If in fact your Chief is exactly that, it sounds like it is a variety that is worth trying in the Far North. It is very frustrating when you can't trust the labeling of a nursery.

The only variety that I have found to be good in our area so far, is Boyne. It puts out a very good tasting, medium sized berries. It does suffer some winter die back though. The majority of my primocanes get to about 5 or 6 foot. A lot of these get winter killed back to about 4 ft tall. The laterals in the spring are then in the 2ft to 4ft range which makes for a lot of low picking.

I agree with you Konrad, about late varieties. Too many years where you get nothing because of early freezes. I'm going to gamble and give Chief a try, but it won't be because I'm unhappy with Boyne.

You have a nice set up!
It put one Boyne in and lost it, think the fall planting did it,..have tasted the berry from elswhere and liked it.
So many joices, I find most red one's taste similar, some milder then others but this,..so called Chief got my attention, perhaps it has to do with some special growing contition this year, one needs to avaluate of several years and see, I'll keep and eye on this one.

Purple Roalty desapointements,..guess I'm not the only one.

Here is a link that might be useful: Purple Raspberry Varieties

Hope to see more chime in here. I am waiting for the fall sale to get raspberries. I had never given it much thought till this post LOL

Konrad, I was given an unnamed dwarf selection developed in Alberta, these I have found to have very good flavor and you are welcome to try them.

Did the 'Viking' turn out okay for you? Some folks have a bit of trouble with winterkill of this variety and others, it is a good idea to have a patch situated where it will not receive full winter sun, this really helps to avoid cane desiccation. This year's crop of 'Viking' is outstanding and I think also very tasty :)

Terrance

Thank you all!
Reading more on raspberries and flavor I almost have to agree that lots of rain,..which we had, makes some berries to go bland,..especially the more milder one's, like purple royalty. I could swear, last year it had more flavor but then I only had a handful to pick.
Terry, that also includes Viking. I had my wife in the patch today and she doesn't know what I grow.
First try was Purple Royalty,..she say's no taste!
Second was the little Latham berries,...no taste!
Third, Viking...........................................no taste!
I'm pretty sure Viking had better taste last year.
Think some canes died down so has hardly any berries this year. On the good note,..they have grown tremendous amount of new shoots this year, hopefully they survive the winter.

We voted second place for Nova, even matched would be Souris.
I have also Killarney,.. but need to find fruit and tag.
Also have the black, not sure the name since it was given to me, ..it's got a unique flavor, I like it, my wife didn't.

Have bought a couple of plants from a Montreal Nursery, supposed to taste like wild ones but the size of a regular one.
Only got one plant growing, the rest never grew, hopefully next year it will produce.

Thank you Terry with the offer,..not sure if I like dwarf, I'm getting older and bending down gets harder with age LOL

Yes, too much rain washes out the flavor of raspberries ... though, this year, my region has received near perfect timely rains and missing many of the storms that have hit parts of Edmonton. We enjoy lots of visitors to our home who have commented on how delicious and productive the raspberries are.

It is funny about the flavor aspect, my sister and I had both grown 'Nova' and removed them because of the lack of flavor ... but, maybe, we had not received the real 'Nova', there are often variety mix ups coming from the nurseries.

Konrad, I understand about the bending down part, I would not want a long row of dwarf raspberries, just enough to enjoy a few of these plants.

Red Bounty that I planted 2 years ago came into full production. The berries were large 1 inch by 1 inch and plentiful .I found them pleasant to eat and not overly tart.

Thank you goldenheights!
Never heard of these.

Here is a picture from the tasty Chief, [top].
Bottom is the little wild raspberry size Latham, ..just to compare.

We've been heaving good heat with the right amount of moisture,
pushing berries a little ahead, was eating some Latham yesterday.

Terry,...the thornless Viking from you has done well over winter with little die back, ...will be picking at some nice hight,..up to 6 foot!

Konrad, it looks like we'll have another very heavy crop of 'Viking'. I like this variety, but boy does it ever grow TALL! Yesterday, we had been busy staking them up after that storm, it looked like a hurricane had gone through the patch!

That 'Chief' looks good!

Terry, this spring I made a support system with re bar and twine.
Here, showing the Viking, started to pick about a week ago.

Wondering,..seems I got way to much new shoot coming up, [others too], making it too dense and dark for fruiting stems, do you cut out any? Guess row should be kept narrow.

Viking seems better in taste this year,..my daughter liked them the best of all I got.

Rather disappointing for the Chief, they seem not hardy,..
mostly all new shoot coming up now, barely any berries!

So far, Souris, Killarney, and Nova are also very good.
The Latham, which I disliked last year of it's size, I gave it a OK
voting this year,...earliest to pick, very nice flavor!

Viking, about half of the row.

Here you see NOVA on the left, on the right Chief, [no fruit]...you see better the re bar support system.

Here you see it better.

Konrad, nice photos, your raspberries look very well tended! I also use rebar and twine to hold up our raspberries, the rebar is sooo simple and easy to use compared to other methods.

'Viking' is an excellent variety, people are always amazed to see our very tall vigorous raspberry canes covered in a heavy crop of tasty fruit ... and thornless to boot! Some of the new canes are a whopping 9 ft high and these are just in average soil with no fertilizer or manure added.

Yep....tons of berries now, I over did it, but,..now I can blend my
Evans cherry wine with raspberry!

Konrad, have you ever tried making raspberry mead?

No, I never will, reason, too much water wine, ..I want the healthy wine from juice only.

I have Polka, Anne and Caroline. Anne are ok but I find them kind of bland, very low acidity. Also they are low producers. Polka are very productive and good fresh eating. Berries arent as big as Caroline, but they are more abundant and also dont grow quite as tall which is nice. Caroline are quite productive and have a larger berry, but they dont produce quite as much as Polka and are tarter, better for cooking and preserves.

'Viking' continues to be my best and most productive raspberry. Friends and visitors often request canes after seeing and tasting this excellent variety. Maybe, only once or twice have I ever had any winterkill issues with it .... though, I would not recommend planting in a severe frost pocket.

The best flavored is the dwarf nearly thornless selection developed by Robert Erskine. Plants only reach about waist height, a bit short for my liking, so I went ahead and crossed it with 'Viking' in hopes of obtaining plants that top out at about 6 ft tall and require no tipping back in the spring.

I enjoyed the fall run of the Double Delight that I have, I had left last years canes and let them produce but they were tart. Had plenty of moisture in the fall so the new canes produced a lot but frost got about half. Next spring I will cut them down and hope that they start earlier. They were about 3/4" in diameter and hung on very well.

Well...Viking for me is a very shy producer over the 3 years because of winter damage, then whatever is alive not many berries form on the damaged canes and small also. Picture above showing with mostly new canes, grown next to spruce trees, sheltered from the west. I might transplant some to a more dryer location and see, here it's fairly wet and don't harden off very good it seems. Heaving them along a row of spruce trees I thought they shouldn't have too much moisture.

So far, Nova I like best, then Killarney.

Yes, it appears something about your site prevents 'Viking' from thriving and producing heavily. Mine always grow very strong and tall and produce a phenomenal crop over a prolonged period and friends and visitors gravitate to the patch in amazement of these raspberries. I guess, it just goes to show how varieties can perform much differently even in the same climate.

Good for you, lengrows! ...I'm only abut 17 years behind you, ..yes, best is to grow your own.

as an aside, you can always use foam tubes for insulating pipes over the twine in your rows if you are finding that it is causing some wear on your newer soft vines. Worked well for me last year.

I'm not sure of the hardiness of this type but I LOVE fall gold raspberries. I was picking into November. Can produce two crops. One in early spring and one early fall. So good. So sweet. Much prefer them over the lathams (that barely produced). Maybe this latham will flourish!

I do enjoy the Fall Gold raspberries flavor, very sweet and mild. But mine are not nearly as vigorous or hardy as Boyne. So if I had to plant only one (thankfully, I don't have to choose! ;) ) I would plant a red raspberry instead.

I have Honey Queen for about 7years and put one cane of Fall Gold to compare, yeah.. only one because my gut feeling said the Honey Queen is better, it's a terrific producer, good flavor, mild sweet and hardy for me.

From a website..Honey Queen..

Field testing shows it to be less productive than the old Fall Gold, but with larger berries, a better flavour and most important,
--- it ripens much earlier than Fall Gold!

Wow! Cool. Will have to try it!!

I love the big berries. A few is a mouth full.

This may not apply for your warmer zone 6,...remember, this is northerly cold zone 1, 2, 3...pushing 4. The test was done in zone 3.