWD off.

I've been staying on top of my berry picking this year and haven't noticed anywhere near as much SWD. Maybe I can keep the population down...

Caroline is 2nd best in flavor, but isn't real productive for me, either in the spring or fall.

Prelude is very productive and early in the spring, with a medium fall crop. But, it isn't top-tier in terms of flavor. I handed a visitor some Prelude the other day: "mmm...good.". Then I handed him some Caroline: "wow...these are much sweeter".

Autumn Britten is similar to Prelude in flavor or a tad better. It also has larger berry size, but is less productive.

Pic: An Anne cane on 8/16. Right after taking the picture, I picked 10 berries from this single cane.

Those are huge! Often my Fall Gold looks like that, It is really similar to Anne. Probably not as sweet. Probably why I like Prelude, not as sweet. Everybody's tastes differ. The sweetest berry I have is Crimson Night, my wife's favorite, my least favorite. I have found if I pick them not fully ripe I can tolerate them.

Those look like my Anne raspberries except yours don't have bugs all over them. I love the flavor of both Anne and Caroline but pest pressure in the Fall limits what I can harvest. My early Summer harvest is better. I'm going to do serious amending of soil and see if I can get the production up on both of these varieties.

Although not a Fall variety, I purchased some Tulameen raspberry rootstock and have 5 nice sized plants in pots right now. They will get planted in the early Spring next year. I should get a few berries to taste.

What kind of bugs do you have on yours? As I noted, Anne gets some ants. Not on many berries, but when they are there, it's 5-10 ants. I've seen a few stink bugs, but haven't noticed any damage. There are always a few Japanese beetles, which I kill by hand, with minimal damage. Finally, the best news of all, I've only had a few SWD this fall.

I had some SWD in my late Triple Crown, but there weren't many berries by that point. Other than Caroline (which always seems to get more), only 2-3 berries of each fall raspberry variety have been impacted so far (**knocks on wood**).

Nice to be able to report good news here, my recent plantings have really taken off, Autumn Britten this years bare root plant from Raintree was planted at the end of April and it's a beast of a plant with several long canes with lot's of berries, def needs support as it grows up and out at the same time.....every berry plant has it's own personalty.....my Josephine has canes at least 7 feet long and supported by plastic wire on my trellis system, very heavy from weight of future berries and many......Nantahala is finally putting out fruit buds now, nothing from Double Gold or Crimson Giant but very healthy vigorous growth, Prelude another spring planting has several canes about 7 feet tall needing a mini trellis because of all the future berries and lot's, this is suppose to be a summer variety with bonus Fall Crop but mine has exploded growthwise and it has berries all over the place, not just the tips and it's still growing a great addition....both my Fall Gold and Kiwi Gold spring plantings are doing amazing with several healthy canes and suckers coming up, i may have an overlapping summer/Fall harvest on one Kiwi gold as the Fall crop is almost ready and summer crop is still not done, that's a great plant too and very tasty...,My Polka spring plantings are almost ready to deliver a small Fall Crop as the plants didn't grow all that much but healthy....Caroline failed to fruit as a late spring planting, neither did Jaclyn or my Heritage, but i'm told it's normal for a young plant not to fruit for 2 years.

Here's a pic of my Autumn Britten's Fall Crop .... my one plant which is all need of this variety as it's very vigorous and has many berries on the top third of it's canes and then some

this year is about experimenting with growth characteristics, productivity,disease resistance, root rot & how much suckering each variety offers and most importantly TASTE !

Some may have to go if i don't like

Nice berries Autumn Britten here

Cool Greenhorn! Yeah some plants take a but. My polka was very dud like last year, this year it is beating everything else. Very nice!
Kiwi Gold started producing, but many have yet to start, but will soon. A decent harvest so far.

bob_z6,

I have a lot of stinkbugs, both numerous and variety-wise. I'll bet I have at least 6 different varieties of stinkbugs, enough to start an insect collection :-(. Fruit flies are bad too...probably SWD. Also a few ants and some harvestmen. Although birds seem to be taking a break...very little damage from them at this time of year.

I pruned out the remaining fruiting portions of the primocanes for Caroline and Anne today. There wasn't any fruit left that was worth keeping. On the plus side, I did pick a pint of Prime Ark45 blackberries today. They seem to hold up better to the insects.

I stopped by my parents farm earlier today and checked out their small berry patch. They have a few Cascade Delight raspberry plants that were over 6ft tall. My Cascade Delight raspberry plants struggle to get to 4ft, so I think I need to rework my raspberry beds. I'm going to use some grass clippings to help add some organic matter to some of the raspberry beds. I think I'll probably dig up my Caroline bed and completely replace the soil. I'll replant with my Tulameen raspberry plants, currently potted, or plant Tayberries there instead.

I'm thinking of adding one last row to my berry patch and if I do, I'll plant some more Caroline. This time, with better soil.

Hey All......Fall raspberries coming in harder by the day as i have mostly Everbearing varieties.....Prelude is turning into a real surprise as it was a small plant from Lowes when i got it this spring...i've had berries almost continuously non-stop since i planted it, the new canes that came up are 7 foot tall with loads of berries coming...more than a bonus crop here.

Picture say's a thousand words !

Autumn Britten that i got from Raintree as a bare root plant this spring has turned into a beast of a plant with many tasty berries coming in by the day more and more tasty treats daily, another plant that has continuosly been putting out berries non-stop since it started, a definite keeper !

Nice picture too !

Autumn Britten that i got from Raintree as a bare root plant this spring has turned into a beast of a plant with many tasty berries coming in by the day more and more tasty treats daily, another plant that has continuosly been putting out berries non-stop since it started, a definite keeper !

Nice picture too !

This post was edited by Greenhorn2 on Sat, Sep 6, 14 at 15:36