North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Pat Meadows <pat@meadows.pair.com>]

>
>I would expect you to be able to winter over Doyle pretty well in northern 
>PA, although there could be a little tip dieback.  This is not, however, a 
>serious problem if the main canes stays healthy, since these berries fruit 
>on laterals that grow in rapidly in spring.  Floricanes can and should be 
>removed fairly promptly after fruiting so you can keep them out of the way 
>of incoming primocanes.  Don't buy too many of these plants, since they 
>tiproot so readily you will soon be able to make all you want of your own.  
>I pull them out and discard them all the time.
>

Thanks, Don - it's not me asking, I'm just doing a favor for
a friend.  I'll pass the information on.  

I had blackberries (although not Doyle) here in northern PA
and they were winterkilled.  But we have Zone 4 low
temperatures in winter (although we're theoretically in Zone
5).  Specifically, we have temperatures as low as -26 F. The
year that the blackberries were winter killed, we had -26 F
several nights.  That's pretty chilly.

I've given up on them unless I try some specially adapted
blackberries, such as the ones Heron is distributing. 

But really, we probably have colder weather here than in
southern Maine - certainly colder than coastal southern
Maine.  We're in the Appalachians, at about 1700 feet.  And
it's mighty cold here in winter, colder than anyone ever
believes Pennsylvania can be.  (This winter was a mild one
though.)

Cheers,
Pat
-- 
Northern Pennsylvania

"Fascism should more properly be called corporatism, 
since it is the merger of state and corporate power." 
- Benito Mussolini