Raspberries, Good and Bad

[Cracked Cork]

We are growing different varieties of raspberries and wanted to share and compare with others. We are in zone 6 and I have drip irrigation on all the berries. This is the second season for all varieties.

First the reds, we have Autumn Bliss, Kiwigold from Jund and Heritage from Indianna Berries, they all are terrible, big ripe fruits that taste like artificial raspberry flavor, they are mushy and dont have enough acid, we plan on using roundup to kill them all off, till the area up and replant with black raspberries. The flavor doesnt even come close to the wild ones we pick at the same time.

The Purple raspberries that are a cross between the reds and blacks are alsp horrible, they are almost like the reds, if we let them go to black as they are advertised to be able to do they would be rotten, they are mushy, little flavor and not enough acid when ripe.

For our blacks, we have Cumberland and Blackhawk from Gurneys, both are small berries, taste good, but the plants are weak, the roots were poorly developed when they arrived from the nursery so I am not sure if its from the source or that these varieties are just weak.

We also planted some Jewel black rasbperries from Nourse farms, these had roots almost 20-24 inches long and the plants are much bigger than the others and healthy, the fruits are large, as big as some blackberries, juicy, tastes just like wild black raspberries and are heavy producers. We are keeping these and destroying all the rest.

I am seriously dissapointed in the taste of both the red and purple raspberries.

Crackedcork

 

[grapeman]

The raspberries I am tending in the high tunnel/outside plot are just mostly turning. I have had a few of the Jewel Black Raspberries already. The bushes are just two years old. The canes we left from last years growth are on the ground they are so heavy. I didn't get the trellis up before they decided to lay down and it's too late to try to raise up. I will just need to pick them off the ground. This years canes are between 5 and 6 feet high and very vigorous. The berries are the size of strawberries or very large blackberries. The taste is incredible. Delicious and juicy. I hope I can snag enough for a few gallons of wine from this one.


The only other raspberry to start ripening is Prelude. They are very small plants- they look like dwarfs. The berries are fairly large, but like you say are mushy when ripe and don't taste all that great. I'm hoping some of the others will taste better when they ripen. I will let you know more when they start to ripen in the next week or two.

 

[NorthernWinos]

We got our raspberry bushes from an old neighbor 30+ years ago, they have always been great, so when we moved we brought some bushes along....They have a nice raspberry flavor, beautiful color and make awesome wine. Have no idea what variety they were...the patch was very old that many years ago...so they are something old and very hardy, very good and disease free.

This farm came with some Redwing fall bearing raspberries...They produce on this years growth in the fall...and...I found out if you leave last years growth they will produce on those canes in the following summer. They produce on the tips of the canes so they are easy to pick...HOWEVER....the flavor and color just isn't there...as well they are just a little too late in the fall for our area...many berries freeze in Nov. before they get ripe...Raspberries at that time of the year is a nice treat....BUT...not worth the space. Every year I plan on spraying them with RoundUp...Maybe this will be the year..

Edited by: Northern Winos

 

[smokegrub]

This is an excellent thread. I am planning the addition of some sour cherry trees, blackberries and raspberries this fall. I hope others post their personal experiences and preferences.

Thanks.

 

[Cracked Cork]

We picked a couple of pounds of wild red raspberries today, there is no comparing our cultivated reds with these wild ones. I guess they bred them to look good and forgot about the taste. Crackedcork

 

[NorthernWinos]

You might find the older varieties have more flavor as well....they haven't been manipulate as far from the wild parentage as the new hybrids. We love our old timers.

 

[grapeman]

Did you kill off all those berries Cracked Cork? A couplel of the varieties you listed as no flavor turned out up north here to have great flavor this fall as fall bearers. The Kiwigold is best when it turns a nice golden color. They start out a pale yellow and turn a nice golden color when ripe. At that point, they are extremely flavorful. The Heritage tastes about the same as wild raspberries. The Prelude actually had more flavor and bigger berries as a summer crop, but is fairly prolific as a fall bearer.
An interesting note is that the berries cropped in the high tunnel greenhouse are much more vigorous and have about a tenfold yield. The berries are larger and have much more flavor. The ones outside are brittle and as you describe-almost flavorless.

 

[Scott]

I have planted the Autumn Bliss and Cumberland last year and got a few berries off of them this year and tasted real good. They have alot of new growth this year so am looking foward to next years produce.

 

[NorthernWinos]

I did RoundUp on my fall bearing raspberries...they were Redwing. They were a bit lighter in color and didn't have the flavor of the old variety of summer berries.

It seemed that we only got about half of the fall crop before the frosts came. Some years there were so many little bugs in them that I wouldn't pick any...little burrowing black/brown beetles.....

We would occasionally go out and graze some frozen berries.

I left the old canes and would get a crop during the summer as well and mix the fruit in with the other. Made wine with just them one year combined with apple juice, the color wasn't as nice as the summer berries. They were easy to pick as the berries were out on the tips of the canes, but the canes were brittle.

Probably good to grow in another part of the country...mine are history. I have yet to dig out the roots and fill the trench with compost......Will make a row of the old 'unknown' variety that we brought from the old farm....A shame to waste a row in your garden of fruit that isn't up to your liking.



Edited by: Northern Winos