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Fruit & Orchards

Prime-Jim and Prime-Jan

14 years ago

Anyone else try these blackberries, the new "primocane" ones (analagous to fall raspberries, fruit on the first year wood)?

I planted 6 of each last year, and am now getting my first crop. I'm pretty impressed with the size and quality of the fruit, and the yield looks like it will be good. They seem a bit late to begin ripening, but it was SUCH a cold, freaky weather year here, I think they will be earlier in a more normal year. They should be able to ripen fruit about as long as my fall raspberries, which is generally sometime between Halloween and Veteran's Day most years.

Of course, it would be nice if they were thornless, but you can't have everything, now can you?

Any other opinions on them?

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Comments (7)

alan haigh
14 years ago
I'm trying them. It's the third year and I'm not impressed for this zone. I haven't got a lot of berries to ripen in time. It is kind of nice to pick a few before hard frost though.
denninmi
Original Author
14 years ago
I'm sorry to hear that they are late even in your area, which is generally comparable to mine, but a bit warmer with just a tad longer of a growing season.

I was hoping that their late ripening here was just a result of my very cold summer. It may have more to do with daylength/photoperiodism then.

I guess, worst case scenario, I could always experiment with a hoophouse over them with some plastic to try and get some extra heat and extend the season. I've been making little, cheap hoophouse structures out of pvc -- it's SO inexpensive, I've done several of them now.
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Prime Jim and Prime Jan will both be hardy in your area (the crowns, not necessairly the cane) and they do fruit on primocanes, the first year canes. However, the yields on these are fairly low, without tipping treatments. Oregon State University has been doing a lot of research lately on tipping treatments for these two varietes, and found that tipping (removing the top 0.5" or so of the cane) the primocanes when they reach 1m, then tipping the laterals when they reach 1m resulted in quite good (18,000 lbs/acre) yield. However, I don't think your growing season is long enough to do this, as they didn't start ripening until late September/early October. I don't think it would hurt to get a few plants (Prime Jan is a bit better) and see how they do for you. Their flavor isn't quite as good as other blackberry cultivars from the UA program, but it's not as bad as Chester, IMO.
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denninmi I planyed a 55' row of prime jan tissue cultured plugs from Nourse Farms last yr. They grew very well, but I didn't get one berry. There were a lot of berries, but they didn't ripen. I think that planting them in May (and still covering them on nights of frost) didn't give them enough time to produce. This year, I am getting berries. I am hoping that continue to produce and ripen until the frost. I am pleased with the berries that have been harvested.
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Comments (2)
There's quite a bit of research going on now regarding the best method to handle these. A lot of work has been done at Orgon State, and I've included the link to the abstract of a Master's Thesis that studied tipping in PrimeJan and PrimeJim. It's probably a bit too late to tip them this year to get the results you want. If you're seeing ANY floral development, it's definitely too late. I'm not sure if any work has been done in a climate like yours, though. The reason this worked in Oregon is because of the long growing season. And, the plants that performed the best were in Haygrove tunnels. I guess I recommend you play around with it a little bit and see what works for you. Here is a link that might be useful: thesis abstract
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Comments (7)
BJ, the Black Satins were a gift from a friend. However, I believe Gurneys carries them. I order a lot of different berries from a lot of different companies. Pense and Simmons out of Ark offer some great plants as do Nourse, Indiana Berry, and Burnt Ridge Nursery. Doyle out of Indiana also has a very prolific berry, but you don't hear it mentioned much anymore. I'm with DFG on giving the erect thornless varieties a try. I probably wouldn't have to, but I do trellis my Satins just to make working around them easier.
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alan haigh
14 years ago
There's a price to pay for being first on the block. It's great when it works, of course. When I started growing fruit here 20 years ago, no one grew (that I knew of) the Korean Giant asian pear. I tried it just because it had the highest brix of any asian on a list I had and I bought my tree from a west coast nursery. It did great and now it has become widely grown here. For every success there are several failures.
joberry
14 years ago
I planted 25 Prime Jan blackberries and was surprised at the rapid growth. I bought them from Nourse Farms as cultured plugs. The looked like a small tube of roots with two leaves attached. I have picked a few and it seems that there are many that are growing well, but it seems they are a very late to ripen variety. The size is much bigger than I anticipated. I hope that they all ripen before the first frost. The ones I have harvested have been very good. Does anyone have Prime Jim and how do they compare with the Prime Jan? I am thinking of putting in a row of Prime Jim's?
alan haigh
14 years ago
I purchased both from Indiana Plant Co.
denninmi
Original Author
14 years ago
I have both Jim and Jan. One is definitely much larger fruited than the other, but I didn't mark them, so I don't know which is which at this point.
gocanes
14 years ago
How does 3crown compare to prime jan with regard to size, taste, and productivity? Sounds like a no brainer that everything else being equal an everbearing blackberry would be the way to go.

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