North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Jim Fruth <jfruth@uslink.net>]

    Fort Kent King Blackberries are extravagantly productive and I'd
recommend them to anyone whose garden borders a (snow) plowed road and who
owns a snowblower.  I agree with Del Stubbs about them getting burnt
(winterkilled) to the snowline.  I planted mine adjacent to a (ditchless)
road and, after the snowplow goes through, I use my snowblower to blow the
curl onto the weighted-down plants - I use heavy fenceposts, iron pipes,
whatever, to weight the plants down so they are easy to cover with snow.
    Some folks suggested covering the plants with leaves before the snow
arrives so the snowfall would cover them, eliminating the need to blow the
road's snow onto them.  Trouble is that the leaves are difficult (leaves
stick to the thorns) to remove come Spring when I want to trellis the plants
- pine needles work better and are easy to remove.
    I go through the hassle with the Fort Kent plants because all the extra
work is far preferable to stepping on ground hornet's nests when picking in
the wild.  Wild plants don't always get watered when they need it so there
isn't a crop every year.  I can pick 1000% more berries off one Fort King
plant than off ten dozen wild plants.
    Here in Central Minnesota, they ripen in early August, just before the
wild crop ripens.  The berries are larger than any that I have previously
found - I irrigate and fertilize.
    In a few years I'll eradicate the Fort Kent King plants and replace them
with a, yet unnamed, blackberry that I am developing.  It isn't quite as
productive but it is winter-hardy for zone 3 and it suckers a lot less than
Fort Kent.  It will be a year or two before I have enough plants to sell.
-- 

Jim Fruth
Brambleberry Farm
Pequot Lakes, MN
www.bberryfarm.com
Jams, Jellies and Syrups
(218)568-8483 [Store]
(218)831-7018 [My cell]

I am one of the nafex folk that John Bunker of Fedco had testing the Fort
Kent King
blackberry. I am done testing and have dug a number of plants to get rid of
- (I called
John and he said it's ok for me to sell them).
My conclusions: a fine small berry, hardy to -34F or so, burnt to snow line
at -43F. We
have 95 days frost free, so was a challenge sometimes to get ripened.

Del Stubbs