Hi, I'm new here but I'll most likely be posting about my plants next year. I'm at 64 degrees north in Europe, growing raspberries isn't super challenging in my climate but I'm constantly pushing it with new varietes like black and purple raspberries and hybrid berries. I have a japanese wineberry out in the open, from what I've heard I'm expecting severe winter damage but time will tell. They're supposed to endure -26c but I'm sceptical.

The raspberry strains that do good here include Ottawa, Muskoka and some newer local strains. I also have Glen Ample and Polka but I'm prepared for some winterkill.

The forum seem a bit quiet, by the looks of it there used to be a lot more activity in the past, wonder what happened. In my experince us northerners are some of the more active people in finding out about new strains so I'm hopeful we'll get some dialog going by next spring.

Welcome!

What is you coldest average?

I'll have to add that in a cold winter the Chief will die back pretty good. Funny how your worst berry, [Chief] some years can be your best other years.

Thank you! Average low in january is about -13c while in Edmonton it seems to be -14c so quite similar. Some years the temperatures go below -30c but weather extremes seem to be somewhat more intense in Canada. I'd say the climate is somewhere inbetween Edmonton and Montreal where I live, but I'm growing most of my plants up north from here. Would be interesting to compare growing seasons.

OK..Edmonton gets around minus 32 most years but can get colder. I'm a half our in the outskirt so add another 5 degrees.

-32, -33, that's about what we had last winter. That resulted in some canes freezing but snow is our friend. I also grow Russian blackberries which can take the cold but don't ripen most years in the north. The city where I live has a longer season and even blackberries finish to some extent. I'll be trying to overwinter some tayberries next year but early snow has become unreliable in recent years so it's a gamble.

If I am to trust wikipedia the record cold for Edmonton is -49c which is the same as the record for this whole country (extreme north). Conditions like that must require some pretty special genetics. What kind of fruits/berries do you have growing in the wild?

What's that Wyoming black btw? Black or purple raspberry? Any other black raspberries that survive the cold? I recently got myself Jewel and Black hawk but they are potted and I'm taking them inside for the winter. They weren't recommended for my zone so I'm playing it safe for now..

Wyoming is purple. It does fine for me at nearly 65 degrees north latitude in interior Alaska, where it's withstood -40 without issue. Lowden is another purple that's supposed to be super hardy; haven't tried it yet but intend to if I can get the germplasm.

Yes, 'Wyoming Black' is a good selection for very cold climates, it's a moderate producer with rich tasting fruit. I've also heard good things about 'Lowden', though have been unable to obtain the variety for myself.

'Balsors Hardy' blackberry is still on trial for me and appears to be promising. Yesterday, I was busy stripping the remaining foliage from the plants, as the snow (yes, snow already!) had clung to the foliage and weighed them down and broken some of the branches. I do not lay this variety (or any other) down to the ground for winter, the main stems are toooo stiff, so it receives the full brunt of our temperature extremes.

Yes, the forums have really slowed over the last year, the Far North forum had previously been a very active one, though is now down to a trickle.

Even though it's called Wyoming Black, it's a purple. I've requested Lowden and another one called Rex, which is a seedling of Potomac, a purple once listed as one of the hardiest of all raspberries but which now appears to be extinct. The only black I've tried up here in Fairbanks is John Robertson; it survived and bore before I moved away, but I haven't been able to obtain it since I returned. I also requested Amethyst, a purple which is descended from John Robertson and Cuthbert that was bred in New Hampshire. Wyoming isn't available in the US, even from the USDA. I have one established plant, which I've just begun to propagate so I should have a nice patch planted next year.

I planted 'Munger' last year, it both grew and wintered well and had begun to flower and set fruit this past summer ... though, I thought it was bad sign that it wasn't developing any new canes from the bottom ... well, as the summer progressed, the entire plant slowly declined and died. Anyways, I'd certainly wish to again attempt this variety.

From our two red varieties and many of my seedling crosses, we again had a bumper crop and had needed to call in friends to help share in the harvest!

Munger is one of the less hardy black raspberries I think, it's grown on the west coast mostly. Jewel is promised to handle -26c and I'm very surprised to hear they have survived -30 and more.. I guess it really comes down to adequate snow cover? I made a batch of seeds with Jewel and an old Canadian red raspberry strain called Muskoka which I hope might pass on some extra hardiness.

Yes, could very well be that the roots of 'Munger' had been damaged by the cold and thus the plant had succumb. I did attempt 'Jewel' several years ago and it also had died in its second year.

Berry, it's fun to do a bit of hybridization work ... next year, I might try some crosses with 'Balsors'.

Received from Whiffletree Nursery, 'AAC Eden' thornless red raspberry and 'Purple Dream'. I just finished transplanting a few of my best seedling hybrids to a separate bed. I also reselected from my row of 'Viking' having marked the best and largest fruited among all the canes, there was definite variation among this variety I've now grown for about 30 years. I've read somewhere that reselection should be undertaken from time to time. I did some hybridization work with 'Honey Queen' and looking forward to a possible sampling this summer.

I have an Robert Erskine black raspberry that has grown well and fruited for the first time last year, though being rather very tasteless, maybe they'll improve. I'm still on the lookout for 'Lowden Black', Green Barn lists it, though I'm leery of that place!

I'm on the lookout for Lowden too...I requested it from the USDA repository last fall, but it got cancelled, so not sure if they've still got it. I also requested John Robertson, which is a black raspberry that has fruited for me in the past, but that was cancelled also. So far the only purple that's done well for me here in Fairbanks is Wyoming, which took me many years to find. I've just propagated from my only plant so should get good crops in a couple years. Honeyqueen is very productive here too, and I've got some Erskine apples and a gooseberry he bred (which is mediocre but very hardy and early).

I believe Whiffletree is or was affiliated with Green Barn. At least that's the scuttlebutt online. There are some critical reports.

Yes, not anymore, Whiffletree is on their own now run by amish I think...good to order from.

It's interesting to hear about all the raspberry varieties, I would like to try a new one that would be hardy. I bought one type from Canadian Tire, not sure the variety, and spent 3 futile years weeding a long row only to till it up because they never produced one berry. So I am stuck with only Boyne, it seems to be one of the best just because it produces every year. I had Mammoth for a few years but I took it out as it produced bland berries compared to the Boyne.

Do you have access to Ottawa raspberry? It's still the most widely grown variety up here being both hardy and productive but is now being rapidly replaced by tunnel grown glen ample.

I never heard of Ottawa I will have to look it up. Thanks

Ottawa is an old one from the 40's or 50's. By the looks of it almost obsolete in North America by now.. Interestingly it has some loganberry ancestry.

Berry Allen, thanks much for posting of your experience in a similarly challenging climate as to that of the Canadian prairies. Yes, that's a sad and discouraging sight, all that work and time spent, never mind also the money. You obviously had also experienced a hard winter, although my raspberries had fared well, many shrubs have been badly damaged. How often have you experienced such raspberry dieback? I have had only one total raspberry crop failure in over thirty years. Though, last spring, the canes had appeared none too promising and bud break and leafing out was very, very slow, though most all did finally come to life and onto produce a near bumper crop! Now, my raspberries are situated in aspect that is particularly desirable, firstly being well protected from the wind and on a gentle north slope that receives very little winter sun, this helps much to reduce desiccation.

I wish we had access to varieties such as 'Glen Dee', I wonder of its degree of hardiness? At times, I do a bit of raspberry breeding and it would be fun to introduce genes for such mammoth sized fruit!

Dieback was to be expected with these Dutch varieties, in fact I didn't think any of them (besides polka) would even make it through the winter. It's not a disaster though, this is not a commercial farm. They pay us to test new varieties and that's what we did. To me they did suprisingly well, but in order to get an autumn crop you'll need to run these in a tunnel. We just planted new Kwanza long canes last week (too late imo) in a tunnel so we'll see how it turns out.

February was pretty cold, I don't remember exactly but somewhere between -25 and -30c I think. Traditional varieties did well but these more southern strains normally die above the snow line.

I can't find any info on the pedigree of Glen Dee as it was only released last year but if I had to guess it's related to the likes of Glen Ample and Tulameen. Most strains are closely related from what I've read. I can post pictures when we get our long canes next week, they're like willow trees.

This is the level of dieback on the Glen Ample canes. The strain is not recommended for our zone. Glen Dee is later finishing than Glen Ample so probably even less cold tolerant but I can tell you more next year

Glen dees arived yesterday. I have high hopes for these, they should be an improvement over Glen ample, which is from the 80's

Where the heck did the pictures go.. again..

Some stem details to pass the time

Do you know which cultivars have arcticus lineage? I've obtained Anelma, an old (1959) Finnish cultivar with arcticus pedigree, and it has by far the best tasting berries of any I've succeeded with here in interior Alaska. I've just obtained Heisa, a newer (1980) Finnish cultivar which incorporates arcticus; they call them "nectar raspberries." I'd be interested to see if any of the primocane lines exhibit a simalar superiority in flavor.

Hi, autumn bliss was the first commercially acceptable (to some degree) autumn rasberry and it had rubus arcticus lineage. I think I'm not exaggerating when I say that most if not all autumn raspberries are at least partly related to autumn bliss. Polka rasberry has a lot of autumn bliss lineage, that's one that I counted having 5 different rubus species in it's pedigree, including rubus crataegifolius. It tastes different too. Very sweet and juicy, like marmelade.

Interesting that you have Anelma raspberries! There isn't really any info out there about the variety, only some vague references in some old papers. Can you shed some light on those?

I grew Heisa a few years back but it didn't survive being planted in late august. From what I'm told there's not a lot of rubus arcticus left in the taste, they back crossed the original hybrid with raspberries too many times to regain commercially acceptable yield levels and in my opinion watered it down a bit too much. I haven't tasted any so that's just what I read.

I got Anelma from the germplasm repository in Corvallis a few years ago, along with Heisa and Heija. Only Anelma rooted, so that's the only one I've tried fruit from. Heisa successfully rooted this year, so I'll be able to evaluate those soon. Anelma isn't super productive, and the berries are a bit crumbly, but they have the richest and sweetest raspberry flavor. Not really any arcticus flavor, just a richer and more palatable raspberry. I also have some of the allfieldberries, which are R. arcticus x stellatus hybrids; they're far more productive than the native stellatus here and the berries are much larger. Amazing flavor!

That's interesting, only heisa is commercially available here, and some allfieldberries too. Rubus arcticus grows abundantly everywhere but seldom sets any fruit. I'll buy commercial strains of both next week. Last year was my first time growing r.a and got no fruit. Besides rubus stellatus, do you have other rubus species growing at your location in Alaska? Does wild raspberry grow that far up north? We also have rubus chamaeomorus (spelling?) growing and lots of wild raspberries, they have the finest taste of any berry imo. I've found this completely thornless wild population at a nearby forrest and transplanted one in my garden. The rest of the wild plants are very thorny, as were the seedlings grown from this plant..

Added pictures.

R. stellatus is also a shy bearer, but not the allfieldberry hybrids. We have R. strigosus, the wild red raspberry here, and cloudberry, (R. chamaemorus), which I like, but not as much as the nagoonberry. Black raspberry (R. occidentalis), thimbleberry (R. parviflorus), and five leaved bramble (R. pedatus) grow south of here but not in interior Alaska. It's super cold here.

That's pretty cool finding a thornless wild cane. My wife once found a wild yellow raspberry here.

You never know what you can find when you keep your eyes open. Hehe, finally someone from a colder climate than I am! "The coldest city in North America". In general the climate in North America tends to be more continental (apart from the coasts) that means hotter summers and colder winters. We are between oceanic and continental and each year is different. I'm from the same latitude as you are although I live further south now. I'd love to grow raspberries from such a cold climate some day. If you ever want to exhange seeds my e-mail is in my profile. I've gotten pretty good at germinating rubus seeds. The trick is never to let them get completely dry during storage. I did have success with dry R. allegheniensis seeds though using hydrogen peroxide. By nagoonberry do you mean rubus acaulis? The rubus arcticus I was able to find tasted like blackberries to me. I'm placing my order on the cultivated strains tomorrow to see if there's a difference.

Young'uns

Nagoonberry is what R. stellatus is called here. Flavor is different from anything and very aromatic, but seldom are they found wild in quantity. Our climate's pretty continental; we're about 350 miles from the ocean, so hot summers/cold winters. I haven't tried germinating Rubus seeds yet but I may; Prunus seeds are similar in that it helps to keep them from drying out. Maybe one of these days I'll experiment with that but my plate's pretty full now. I'd be glad to furnish seed to you, though; I'll email you.

Below is a Robert Erskine developed purple / black raspberry with good sized fruit, though rather bland in flavor, plants have proven quite hardy at my location.

'Purple Dream' has grown vigorously, but what fruit has been produced is very tiny (in fairness, it's a first year plant) ... though, berries are flavorful and look forward to how it performs in the future.

That's awesome! I had heard that he bred a purple but didn't know it stillsurvived. I've got his Honeyqueen yellow raspberry and one of his gooseberries and a couple of his apples.

Robert Erskine had been both a friend and mentor to a garden buddy of ours and that lady has kindly passed along the black raspberry and one of Robert's very best red raspberries. Now, a large scale nursery has expressed interest in the red raspberry to possibly release it onto the market. It's a spineless dwarf growing selection with large fruit and heavy cropping ability with flavor being on the mild side.

Okay, have sampled a few more 'Purple Dream' raspberries and it's rather flavor packed. The Erskine black raspberries have sized up nicely, though as always are pretty much without any flavor whatsoever. The AAC-Eden raspberries are very large, though quite bland in comparison to all my other red raspberries.

Wondering what is Chief really supposed be like...the ones bought several years back from Boughen and frozen down for about 2 winters in a row are turning around and giving some HUGE berries with wonderful flavor. Might be a mix up or I have seedlings growing?

I got Chief some years ago; mine were smaller vines with smaller berries. The descriptions I see online say the berries are small and tart. Mine finally were overgrown by the Kiskas I had planted nearby, which invaded and choked them out. I didn't care, because the Chiefs didn't really perform well...if they were really Chief; I got them from a guy here locally who said they were.

According to Boughen website, ....Good heavy bearer of medium sized sweet red fruit.

Well...still don't know what happened, these are the largest of all... after a couple of years of no fruits after freezing down I have some canes now with good size berries, 4 large berries can fill your hand and packed with awesome flavours ..kind of citrus. I've turned around from a miserable dude to a happy camper lol. Now I need to separate/isolate these from others growing between, want to establish away alone somewhere so no others will contaminate.

Not sure what I have, I believe I planted two different types. One of them flowered fruited in June and is now flowering again. I planted some fall gold but the bloody creatures chewed it down.

Yeah I've got a hare in residence which has pruned my Wyoming purples and Anelma reds (among other things). I snatched one with my bare hands a couple weeks ago that had wandered into my shed, but at least one sibling still appears to be at work. Saw it yesterday, and have been seeing the effects for awhile. They really like raspberries, saskatoons, and apples, and they've hit some lilies and heirloom wheat too. I think it's about time for some stew...

Double Delight raspberries are just kicking into gear at my place, the orioles found my Valiant grapes the other day, between them and the robins I will be scrounging for some. Will need netting for next year. Any luck finding a supplier Konrad???