On Thursday the first of the Heritage raspberries (spring crop) and Thornfree blackberries started ripening. I have two Heritage raspberry patches next to each other. One for a fall crop (starts in mid Aug and goes till frost) and one for the spring crop (now till ?). I also have two varieties of blackberries, Thornfree and Black Satin. This is the first year for the Thornfree to bear so the jury is still out. Last year the Black Satin gave me HUGE tangy sweet berries and lots of them.
9 thoughts on “Early Berries”
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This is the first year the Thornfree blackberries in my garden will bear as well and so far, so good. My daughter has eaten most of the couple dozen we’ve picked so far and loves them. I only put in 6 plants (5 lived) so I’m not expecting too many. I just want to make at least one Blackberry Fool — a dessert from my old reliable Fannie Farmer that I made a few years ago with wild blackberries. Your berries look a bit bigger than mine — did you use anything special on them?
Excellent blog. I learned something here. Thanks!
Ames, glad to help.
Patty, at planting I used some well composted manure and this year they got a healthy dose of compost. Other than that nothing. They are a little tart for me but do make a great cobbler with raspberries. I was able to pick enough of both last night to make the first fresh fruit cobbler of the season. mmmm
What is a Blackberry Fool? Never heard of it.
How are blackberries supposed to be managed? We have a huge jumble of vines in the back corner of the house and they arc up about 10 feet in the air! I want to keep them as they’ve delivered amazing berries (just picked a container full today) but don’t if you’re supposed to tie them, wrap them or just let them be.
Thanks!
Hello Kerry and what a lovely blog site – our garden is suffering in the drought and Chris is managing to keep it producing – like you, he is watering just enough to keep things upright and soften the soil. In the midst of summer, as we are now, the vege patch shuts down til around February – our day time temperatures are in the high 30s (celsius).
Anyway, love your site and will be checking back regularly.
Hi from south-east Queensland, Australia.
Chris and Alison
Black satin berries are really tart. Thornfree are still tart but much sweeter. Best homegarden blackberry ever must be Hull blackberry and it is scientifically proven to have the highest antixioxidants of all rubus species in terms of orac value. it is much sweeter too and more vigorous than Black satin. Chester is tart too!
Thanks for the variety info. As I understand it, flavor depends on environment as well as variety. In my garden, I’ve found that Black Satin have to be VERY ripe to get to the sweet point. I haven’t had ANY luck with Thornfree and will probably rip those out this fall. I haven’t looked into any other varieties yet. At this point I am not sure I need any more to deal with. If I do I will check out Hull for this area.
I have to agree there with you Kerry-Black Satin must be very ripe to get to that sweet point-probably why it performs better in hot places like southern Texas and tastes foul in places like the colder climates of rainy and very wet UK. Hull is more reliable for colder climes.
Merton thornless has a great taste much like the wild forms and is vigorous with crop of 15pounds and over when established(3rd year onwards). Do not believe the moderate vigor descriptions of most cultivars, that said I find Thornfree to be a poor grower in terms of vigor.
I trialled karaka black and thornless buckingham tayberry this year and they were pretty crap just like our UK windy wet Summer- 3 large berries only on each. I will give it one more year to achieve or they are out. Loch Maree is another promising one I must try.