North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Jim Fruth" <jfruth@uslink.net>]

Donna,
   My boysenberries haven't been attacked by any disease here in zone 
3..................yet. Cane borers sure like them though.  I've had them 
for 5 - 6 years now.  Don't know what variety; I bought them from one of the 
'junk plant' nurseries.  Wild blackberries get rust here but it hasn't 
spread to anything except, occasionally to one of my commercial blackberry 
varieties.  Summers are quite humid here so I'd expect that if the Boysens 
were going to get sick, they would have by now.  Boysenberries are fun 
because the fruits are 4 to 5 times larger than raspberries.
   I'm not in the business of selling Boysenberry plants.  There hasn't 
been any demand.  I did trade some to Heron Breen for some of her Bangor 
Blackberry plants.  Boysens don't tip-root readily but I always encourage a 
few to start plants because I never know who might want some.

Jim Fruth
Brambleberry Farm
Pequot Lakes, MN  56472
www.bberryfarm.com
(218)568-8483 [Store]
(218)831-7018 [My Cell]

I ordered blackberries last year, and will order a few more with a friend. 
I've been tempted to try Boysen Berries, they sound like fun and good 
eating.  However, we have both rust and anthracnose in wild brambles here, 
and I had selected only disease resistant blackberries.  I know there is no 
mention anywhere of resistance in Boysen berries, but tell me, are they 
likely to just pine away in a couple of years?
Donna in Tennessee, z6.