ISO Prime-Ark Freedom Blackberry

Hold on gang..... Never grown blackberries before. So I don't mess this up... You're saying I should cut it down to the ground every year and just use first year growth? I was under the impression that I could get fruit from 1st and 2nd year growth with the Primeark? If that's correct, do I cut down after second year fruiting?

I feel like such a noob :LOL:
 
TorontoJoe said:
Hold on gang..... Never grown blackberries before. So I don't mess this up... You're saying I should cut it down to the ground every year and just use first year growth? I was under the impression that I could get fruit from 1st and 2nd year growth with the Primeark? If that's correct, do I cut down after second year fruiting?

I feel like such a noob :LOL:
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Hang tight I’m trying to find this video for you. It explains the fruit on first years growth. It’s very specific and if you jack it up, you gets nada. lol
 
TorontoJoe said:
Hold on gang..... Never grown blackberries before. So I don't mess this up... You're saying I should cut it down to the ground every year and just use first year growth? I was under the impression that I could get fruit from 1st and 2nd year growth with the Primeark? If that's correct, do I cut down after second year fruiting?

I feel like such a noob :LOL:
Click to expand...

I’m new to this style also, my dad’s black berries are all on 2nd year canes. So I got these and if they work out well he’s going to add these to his patch. Yall would be impressed. He will probably get about 20+ lbs of blackberries this year from like 3-4 plants that grow in like 6-12 inches of soil between his house and outdoor kitchen along side his house. There’s a new one growing in the cracks of the cement by his pool. 😂😂 he doesn’t do anything for them either except keep them trellised nice with the TPUPS method. When/if they get watered, they get water from my daughter fresh from the swimming pool. 😂😂 but they grow crazy vigorously every year and do amazing.
 
For varieties that only fruit on Floricanes or 2nd year cane fruiting(Most varieties outside of the UoA PrimeArk program just fruit on floricanes), you need to keep the primocanes of current year and remove floricanes of current year once done fruiting except Ponca. In this case, you only prune the dead tip but keep the leaves to provide energy for the tree. Also, tiping (removing tip) is done when primocane is grown high enough (around 3-4 ft depending on your trelis if you have one) Tiping is important as it increases your yield by 3-5 times with the same space.

Then, the primocanes are held overwinter and become floricanes of next season. During winter, there may be damages on these primocanes that may affect yield next season.

In the UoA breeding program, SweetArk Ponca and Caddo are Floricane fruiting varieties, while the PrimeArk Freedom, Horizon etc are primocane and floricane fruiting. If I remember correctly, wild blackberries fruit on floricanes only. UoA breed it with raspberries, which has primocane fruiting traits and was successful in breeding new primocane fruiting blackberries.

For primocanes fruiting varieties, you get 2 crops, kinda like breba(on old wood) and main(on new wood) in figs.

Some people like me would just cut it all clean(or mow over it) by season end depending on location/climate. Nothing left for pests/disease and nothing to protect or worry about damage. Because at some of my locations, the fruits from these winterized primocanes(future floricanes) are bad quality(sour, underdeveloped, small, hard or even deformed). Without these floricanes, the plant would focus on the primocane crop instead of growing the bad floricane crop and then pushing the primocanes at the same time.

This mow over approach is not needed in the south or locations where heat and sunlight comes on early in the season. But this would be a valid consideration for a much colder zone with a late start and a shorter season.

Try out the normal approach for a year or two. Then, decide whether it is worth trying the clean cut approach for winter. Or take a guess at how warm temperatures are going to be in the fruit setting & ripening months.
 
I just took these photos to try to explain my pruning process.

In the first photo, the tan colored canes in the center fruited last year. They were pruned once they were done fruiting. I should have pruned down to ground, but, oh well. If the leaves are not diseased, you can prune these canes back in late Winter. My blackberry leaves are generally worn out by late Summer so I prune at that time.

The greenish canes (will turn purple shortly) are this seasons floricanes (last years primocanes) and have flowered and will start producing in July. They will be pruned to the ground in late Summer.

The purple canes (will turn green shortly) are the primocanes, which will produce fruit next year as floricanes. I let them grow anywhere from 3-7’ depending on the location they are growing and then I pinch them. If growing with a wire trellis you have to securely tie the main cane and laterals to the wire so they won’t bend against the wire in wind storms (I lost plenty of canes over the Winter).

This is the basic process for floricane producing blackberries. They are very easy to grow, I never fertilize them and seldom water them. The only tedious issue is tying them up and maneuvering amongst the canes in mid-Summer in high humidity. Picking blackberries also becomes tedious at times, but it’s a good problem to have.

The second photo is from neighbors side of fence. The rabbits took out a number of canes over Winter, but once the primocanes get going, the fence line will fill be a solid mass of primocanes and floricanes.

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So on something like Primark... what happens if one were to leave on wood for a third year? Assuming they were healthy would they fruit again?

@grasshopper I assume tipping increases production due to more vertical shoots of the main stem?
 
On the Primeark, the canes die off by 2nd year end. I don't think anyone keep them for another season, at least not the UoA people.

Hee hee, it is not complicated. Most of the pruning are natural to gardeners. If it is done fruiting and brown, you cut it off. Tie them if you have trelis, that applies to even the erect varieties. Tiping greatly improves your yield but also delay fruiting (because it needs to grow all the additional laterals) If the first crop (floricane) don't do well, consider concentrating on the primocanes.

Floricanes can sustain damage by critters/weather/disease during the winter/early spring. That is one drawback to a floricane fruiting only variety, which you can potentially lose the whole season to some of the winter challenges. The 2nd one being you won't have fruit the first season but you can amend that by buying a 2nd year plant, which I normally do.

Just to clarify, according to UoA, both primocane fruiting and thornlessness are recessive genetic traits. The first primocane was found by Hillquist in Ashland, VA. The primocane fruiting blackberry, named Hillquist was an unicorn and they started crossing it with others back in 1967, and 8 generations later came Prime-Ark Freedom. There were famous blackberry and raspberry crosses like tayberry and loganberry.
 
UoA fertilizes their blackberries in spring and then again after the floricanes are done, to help the primocanes develop. At least that has been their trial protocols. They do the first nitrogen fertilization at 56 kg/ha, the second one at 23. I think that is 5.6g per m2. They tip at 1.1m of height, laterals at 0.4m

No need to really measure or be precise but it helps to get the general idea.

Also, in spring, one application of liquid lime sulfur (94 L/ha), a fungicide to control anthracnose. A lot of new varieties are anthracnose resistant.

They also apply an insecticide to control Raspberry crown borer(a moth that looks like yellow jacket & its larvae attacks the cane or the crown) in October. For us, we can pay attention to any wilting tips or weak growth if the borers attack the upper part of the plant. You'll see 2 rings of tiny holes near the tip areas where they basically lay eggs between rings. I had that a few times on raspberries but sometimes, on blackberries as well. I just cut off the cane and destroy it before sending it to trash.
 
Hey gang. The Prime Ark’s I got seem to be happy and ready to move into the ground. A few questions for those of you with experience here

How much space do you like to have between it and other crops?

Do you try to plant in a spot you can trellis? I might able to plant against a fence but I’m not sure if it’s a big deal

Do these spread aggressively? Should I border the plant below grade to prevent it taking over?

I’m looking forward to these…. Next year :)
 
TorontoJoe said:
Hey gang. The Prime Ark’s I got seem to be happy and ready to move into the ground. A few questions for those of you with experience here

How much space do you like to have between it and other crops?

Do you try to plant in a spot you can trellis? I might able to plant against a fence but I’m not sure if it’s a big deal

Do these spread aggressively? Should I border the plant below grade to prevent it taking over?

I’m looking forward to these…. Next year :)
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Not much experience, since this is it's first year in ground, but I planted leaving about 3 ft either side of the plant in anticipation of it filling out the space as it matures. The extra space also allows me room to make a small florida weave trellis out of some steel t posts and cable of some sort.

Also, just an small update on my plant from Wellspring. If it is a TC plant, it's fruiting doesn't seem to be affected as it has set some sizeable berries and has cane's over 3 feet tall.
 
I have mine about 2.5 feet from the fence and am doing a trellis with T posts that’s got two wires, one like hip height, and another shoulder height. They’re about 3 feet apart from each other ( I only have two of those) once a shoot gets and inch or two above the bottom wire I’ll tip it. That way it forces the growth on 2/3 of the branches then work those branches to stay along the wire. Same for the top wire.

Worth noting, I trimmed the new shoots down to 4-5 and tied the gardening ribbon to two of them, and they stalled out. Since then, it’s shot out a bunch more new shoots, so I’m experimenting with them and going to leave a few of the new shoots. Some are already bigger than when I tied them last time. So I may just let these grow until they reach the desired wires.

These are new to me so still figuring out things.
 
t_corey89 said:
I have mine about 2.5 feet from the fence and am doing a trellis with T posts that’s got two wires, one like hip height, and another shoulder height. They’re about 3 feet apart from each other ( I only have two of those) once a shoot gets and inch or two above the bottom wire I’ll tip it. That way it forces the growth on 2/3 of the branches then work those branches to stay along the wire. Same for the top wire.

Worth noting, I trimmed the new shoots down to 4-5 and tied the gardening ribbon to two of them, and they stalled out. Since then, it’s shot out a bunch more new shoots, so I’m experimenting with them and going to leave a few of the new shoots. Some are already bigger than when I tied them last time. So I may just let these grow until they reach the desired wires.

These are new to me so still figuring out things.
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Will they fall over if not trellised?
 
They fall over once you have berries. The fruit from the tip of canes will cause the canes to hunch over and in some cases, they’ll root and run through the ground.

Mine got too heavy after the second year so I had to trellis them, I got away with no trellis first year since they were young but erect canes. Mine usually grow from roots but very close to the rootball, I don’t see them pop up a few inches or feet away from the main plant to be honest.

They do grow like crazy so I would probably advise against the fence unless you’re able to pick fruit from the other side, then it would work out well. But if it’s a fence and the other side is your neighbor, another property etc then you will have blackberries growing through the fence and fruiting in a place you won’t be able to pick from 😅
 
TorontoJoe said:
Hey gang. The Prime Ark’s I got seem to be happy and ready to move into the ground. A few questions for those of you with experience here

How much space do you like to have between it and other crops?

Do you try to plant in a spot you can trellis? I might able to plant against a fence but I’m not sure if it’s a big deal

Do these spread aggressively? Should I border the plant below grade to prevent it taking over?

I’m looking forward to these…. Next year :)
Click to expand...
I have mine set up with two T-posts and I did a Florida weave trellis. I was using garden string but it’s too weak to bear the weight of my canes and fruit at this stage so thinking about upgrading to a more sturdy and durable material to Florida weave them.

Keeps the ground level clear and berries up in the air, away from disease and bugs 🐜 I don’t worry about labeling my canes etc, in the early spring they’ll turn brown and show no green when you cut, those are your dead canes and the ones that aren’t brown are your previous year’s growth :)
 

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They're in the ground. Ended up with 4 nice little plants to work with.

I forgot to take a pic... and now I sat down after working in the yard all day so I can't get back up to go take one now :LOL: Will try tomorrow.... They're not big yet

I ended up planting against a south facing fence. I wanted to avoid them shading other plants, Also, I figured in this spot I can always tie trellis them to the fence... There's also nothing else near it in the ground. My I-258 is the closest and that's probably 5 meters (16ft) away.

There's also a raccoon trap right on the other side of the fence... so hopefully it goes for that before my berries! :p

@ktrain - no rush but when you get a chance could you please post a few pics of yours? Of the 4 I planted, one was around knee high and three just over the ankle. I'm kind of curious as to what to expect in terms of growth this year.
 
TorontoJoe said:
They're in the ground. Ended up with 4 nice little plants to work with.

I forgot to take a pic... and now I sat down after working in the yard all day so I can't get back up to go take one now :LOL: Will try tomorrow.... They're not big yet

I ended up planting against a south facing fence. I wanted to avoid them shading other plants, Also, I figured in this spot I can always tie trellis them to the fence... There's also nothing else near it in the ground. My I-258 is the closest and that's probably 5 meters (16ft) away.

There's also a raccoon trap right on the other side of the fence... so hopefully it goes for that before my berries! :p

@ktrain - no rush but when you get a chance could you please post a few pics of yours? Of the 4 I planted, one was around knee high and three just over the ankle. I'm kind of curious as to what to expect in terms of growth this year.
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Yea I can get some pics tomorrow, I did just prune the largest ones out because they were done...all the new ones are taking over now.
 
ktrain said:
Yea I can get some pics tomorrow, I did just prune the largest ones out because they were done...all the new ones are taking over now.
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I'm going to have to get the hang of pruning this. As far as I can tell it's third year wood + anything that looks crappy
 
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