yeah, i'm excited myself as mine are finally fully grown plants now and this spring i have berries forming already, only a couple last year and the birds got everything but 1 or 2 but from the growth habits of it to the possibility of a nice fall crop here in New York i can't wait myself i love Blackberries and i got some Apache right next to Freedoms so it will be interesting to see how they fair, i found that Double Pinching these to promote lateral growth on Primocanes may delay the Fall Harvest here in Northeast so i may only Tip em once as i lost my Fall Harvest due to Frost .

How you doing in Socal with the extended warm weather during the Fall months, big Harvests ?

Just curious

thanx

If the local nursery still have any when I go by tomorrow I may pick up a couple of Prime-Ark Freedoms to fill in gaps, I planted 6 Prime-Ark Travelers this year along with 11 Ouachita's, 6 Osages and 4 Sweetie Pies , and I lost one of the nearly knee high Travelers yesterday (don't know how, but it is gone, no sign of it, and I also have a Ouachita that is failing to grow)

I love my PRF as well but be prepared for them spreading all around, I've got some new growth 15' from the mother plant which I just dig up and re-plant them. Has anyone tried pinching them at 12"-15" last year I would like to see how the laterals
look, I pinched mine at 5' last year.

I pinch mine when they're 18-24" or so. I read somewhere it's better to take off like 12" or so than just tipping them, but I can't remember where I read that or if it's true.

The laterals are as big as the canes that were pinched. So if they're the thick monster canes, the laterals will be as well. My prime arks get insanely big, I'm not sure I've figured out a good trellis method for them yet.

Of my four PAFs that are 11 months old, the one in year round full sun is doing the best with a good fluorocane harvest (150 chill hours!) that started the last week of April but will likely end by the last week of May. Fortunately, I have a monster 26 month old Ouachita that is on schedule to give me blackberries from the last week in May through and until the PAFs start providing an expected primocane harvest in August. Ouachita also has 1-1/8" base diameter thornless canes very much like a PAF but with ~half sized laterals and leaves. The Ouachita makes up for smaller sized berries by producing far more of them that in my opinion are at least as tasty as the PAF berries. I recommend the Ouachita as an ideal matchup with PAFs for a continuous thornless blackberry harvest from late April through until the PAF ceases its late season primocane production. I am double tipping my PAFs (at 24" and then 36") with the hope for both dalayed and increased primocane fruiting. I single tip my Ouachita canes at 5'. I am using monthly applications of snail and slug pellets to keep the slugs and California Brown Snails away and 'am looking for a way to repel egg laying nocturnal moths and lettuce butterflies.

Just bought one from IndianaBerry, it came bare root with the canes trimmed off, pretty standard from what I hear. Just bummed that the roots were snapped in half. It was jammed into the package with a blueberry plant and must have been damaged during shipping. Very disappointed! I'll have to call them Monday and see if they can send another. Any chance that the roots would survive this way? Not sure how hardy they are.

You got 2 plants now, don't need much of anything to get a plant started....if u can get them to send you a new plant you'll be doing great

I planted 10 Freedoms last year and actually got a few berries before the frost. The berries were so good it was startling. I am able to compare to TC, Natchez, Black Satin, and Arapaho. I am excited to hear people confirm the great taste. I can't wait for the fall crop.

Has anyone had any luck without a trellis and tipping at 2 feet or less?

Greenhorn,

Thanks for the advice! Two canes have pushed up from the largest piece of root that I planted, so I'm happy enough. The smaller root with the existing bit of cane hasn't done anything. I'll give it more time to see if it's able to push things out. I did not end up calling IndianaBerry, the blackberries and blueberry bush I bought from them were pretty inexpensive. I've got a plant, good enough.

For those northern growers out there wondering if Freedom would be good for you due to primacane bearing I am sorry to let you know that the season is too short to ripen the berries. The roots survive winter and they send up primacanes but here in zone 4 the berries are just turning red in late september/early october and the first frost kills them.

I have been watching these for a while but unfortunately there are no primocane varieties available here yet. Would anyone possibly be so kind as to post a root cutting?

The University of Arkansas developed and has applied for patents for the Prime Ark Freedom variety. However, up until the patents are issued, I think that someone could legally post a root cutting without paying a small royalty to the University. However, I play it safe and recommend that anyone get their PAF cuttings/plants from authorized sources that do pay the royalty. I got my four tissue cultures last year from helloorganics on Ebay for a total package price of $21.99 including royalties and two day shipping from Florida to me in California that I think is a deal. After barely 12 months, the four small tissue cultures are now eight primocanes that are ~5 feet tall and each with ~7 flowering branches each after double tipping them at 2' and then 3'. The secret of success with the PAF variety is to tip the primocanes at least once or more to get them to branch out. Next year I plan on triple or even quadruple tipping the new primocanes by pinching off the top ~1" at 18", 24", 30", and then maybe 36" in height to get sturdier canes with lots more branches and a bigger later season primocane crop. Double tipping didn't appear to delay budding for me since all eight of my primocanes are still on schedule for harvest starting mid August through September with a dozen blossoms already open and a couple already having shed their petals. Search for Prime Ark Freedom Blackberry on Ebay and you'll see several sellers. I also recommend the University's Ouachita thornless variety that is giving me berries throughout the nearly 3 months between the PAF fluorocane and primocane harvests. The PAF and Ouachita berries are the best tasting to me although I have not yet tried the University's Osage thornless variety that reportedly complements the Ouachita with its harvest starting a week earlier.

Hi everyone, I have been trying to work out a way to buy a few of the prime ark varieties but none of the outlets I have contacted are willing to ship internationally. There are no primocane blackberries available here unfortunately. I am wondering if anyone would be up for saving and sending some seed from their plants ? I imagine they wont come true but fingers crossed I will be able to get at least one seedling with the primocane gene / phenotype expression. Any help would be greatly appreciated! If you would like to help please send me an e-mail at way.of.tea.nz@gmail.com

First of all there is a customs issue with shipping Prime Ark Freedom overseas, the bigger issue is shipping it a long ways in a box to get to you after customs....after a certain amount of time it would be dead i'm afraid........maybe wintertime in dry ice shipping while dormant.

Hopefully they will start growing overseas soon, but don't give up hope if there's a will there's a way.

Hi greenhorn2, thanks for the suggestion of winter shipping perhaps shipping dormant root cuttings would work.

I have moved on from live material and am in search of seeds now :)

I see that Burpees is selling PAF Blackberry seeds now.

This year it was about 9 weeks between the end of my PAF fluorocance harvest and the start of the PAF primocane harvest that was nicely filled in by my Ouachita blackberry harvest

Both of my blackberry varieties suffered from infestations from four different kinds of caterpillars with the climbing cutworms doing most of the damage. I have had great success in controlling the infestations by spraying "BT" bacteria, Bacillus Therogensis, that specifically kills caterpillars without harming beneficial honey bees.

I got 8oz of BT, Southern AG brand, from Home Depot for only $8 that should last me for ~2 years. A little goes a long way.

I strongly recommend the BT for caterpillar control.

planted three PAFs in the summer and one in the fall, all too late for fruit this year. anticipating wicked production in 2018.

Had to rip out a huge Ouachita blacberry plant that became hopelessly infested with "redberry mites." Even though my PAFs were intermingled with the infected Ouachita, there is no sign of "redberry" disease in them. Looks to me like PAFs are resistant to "redberry mites."

it's not even spring yet, but the PAF growth is taking off. i didn't know the leaves could get this huge.

My prime ark seems to be taking off as well. It was a $5 seedling at the local rare fruit growers and has done better than my Apache.

Here in Louisiana my Prime Ark Freedoms were the first to green up over the last couple of weeks, quickly followed by my Prime Ark Travelers, my Osage, Ouachita, and Sweetie Pies, ave all started growing, but are not yet covered in green leaves like the primocane varieties are.

a stem cutting that I'm growing indoors in a plastic cup is showing a bud, whereas the PAFs outside that are 50x larger have yet to do so.

can that single bud self-pollinate?

I've never grown a blackberry plant from seed but understand that individual buds can self pollinate. By far, the best and easiest way to propagate blackberry plants is with a root cutting. I've tried to propagate blackberry plants from stem cuttings but have never been successful even after using hormone treatments.

Were you able to get your stem cutting to grow roots?

it's a bit amusing to see a single bud, and maybe eventually a blackberry, develop on a diminutive blackberry plant housed in a mere cup :)

yup, i've had some success propagating stem cuttings in coco coir. about half rooted. among the failures, one turned necrotic black, and one turned bright yellow when it died. i suspect i overwatered the one that turned yellow. i discuss my propagation journey in this thread: https://www.gardenweb.com/discussions/4921460/propagating-blackberry-tip-cuttingstrials-and-errors?n=17

my current experiment is trying to get a PAF cutting to root in soil + worm castings, and i think after a few weeks, i see a root reaching the wall of its plastic container. huzzah.

whoa. i see some primocanes coming up around my most established plant. pretty exciting development for a newbie gardener like me.

My second year here in Mississippi, my plants were babies from norse farms.. three inches tall. Planted in spring and I got some fruit off them the same year. I let them get up 3 foot tipped them and then let laterals get out 2 foot an tipped them.

This is a heads up for those in mid zones like 7. My weather has been warm and then A FROST COMES in.

My new primal canes were coming up and looking good. I did not pay attention to frost warning. It got my canes and some were only two foot tall. They will now shoot out laterals.

They are blooming like crazy as well the frost will bite them. We are here at Apr 15th an another Frost may hit.

So when you plant these consider having a way to cover them. I Have seen that large production farms are using a high tunnel. These PAF dont do well in high heat either. So a structure that allows shade cloth for summer would be good.

They will try to make a late crop and I had some making berries.. but again a crazy early frost.. in October zaped them. The weather has been unpredictible to say the least.

So build a structure around them and prepare for it. These are incrediable berry producing plants and fast growing super plant.. I get excited just watching them grow.. but you have to protect them from crazy weather changes.

This is also my second year with PAF in northern Mississippi. I planted them in 25 gallon fabric pots because we were moving houses but I may leave them in the pots because our weather can't ever make up it's mind. I've had to move them into the garage twice this spring to keep the flowers and now berries from freezing.

I bought 2 PAF from Nourse as bare roots and I'm getting flowers on first year canes (out of the ground) on both of them in late June.

I thought "primocane fruiting"/"autumn bearing" blackberries would only produce fruit their first year in autumn, it's not even hot summer here yet in socal, isn't it too early for an autumn flowering? Did I happen upon a method to force canes to fruit early somehow? Can they flower early if stressed or heavily fertilized maybe? Should I remove flowers to encourage more growth for autumn?

Plants are grown in 10 gallon fabric pouches, soil is half costco cheap compost, and half azalea acid loving mix, planted in late Feb(soonest nourse would ship). Watered daily (root pouches dry too fast, I think that was a mistake) with phosphoric acid phdown, 20/20/20 general liquid fertilizer used weekly, they were "tipped" early when the deer found and stripped them before they reached 3 feet, recovering.

These pictures, taken June 30th show the primocanes on 3yo PAF's that were given 20-20-20 fertilizer once each in both February and March. The fluorocance harvest finished a week ago and the promocane harvest looks to start in three weeks.

Oh so that IS the 'autumn' crop then? It just shows up that early in SD? Alright, I thought it would be like my autumn raspberry that didn't put on autumn flowers until November last year.

Soooo what do you get in autumn on your PAF in SD then? Is there a chance for a third crop on secondary primocane if the first primocane crop is so early?

In San Diego 2 miles from the beach, I get primocane berries every day from the last week of July 'til mid September and then berries every week through November followed by a few primocane berries each month through the winter barring a winter night that dips below 32 degrees F. Last winter temps never got below 33 degrees.

Without temps below 33 degrees, you get at least a few PAF berries 12 months/yr with berries every day in May and in August.