North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Don Yellman <dyellman@earthlink.net>]

Ginda:  Not having much trouble with birds on the raspberries,
especially since I stopped feeding them all summer long.  But even if I
did, they couldn't keep up with the raspberries we have now.  In spring,
2000, I planted 10 plants of Baba (aka Bababerry).  By July, 2000 they
started to bear, and continued for about six weeks.  This year the
plants are much stronger, and have spread, and from these 10 plants my
wife has been picking over a quart every day since late June, and they
show no signs of slowing down.  They don't seem to have defined spring
and fall seasons; they just keep bearing all summer and fall, and will
grow new canes and bloom as late as August.  The bees are still out
there working the blooms right now.  I planted 10 Fallgold at the same
time, and they are providing a small trickle of candylike sweet berries,
but they are not in the same league as Baba.
   In the 80's I tried Latham and Taylor, as well as Heritage, but gave
up because of poor, almost insignificant production, crumbly berries,
and disease problems.  The Baba is a completly different story.  Flavor
is an arguable point, and it may be that some of the older varieties are
tastier, but the Baba tastes like a red raspberry to me, and we have
gallons of them in the freezer for jam, eat them fresh nearly every day,
and give them away liberally.  I never thought there could be almost too
many red raspberries from such a relatively small planting.  I
understand the Baba was discovered in the wild in California.  Don't
know anything about its hardiness beyond my own zone.
   However, they are aggressive spreaders, and I am going to have to dig
out dozens of plants on the edges to keep them under control.  That will
probably be in March/April 2002.  Rather than destroy them I would be
prepared to send them to interested Nafexers, and would do so at no cost
other than postage and the USPS box that would be most appropriate to
send them.  Unless things get completely out of hand, I should be able
to deal with requests for a half-dozen plants from most interested
growers, and would probably try to send them out in one shot,  in April
or so.  There is no rush here, since this is not something that is going
to happen tomorrow, but if you are interested, remember to provide me
with a mailing address in about March, 2002, assuming I am still here
and kicking, which seems a reasonably good bet at this point.

Rgds, Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA


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