I grow Jewel and like it here in zone 5 . I bought Mac Black last year . Also trying both in zone 3 . I will see how they survived when I go up to the lake .

Thank you!

I've been pricing varieties online and Jewel is what I've been leaning towards. Niwot and Mac Black also seem like possibilities, but it seems Jewel is more common.

It's definitely encouraging to hear temporarily potting them up is fine.

Spartan, did you use any special kind of soil when you potted them? Do you remember how much water and sun they got while in their pots?

I have Niwot also . Fruited last year . I was not impressed with the flavor . Might be better this year IDK .

Emma:

I was busy so I just dug plain old topsoil out of my garden and potted them up. They were not fussy and did just fine. After potting, I put them in part shade (morning sun only) for a few weeks until they started pushing a lot of new growth. Then I put them in full sun. Luckily my wife is a grade school teacher so she was home after June 15th for the summer and kept an eye on them as far as watering if they dried out too much in the wind and sun. It doesn't take much for one gallon pots to dry out.

Potting and replanting black/raspberries is fine, after potting them, keep them intact in that soil when transplanting, do not pull them out of the pot soil, the new roots are very fragile.

I have grown Jewel for many years and the flavor is fine.

Rasperry are pretty cold-hardy....they grow until 6000 ft on the Alps...

Everyone has been so helpful! I think that was all of my questions. I'll be placing my order through Indiana Berry this week for six Jewel bare roots and potting them up till everything is ready.

If anyone knows of a thread that would be helpful, please suggest it!

Emma

Emma:

Just some more info on how to grow black raspberries If you need it. The first year from planting I let the primocanes grow to about 5'-5.5' in height. At that time, I cut the growing tip off the primocanes so they do not grow taller.

This will force a lot of lateral branching on the primocanes. By late summer my primocanes will be drooping to the ground. Any that touch the ground will root. Great if you want more plants or have friends to give them to (dig these new plants up the following spring when just showing signs of budding out). If you don't want more, just cut the tips off these lateral branches before they hit the ground.

The following spring I will cut back any dead wood on the floricane tips from over the winter and usually prune them back about 1/3 in length.

After harvesting my fruit in July, I cut out all the old canes (will be dead anyway the following year as raspberry canes are biennial) This is the easiest time to remove floricanes as you can still see the old caps where the fruit was after harvest. Removing them now gives the young primocanes more room too.

That last picture made me sigh very loudly in the lunch room at work. They look delicious!

Thank you for the pruning advice! I can barely wait for my plants (and spring!) to arrive.

Another note is that while they say Black and Purple raspberries do not send out suckers, it is my experience that they do. Plant them in a place that they will not invade any valuable beds. Keep them where you can mow around them to chop the heads off the little suckers.

I've never had Jewel sent out suckers, but I'm in zone 8b. The berry size on my Jewels seems related to the cane thickness: larger berries from fruiting spurs on the lower main stem, smaller berries from laterals. If you eventually get vigorous, thick canes and have room to train them, let them get long. If your goal if to get the maximum quantity of berries, pruning to force laterals may be better.

For purple I have Royalty and and unknown, both sucker for me. For black I was told it was Jewel but I can't be certain as the nursery that I bought it from has been proven to be "flexible" with their descriptions/labeling.

The Jewel that I got from Raintree Nursery have never root suckered. For me that is the joy of growing black raspberries over red raspberries. My family loves red as well, but they root sucker everywhere and can be difficult to control. My father in law grew red raspberries and they literally took over his small backyard and even crept into the neighboring two yards by suckering under the chain link fence!

I will stick to black raspberries since they are much easier to control.

For my planned location suckering won't be an issue, they'll just get mowed down with the rest of the lawn. In fact, if the cheap upick farm where I get my red raspberries ever goes out of business I'll just put some reds on the other side of the lawn.

It'll be interesting to see how/if the winter affects them. I might start up a thread to chronicle our gardening adventures in this house. Not sure if that's still done around here?

If you plan on both black/purple raspberry with red raspberry be aware that the general recommendation is to keep them at least 100-200 feet apart as the red's can transfer viruses to the purple/black.

https://www.starkbros.com/products/berry-plants/raspberry-plants/royalty-purple-raspberry