I have read Derek Jennings piece on blackberries on your main web-site, but in New Zealand, which I recently visited, growers had grubbed out Karaka Black and replaced it with Ruani. Where is the definitive list of varieties suitable for the UK, subject to a bit of global warming?
Alan Searby
I consider the best varieties for maincrop production in the UK are LochNess and Chester Thornless. They both have very good quality and Chester is the higher for yield.To extend the season some Loch Tay is useful, but its quality is a little below the above. Hull Thornless is a close runner-up.
The older varieties Oregon Thornless (also known as the Cutleaf blackberry or Rubus laciniatus) and Bedford Giant (a hybrid derived from the Veitchberry ) have done good service but are inferior to the more modern kinds. Black Butte is notable for its huge size but not for its shelf-life and so is most suitable for amateurs and not growers supplying super-markets. Similarly, Karacka Black which is grown outdoors in Kent has very good size and flavour like other hybrid types. Tupi is excellent in Mexico and Spain but not in the UK.
This leaves the Ursini group of varieties of the Pacific coast of North America, where they play an important part in its processing industry. I think that Helen and Kotata are the best of the ones available and superior to Marion and Waldo. These show a characteristic aromatic flavour, a softer texture and ripen early, but do not have such a good shelf-life as the other kinds. They are ideal for the garden.
Derek does not mention Sylvan blackberry which I like very much because it has excellent flavour. We used to grow it in North Kent for market and also LochNess, which is a wonderful cropper, although you have to let it ripen properly for true flavour. I have just planted five blackberries in my garden and would have included Sylvan, but I do not like thorns and it is such an angry beast. Instead I chose: Loch Tay, which is three weeks earlier than Loch Ness and reputedly better flavour; Loch Maree, recently introduced and again from the Scottish Crop Research Institute, early cropping, good flavour, with attractive pink double blossom; Obsidian, very new, raised in Oregon, ripening even earlier in early July; Chester, late season and very good quality in my experience; and Tupi which is not hardy but I am going to grow in a pot and move it into the greenhouse during the winter.
These are part of an experiment that I am trying – growing blackberries up a tall pole, 5ft. 6ins high. Tying the canes to a stake works well with raspberries, we will see if it is a success with blackberries.
Some good blackberries can be selected from among the wild ones growing in your own locality. I now have such blackberries growing on the fence around the perimeter of my small orchard, selected and trained from wild seedlings that have arisen naturally from seed dropped by birds. These wildings can vary enormously, some have big trusses of large succulent fruit; in others the fruit is small, pippy, and not worth bothering with. I keep only the best and grub out the others and now have several sorts.
I train the retained good plants, pruning them in exactly the same way as cultivated named varieties by annually cutting out the fruited canes and tying in the new canes to the fence where they will produce fruiting laterals in the following season. They may be wild in origin but by not letting them ‘go wild’, the quality of fruit is maintained year to year and the plants are prevented from becoming a thicket and so are much easier to pick. It does not take long to extend the best plants around an entire plot by tip layering the new shoots along the fence line and by transplanting propagated plants into new locations. Apart from their value for fruit, blackberries grown in this way enhance the security of your boundary and provide food and cover for wildlife.
There is no guesswork in selecting blackberries like this. What you see is what you get and if it is doing well and fruiting well in your locality, the chances are it will continue to do so if introduced into your garden. So, when you go out blackberry picking this year and find a bush of especially good berries remember where it is. Go back later and very often there will be a tip of a cane layered in the ground that will make a good plant for your garden, or simply take a cutting. Given the rampant nature of blackberries, this should not impact adversely on the wild population but even so, remember that you need the permission of the land owner to take plants from the wild.
Making use of my best wild blackberries has been a great success for me and I can thoroughly recommend it to others.
I live in the sandy part of Flanders, De Kempen, 20 km from Antwerp. In 1992 I bought Loch Ness and Waldo from Derek Jennings and a few years later his Adrienne and Helen. The latter is the best of these two in my experience, although I am curious now as to how much damage it will have suffered this winter.
Around 1995 I bought Fantasia, which does have a lot of prickles, but no problem, because most of its very big and tasty berries hang free. They ripen here from mid-August. Yesterday with the good weather I have been cutting the old branches to the ground and into in small pieces that will compost on the ground. With gloves this is also not a problem. Fantasia reminds me of the big wild blackberries of my childhood in West Flanders.
I would like to know where Simon Brice has found the new blackberries.
(The varieties mentioned by Simon Brice came from R. W. Walpole which is a soft fruit nursery in Norfolk; they are a wholesale nursery but do also sell to amateurs. Their catalogue is on the web – http://www.rwwalpole.co.uk – but ask that for small orders you contact the office (01553 82889) for a ‘Small Order Brochure’. Fruit Forum).
I have had a cultivated blackberry plant for about 8 years -variety not known – on an open aspect, east facing fence. Most years I have had a reasonable crop, but usually about 15 -20% haven’t ripened when the colder weather arrives. This year it has been much worse, with about 70% not ripening, though the fruits are plentiful and large and the cane growth and foliage is vigorous.
Any explanation/rectification would be appreciated.
Thornfree is excellent (many in America say its flavour is superior to Chester) as well as Merton Thornless which is a heirloom great, both ripen around 22nd Aug in North of England, earlier in the South. Hull is outstanding to them all and vastly superior to Chester as it can be very late ripening (tarty tasting), prone to cane boring insects, needs 900 chill hours. Hull needs only 750 hours, very hardy, more disease resistant and produces sweeter berries which ripens around 10th of Aug, and it has outperformed Chester for yield in older U.S trials: fact.
That said all berry plants mentioned are ripening now: late July due to heat wave in April.
Hull for superiority: 1.sweeter, 2.less chill hours 750, 3.better looking/bigger flowers, 4.greater yield (proven in trials in U.S), 5.hardiness comparable to Chester and 6. Hull has much earlier ripening berries. 7. Hull is not prone to cane boring beetle like insects like Chester can be. Forget Black Satin as that one has very sour berries. Hull is a vastly improved form of it by the great late Mr. Jack Hull.
Karaka Black is over-hyped; regarding its yield here in UK, very low. The SCRI releases Ness and Maree are disease prone to false mildew and cane dieback and berries taste a bit grassy. Loch Tay I’m not so sure as I’ve never grown it because of bad experience from other Loch series.
Medana tayberry is quite superb but the Buckingham tayberry appears prone to flower sterility. Two separate batches I have had from different vendors have never produced flowers in 4 seasons in any good/richened soil/sunny position.
I tried Oregon Thornless and Thornfree a few years ago. Oregon looked great with lots of shiny black berries and attractive leaves. However, for me it had no real blackberry flavour at all, just a tart sort of taste. I grubbed it up after a few years.
The Thornfree had nice looking berries too. The trouble was that when the berries turned black it did not mean they were ripe. So I would tug one off thinking it was ripe only to find it hard and sharp. In the process several other red ones would come off too. Wild blackberries always come off easily when they are black and taste sweet. This was a real nuisance. There was no way of knowing which ones were ready for picking. The flavour was not outstanding either.
So I decided to pick from hedgerows instead …. better flavour, less work and more exercise!
Best one to date I have seen is the vigorous blackberry Asterina which is a cross between Chester and LochNess cultivars, which has tasty aromatic sweet berries when just turning black. It crops mid July onwards for a long season of 2 months or more, with very high disease resistance and aphids leave it alone compared to others which are old by today’s standards. Chester for me lacked any real plant vigor and Thornfree was always getting attacked by dreaded whitefly and aphids, hence ripped out. Hull is so vigorous that it shakes off any attack easily!
The Navaho BigandEarly hybrid is a very nice cultivar too, cropping in July for 4 weeks or more with nice pink flowers. I grow this with Asterina and combined with Hull (for sheer production and plant vigor plus its flowers are magnificently lilac pink colour!) and Merton Thornless, which I still think has the best ‘real’ blackberry taste of any cultivar
What is your view of the blackberry Fantasia. I have received one from the Ken Muir which is a sickly looking thing. Love to hear what you folks have to say.
(Fruit Forum: there is a post on Fantasia blackberry on this Blog: see here)
Fantasia – I have never grown it but one customer review over at Muir’s last year said it was a massive producer. All this depends on soil etc. Blackberries need unrestricted ground to do any good, but beware the thornless suckering types. Asterina and similar thornless cultivars thrive in heavy clay soil, but are quite awful growers and sickly in compost or shop bought quality soil as they quickly exhaust the soil and roots cannot grow beyond plant pot soil.
I grew quite a lot in John Innes No 3 and they never did any good. I put them in the ground – heavy iron ore type soil- and got great growth and crops.
Merton Thornless (best all rounder in my opinion for UK soils) thrives in this type of soil.
Navaho Bigandearly is very easy to increase unlike its parent clone original Navaho as it suckers freely off root stock if thick roots are cut from parent plant and potted/over wintered. It forms new plants readily. Do it end of Summer and next year dozens of new plants form off roots in Spring. Separate in Summer; Bigandearly itself never suckers in ground unless plant roots are cut in some way. Having it in a big container helps this layman’s method. Its very big pink flowers are terrific. Crop moderate to high!
I find this information really helpful, but although recommended, I cannot source half of them. I have tried Grove, Thompson and Morgan, Van Meuwen, Ashridge and Marshalls. I don’t want to go abroad as the varieties may not suit the UK.
I would like to ask for guidance as to which UK bred thornless blackberries have the best flavour and largest fruit, as well most compact growth for an amateur backyard gardener in the East Anglia region.
My neighbour has the popular Loch Ness in his Cambridge allotment, but I find that this variety’s taste is too plain and not as tasty as the traditional thorny and wild blackberries.
Also its growth is too vigorous for the space that I can provide for it (about 5’-6’ft/1.5-1.8m in length and height).
I would deeply appreciate it if someone could help me with decent advice, since all available plant catalogue companies describe their varieties in misleading superlatives and that isn’t very helpful for making a reasonable decision.
There is an on-going trial of blackberries and hybrid berries at the Royal Horticultural Society gardens at Wisley in Surrey, which is open to the public and located in the area known as the ‘Portsmouth Field’. The trial comprises some fifteen varieties and is now in its second year of cropping, so you can see the vigour of the plants and get some idea of the size and possible quality of the fruits. Many of those on trial are very vigorous indeed, such as, Chester, but it is thornless and so possible to cut it back relatively easily. One of the least vigorous is Helen, which has good flavour, but is not thornless. Loch Tay is another with a good flavour and thornless but more vigorous.
Helen was raised by Derek Jennings, who also bred the Tayberry and a number of other hybrid berries, as well as many raspberries. He gives an account of the breeding work with black berries which produced the modern varieties on our main web site in ‘Blackberries the Essential Details’
and in ‘Redesigning our Blackberries’. Jennings also gave us an account of the origin of the Tayberry.
There is another ‘newish one’, a heavy cropper and very ornamental to boot, bred by Lubera who bred the Bigandearly Navaho cross – called Navaho Summerlong. According to the breeder its crop is double that of the Bigandearly type and well suited to the UK. Crops in mid July. Worth trying!
My Merton Thornless which I have grown for 8 years now only ever puts out 1 or 2 canes at most over the years but cropped well. Last year it grew its usual primocane whilst previous year’s was still fruiting. This spindly new cane reached 7 feet breaking off to my dismay and the base of the plant, which oozed out black fungal type stuff around last Sept. I thought it was well dead and to my delight 5 new canes are now growing healthily around the wooden crown! Pretty indestructible heritage plant! All other trialled plants: e.g Chester, Loch Maree etc when the same thing happened never recovered from crown! Old (English cultivar) is the best!
Purchased a Navaho Summerlong from Amazon today. I’d bought the Bigandearly from Suttons a few years back. I think Lubera does not deal via Suttons anymore as it has gone it alone and expanded from Europe to UK. Anyway I’m not one to believe hype about any plant, but the Bigandearly I can say is more ornamental than any plant I’ve grown due to huge pinkish rose like flowers and on reflection its cropping ability is only moderate revised from my earlier view. I got just a few pounds off it last year, but then again the summer of last year was truly awful, due to a very late spring and much rains/flooding. The Summerlong looks the much better plant from the online videos I saw of it and has the claim of double the yield of its relation. We shall see!
Also got myself a Medana tayberry. In my earlier posts I’d spoken about my experiences with the Buckingham thornless clone and flower sterility. To be more specific it never produced any flowers for me whatsoever despite a good location, full sun, regular watering/feeding, so beats me to the cause of it! Virus? Hopefully this much vaunted Medana will produce the goods! I will report back next year in 2015!
Unfortunately I’m giving up on the Medana tayberry. It failed to flower AGAIN like its thornless counterpart! Instead putting in a thornless loganberry.
My Navaho cultivars are thriving, truly excellent types. Have to disagree with Lubera’s description regarding the Bigandearly, which seems to have a protracted season starting from late July in the UK and mine is continuing to give fruit now – size 6/7g and re-flowering pink.The Summerlong, true to description, was bearing fruit in late July and was totally finished bearing fruit 4 weeks later with average fruit size 4/5g and a yield of 0.5kg from 1 cane as it is still a young plant. It also suckers from the crown and roots easily from its adventitious roots.
The Navaho Bigandearly (non suckering, plenty of shoots from the crown) has yielded half its crop and has given 1kg off two canes, putting out four new ones for next year, so is not too bad at all. So given the difference in fruit size the potential yield is not that much different per cane. Highly recommended Navaho x Lochness hybrid plants for your garden and rust/false mildew resistant unlike original Navaho and Lochness parent plants.
I also ripped my blackberry Asterina out as the berries were ripening a bit late, again unlike mid-July per descriptions as originally assumed, getting very mouldy and tasting sour as it needs a lot of sun/high temperatures to ripen evenly. It is very pH soil sensitive as well as having some fussy location needs with most of its medium sized-green berries probably getting ripe in late Sept. Verdict go Navaho family for your blackberry needs in the UK!
Have we any updates on the Navaho varieties? Anybody had any success with Reuben?
Best blackberry for me this year by far is the thornless cultivar Apache with a very heavy crop of mainly huge sweet berries picked from August right through to late October. The fruit is protected in a fruit cage with micro netting to keep wasps and other insects off and this allows later berries to ripen; there are still some large red berries on today the 12th November.
Next best was Waldo despite such a short season, just July/August – about 6 weeks.
This was followed a long way behind by Chester’s small crop then Oregon Thornless which is chiefly decorative!
Hello Kenneth, I can indeed update you on the Navaho hybrids and state that they are truly superb blackberry cultivars. My Navaho Bigandearly produced over 4 pounds at the final picking in mid/late Sept with 4 new canes for next year. Consistently given me 2 pounds per cane. No disease seen as yet, resistant to root rot, orange rust, fungal types. Roots very easily off a cutting from a side stem from a new cane and prolific from adventitious root stock. Very upright.
The Summerlong Navaho cultivar shows equally great promise with a delightful compact even season of 4 weeks ripening giving medium size sweet wild tasting blackberries from pure large abundant white flowers, with a refreshing crunchiness if slightly under picked. Bonus pests/aphids leave it alone too!
Cane production is good too and Summerlong shows odd suckering away from crown in lighter richer soils, unlike sister plant Bigandearly which has zero suckering in any soil type. Both thrive in heavy soils. No white drupelets seen as in Apache cultivar. The winter chill requirement in both is probably around 650 to 800 maybe lower than original parent Navaho 850. Both Navaho types also can give a smaller crop in the later season with new flowers opening. Both are vigorous and quick to establish. Bigandearly has beautiful large pink flower and much larger leaves and fruit and is very drought resistant from my tests in another earlier plot.
My Natchez were flowering early but fruiting late again for the second year giving low small/medium sized berries. Cane production seems to be quite low as does suckering from the crown. This plant appears ill suited to UK growing conditions as it needs a lot of constant sun hours to fulfill its crop potential and has problems with pH. Reuben as yet is new to me.
Thanks for your reply Dave. I have planted both Navaho Big and Early and Summerlong this year on your earlier recommendation on this forum. I’ve also planted some Triple Crown, Merton Thornless, Waldo, Oregon, Loch Tay, Loch Ness, Adrienne, Helen and Black Satin. So you can see I’ve taken a shot gun approach to discover what does best on my soil and site. I was unsure how well the Navaho varieties would do in exposed conditions and which of the several varieties I have planted would be better off with some protection. The Reuben I had planted this spring needed (and got) protection but has flowered and fruited too late to produce ripe fruit and I was not sure whether to grub it out as a mistaken planting as other people have reported the same problem with it but I have decided to give it another year as it is a primocane and I am hoping that its first early crop will produce enough ripe fruit to justify its space. The only report I have read of a success with it was somebody in Kent where the light and heat is greater than in Lincolnshire.
I must say that the Navaho plants supplied by Lubera were healthy and strong and well packaged as they come all the way from Germany so that was a good start. Some of the other varieties I had to search about for and did not really have much choice as to whom to buy from so a few plants turned up small and spindly. The success of everything is now down to conditions and good fortune.
The following are the ones that have succeeded for me in the East Midlands, where they are growing on clay soil.
Silvanberry (American hybrid) is a superb cropper with around a month to a six week season. Very large fruit, moderate flavour some years, the plants are extremely spiny, but definitely recommended.
King’s Acre berry, an American hybrid is a reasonable cropper; the flavour is good; the plants are extremely spiny.
Karaka Black, a New Zealand variety produces long, large fruit with excellent flavour; the season is around a month; very spiny.
Chester, American variety, very large fruit, good flavour, season a month plus, this is a good candidate for growing under cover to extend the season. I picked a punnet at the beginning of November outdoors; spineless.
Waldo requires good weather to pollinate, it hates rain when in blossom. My plant is extremely fasciated including the fruit; not recommended.
Black Bute is not vigorous enough, crops are small, but berry size can be spectacularly large.
Reuben is a total failure outdoors, even in 2011; our season is nowhere near long enough; possibly a candidate for growing under cover.
I am currently trialing Apache and Navaho.
My pleasure Kenneth, glad to help a fellow gardener!
Lubera does not provide trial data for any of its plants, so relies on its customers for feedback. They have recently developed some primocane blackberries and raspberries purely for pot culture, but probably will not be as successful as its Navaho x Lochness hybrids due to their higher yields and ornamental attractiveness. My first plant of theirs a Bigandearly is totally unlike Lubera’s site description regarding early season and fruited late July in its 1st season in my garden 4 years ago, strangely this year it fruited Aug 10th whilst the Summer Long was end of July. Both were in very sunny locations, but my northerly location may be the deciding factor here. You might have to keep an eye out for the aphids with Bigandearly as they love its juicy massive leaves. However a minor quibble as soapy suds sort them out easily! You mention Black Satin, I remember that from my earlier days – lovely pinkish flowers but oh so acid berries in this climate anyway. Reuben sounds promising but may be a little late for me where I’m located hence I purchased Lubera’s plants to utilise the season better. I once grew the original Navaho but it succumbed to rust though not seen in these two hybrids as yet. Both may have a yield potential of 10 pounds plus, which is really good for UK climates and considering the average trial data of Lochness yields only 4.4 pounds per plant in the UK open climate due to low vigor/slow establishment problems and false mildew cane die back, you cannot go wrong with these two new cultivars. Happy gardening Kenneth and keep me posted of your experiences with your blackberry/rubus plants. Thanks again.
P.S forgot go say that both Navaho types are very winter hardy, confirmed by my own test trials and indeed plant producers who say over -20oC is not a problem. These plants are neither fussy to site nor location, though a heavier soil gives best results!
Only found this forum today!
Has anyone had any success in UK with Prime Ark? I have had one for 3 years and never had 1 berry off it. It is in full sun on loamy soil.
Hi Steve,
Welcome to the fruit forum. I assume you are talking about one of those newer primocane types fruiting in the first year from its canes. I tested one, cannot remember its name now, a few years back and it was very disappointing in the UK climate. The yield from these no way match a good floricane type like Chester etc. These types are much better suited to the US agricultural markets in my humble opinion for which they were primarily developed. You might have better luck with some other type or Google Lubera UK who have developed their own unique primocane type for the pot/tub culture on a sunny terrace or patio. I much prefer reliable types like Navaho and hope to try out a good US variety called Black Diamond next year which by all accounts is the no 1 seller in the States!
Results of my 2016 blackberry season using 2 Lubera blackberry plants:
Navaho BigandEarly gave a measly 2 pounds, confirms previous seasons’ observations of erratic yields and the plant is far from early for UK climates as described, usually late July or early August with quite a lot a fruit being malformed, small and not ripening, only about 60% of fruit was viable. The plant is for ornamental value only due to large pink flowers, but not really worth the trouble unless you plant a load of them.
Now, Navaho Summerlong is a real gem of a plant; ripens from July 20th until the end of August, highly concentrated yield with medium to large fruits. Gathered 10.5 kg of quality fruit(- dozens of blackberries nearly every day; 97% viable!) Flowers are very white and pleasing in the garden. A keeper, but warning: it suckers strongly from its roots many feet from the crown!
My Medana tayberry fruited well, but the fruits were very mushy for me and canes far too thorny, ripped out and replaced with a thornless loganberry. I abandoned the Black Diamond blackberry trial half way as there was some serious question to this plant’s vigor? Blackberry Natchez was highly erratic regarding fruit quality/yield(2 pounds), though it was far healthier in terms of vigor and disease resistance than a blackberry Reuben I saw in a neighbour’s garden. Natchez grubbed out with the BigandEarly!
Good observations on the Blackberries and Tays.
Suppose Tayberry var Buckingham would be worthwhile considering its spineless
and reasonable claims have been made in respect of berry flavour and yields.
Nice info on blackberries. I can confirm that the observations on the Lubera blackberries are very accurate and not hype. The Navaho BigandEarly can be a bit shy in yield, if planted in very heavy soil, due to a nutrient issue or roots being hindered from spreading out. In moderate soil it can sometimes lightly sucker from its roots and prefers this scenario, though it usually stays in cane production from its crown when established, which it does quickly. Yields for me have always been about 2 to 5 pounds per season. Cane production is good and one thing I’ve noticed is that this plant tends not to produce any more blackberries be it on two canes or five due to its compact growth structure/leaf ratio. I usually settle for 2 or 3 strong canes to get around 2 kg of quality fruit with some reaching 7 or 8 grams in weight. Fruiting is late July onwards after a flowering period usually at the end of May. I, too, don’t get the end of June/early July spiel the plantsman gives in his videos regarding the ripening season, maybe in Switzerland where it originates? Disease resistance is supreme, being able to shake off fungal diseases and winter wet. It is a pleasure to grow, flowers are a nice pink in flush and quite big as mentioned. Vigor is good producing very stout canes!
Now the other type Navaho Summer is a cracking blackberry; it has the same cultural needs/attributes as its sister plant, but the yield it gives is HUGE! I picked a massive 15 pounds of medium-large berries (4 to 6 grams) off just one cane this year in its second season. Cane production is good too and the flowers are pure white mid May to mid July. Root suckering in this plant is quite high, so watch out, if you don’t want a blackberry sprouting up 4 feet away from its crown. Its season is as per description mid/late July to end of August/early Sept. Without a doubt the best blackberry that I have ever grown in the U.K! Both these plants are crosses of Navaho x Lochness and vastly superior to the original clone Navaho which is orange rust prone unlike these two superior clones. Both of these thornless hybrids give superior tasting fruit which easily match/excel the wild thornier ones in terms of taste, being much firmer indeed and higher in brix in my humble opinion.
Thanks Geoff. I was a bit hasty ripping out my Navaho BigandEarly after reading your comments, but as luck should have it, a bit of remaining root in its former spot, has resprouted green which I will over winter. I’ve now intend to give it much better nutrition as it does tolerate everything nature throws at it very well, plus my neglect.
I look forward to Kenneth’s results with these plants in the future as well. Adrian Baggaley’s comments on Reuben are spot on too, a complete failure in UK outside. Recent RHS trials back this claim though it is under observation in different locations to be quite sure. Primocane blackberry is just not suited to our conditions!
I have only just found this excellent web site and am very interested in the very helpful comments. About 10 years ago I bought a 10 acre field and as a ‘retirement’ project grow Soil Association registered organic soft fruit. This includes several varieties of blackberry, Fantasia, Chester Thornless and Silvan. They all do well and I sell a lot but the big failure has been Reuben. I bought 100 plants from the main grower and planted out through mypex in slightly raised beds with trickle irrigation. They are on a south facing slope in South Cambridgeshire. They flower too late! The yield has been miserable. They are clearly not suited to growing outdoors in the UK …and I am not sure there is value in now erecting a tunnel. Another comment is, to my surprise, the fruit suffers from Blackberry mite which I had hoped to avoid with a primocane blackberry as the mites would be not transfer between the old and new wood. Clearly not a good theory!
I can report back my trials so far. Reading through this forum it seems that we all have different experiences with different varieties and the weather seems to play a part in how successful a variety is from one season to the next. Last year I hardly had any fruit, as the plants were still young. I decided not to prune any of them last winter so that I could see their growing habits and will be a little more informed what to expect next year after I get the secateurs out.
Just to recap. I grew eleven varieties, Triple Crown. Merton Thornless, Waldo, Oregon, Loch Tay, Loch Ness, Adrienne, Helen, Black Satin, Navaho Summerlong and Navaho Big and Early.
I’ll start with the ones that did not do so well on my sandy soil in an exposed position on the edge of a field.
Loch Tay was a waste of space. It had medium growth but produced no fruit at all.
Reuben struggled to ripen and only produced a small amount of berries. I persevered with it because it is a primo cane and hoped for something either in the spring or autumn. I wish I hadn’t bothered.
Black Satin struggled to get established and seems a bit weak to me. The fruit is small and sparse with a lot of red berries in mid September. I don’t think they will grow any more or ripen to taste better. Have decided to scrap it.
Triple Crown produced medium growth with a few huge berries but the berries had large seeds and they were not pleasant to chew. The taste seemed a little bitter to me, which is odd for a blackberry. The large seeds make it unsuitable for eating without going through a sieving procedure. Decided to scrap it.
Loch Ness produced a lot of growth that trailed and grew everywhere. I don’t know whether I got the spacing wrong but it wanted to dominate and choke the Waldo growing next to it. The taste of the fruit was OK but nothing special.
Helen grew well and has produced a lot of medium sized berries but the flavour is bland even when fully ripe.
Navaho Big and Early came big and late. It has grown slowly and the plant is small compared to Summerlong. It has not produced a lot of berries but some of them were quite a nice size. I found them a bit acidic but the fruit is clean with no mould. I realise that it is a compact plant but it is quite low in height making picking awkward for me. I’ll keep it another year in the hope that it will grow a bit more once well established. I was still picking on November 5th but without the sun to fully ripen them they can be a bit sharp even when fully black. Combines well with apples as it ripens at the same time and makes a nice apple and blackberry fruit juice.
Navaho Summerlong took a while to get going but has shot up and produced a lot of fruit. No mouldy fruit though and clean berries which is always good. Again they can be a bit sharp if not absolutely ripe and a bit bland tasting even then. I would not describe it as summerlong as it came late in summer with last pickings in November. It ripens at the same time as apples and makes nice apple and blackberry puddings.
Adrienne produced a lot of fruit in early summer but many of the berries turned mouldy and there was a lot of wastage. Flies seem to love them and it was difficult to find sound fruit. The fruit that the flies didn’t touch were black but unripe. Ripe fruit fell from the plant easily so it was a delicate operation harvesting them. It also fruits at the same time as my summer raspberries so I had to freeze most of them, as we preferred to eat the fresh raspberries. My raspberries don’t suffer from insect attacks in the way these do. The taste was OK but nothing special.
Merton Thornless has been slow to ripen with last pickings in November. The fruit are a medium size and don’t have a strong blackberry flavour but it is prolific so it can stay. It ripens with the apples so gives you options in processing.
Waldo grew well and produced a good crop of nice sized berries just after Adrienne had finished cropping in July/August. The flavour was OK but even when totally ripe it only suggested the blackberry aroma of wild blackberries. It ripened in full sun and with the really nice summer we have just had I expected a better flavour. It is also prone to mould. It can stay as it is earning its keep. Ripens before the apples are ready so I couldn’t combine them with apples to produce a mixed fruit juice or puddings.
Oregon stood out from the other plants just on its appearance alone with its feathery leaves. I was initially disappointed by the size of the fruit, which is only medium (just a bit larger that the size of wild fruit) and nowhere near the size of the other varieties listed above but the berries are free from flies and other insects and come clean off without any squashing when ripe. They don’t suffer from mouldiness and just about all the fruit on the plant is sound. The flavour is good too equalling the blackberry aroma of wild blackberries. They are not as acidic as the other varieties unless you pick an unripe berry but that is true of them all. I just found them nicer to eat fresh from the plant. This is probably due to the fact that they ripen in full sun at around August/Sept which brings out the flavour. The seeds are hardly noticeable when eating. The feathery leaves are soft to touch and they don’t hide the fruit as much as the others. The crop was very good too. I think we probably all grow blackberries for flavour first rather than their size or the weight of the crop so I will be grubbing out the Loch Tay, Reuben, Black Satin and Triple Crown and will replace them with Oregon. They have a trailing habit and will need tying up once all the old wood has been removed but without thorns to worry about this will not be painful.
Thanks to all contributors on this subject as I have found the information supplied by Dave and others very useful. I would not have tried the Navaho varieties if Dave had not been so enthusiastic, I like Navaho varieties for their size and clean fruit with no mould or flies but I like Oregon better for the same reasons and for its better flavour.
Thank you very much Kenneth. Weather plays a huge factor in blackberry growing as you say. My Navaho BigandEarly always ripened from late July to mid September and the Summerlong very similar. Both were very sweet when ripened by the sun. I am of the strong belief that there is quite some variability in these two strains and possibly not all sold by various sellers will follow/retain the plant description as Navaho has been crossed that many times with blackberry Loch Ness that one or more of the differing test clones could end up in the eventual mix.
My thoughts bore out when I viewed some videos on pruning these Navaho’s by the Swiss plantsman himself which showed BigandEarly having long trailing canes- totally different from my plant’s short habit. Moreover, no way would these plants give fruit early July in the U.K as uttered in the videos, but climate too must be taken into consideration.
My next plant will be Everthornless which is the true thornless type of Thornless Evergreen that is prone to reverting to thorns over time and suckers thorny canes. Oregon thornless is the American version I gather and a bit different from the other two which were European developed. That said many nurseries erroneously refer to Oregon as being synonymous with Thornless Evergreen and this is confusing. Great work and feedback Kenneth.
I have Sylvan Berry which I love except for the extremely prickly stems. Large fruit, very good flavour and easy to manage (except for the prickles!). Very hot and dry here in Clacton, Essex and I have light soil.
I have chosen Waldo for its lack of thorns and compact nature. Before i put it in the ground does anyone have experience of excessive suckering with this variety? I’m hoping that ‘compact’ means the new shoots stay close to the parent plant.
Carole, my Waldo I would not describe as compact and the plant does sucker. You will need to cut the offshoots back regularly. If you want a compact blackberry the Navaho Big and Early is about the most compact variety I have.
Besides Apache I would also recommend Natches which also produces very large berries (in Cambridge) similar in size to Apache (especially during this year’s hot and sunny summer), but avoid Cacanska bestrna (thornless), as it is not suitable for UK weather conditions.
Re: Natchez
I cannot recommend that one for the UK, as it has a terrible leaf to cane ratio (it over-crops which weakens the plant!), and if not pruned correctly will not put out new growth. Plus I found the fruit quality to be very watery and insipid. Apache is a fine blackberry, but is prone to white druplets.
Lubera has crossed two unspecified Navaho cultivars from its breeding stock and created another plant called blackberry ‘Navaho The Big Easy’ with huge fruit going from its pictures; fruiting from mid July until end of August. Looks promising!
Does anyone know of Driscoll’s Victoria ? Just started reading about them and tasted some yesterday – quite amazing.
Driscoll blackberry is part of a commercial venture by said company to produce mega huge fruit et al for the market. It is heavily under patent. That said I would be wary of it despite its pleasant taste, as it appears from some sources I’ve seen to be not an entirely natural creation of pollination. Some GM done? Could be wrong! Was it seedless by the way?
I am interested in trying the Navaho blackberry varieties produced by Lubera – Bigandearly, Summerlong, Bigeasy. Currently, Lubera do not ship to the UK and, previously, Lubera would not deliver to me as I am in Jersey. Would anyone be able to provide me with cuttings at the end of the season?
Many thanks
Tony Bourke
Lubera has stopped shipping to the UK until 2023 at the latest. Blackmoor Nursery still stocks the Navaho BigandEarly variety which is a great plant to grow. My son has a 11year planting of it in an old gravel like trench along a garden wall. The soil is quite depleted, but the plant put out pencil thick underground roots quite close to the surface over the years and grew new long canes- 2 feet high!) in search of nutrients a few metres away. These were recently dug up and given away to neighbours and have become strong healthy plants! My son told me he’d picked 4.6kg(10pounds approx from his Navaho Early last year! The flowers are very pretty on this plant and you cannot tip layer it as it is so upright! Disease resistance is very high, especially to root rot, wilt and orange rust.
Cuttings taken in mid Oct rarely root like the parent plant Navaho low success rate this method, but any piece of root nearly always spring up new shoots and is the best way to propagate this cultivar. Navaho Summerlong which we grow puts out spindly weak suckers which rarely come to anything and are best removed, if they don’t rot in the meantime. It also over crops and it’s best to miss a season now and again to let the plant recover.
I would love to grow any of the Navaho varieties produced by Lubera but they wouldn’t ship to me in Jersey in the past. Can anyone kindly provide cuttings at the end of the season.
Many thanks
Tony Bourke