North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Scott Smith <scott@cs.jhu.edu>]

Michael, I successfully grew Marions for about five years doing what you 
mention.  But I have many different fruiting plants and too little time to 
maintain them so I stopped covering them.  I found that several layers of 
heavy rowcover did not work very well, that leaves worked OK, and the best 
was to use a roll of aluminum bubble insulation stapled down on the edges 
with ground staples.  This latter method reflects the sun so keeps them cool 
on warm days and they will not prematurely leaf out; it also provides 
significantly better insulation based on my experiments on my figs.

Michele, I used no winter protection on my Black Pearls.  I expect that with 
the aluminum bubble wrap insulation you will be able to overwinter them in 
your zone.  Dealing with the very thorny Marionberries was a huge pain, but 
since the Black Pearls are thornless they will not be nearly as much work to 
get to the ground and cover.  If I can't get any of the varieties to work 
well for me uncovered I may go back to covering, but with a thornless variety.

The Metolius only fruited one summer.  The problem was they heavily overset.  
Maybe they will be better this summer.

Scott

On Mar 7, 2011, at 4:56 PM, Michael Dossett wrote:

> Scott, have you tried laying the canes on the ground and mulching them? 
> This should help tremendously, particularly in areas with reliable snow 
> cover in the coldest months to help insulate.
> 
> Last year both 'Black Pearl' and 'Marion' came through 3 or 4 nights in a 
> row of ~6 degrees (colder in some spots) without major cold injury issues 
> here in the Willamette Valley of Oregon.  Having said that, it was in early 
> December when the plants are in their deepest dormancy. Early and late cold 
> snaps seem to be the biggest problems as the plants take a while in the 
> fall to reach full dormancy and have relatively short chilling requirements 
> (can't remember exactly but I think 'Marion' is around 350 hours?) so they 
> tend to wake up in late winter, particularly if there is nice weather, and 
> be susceptible to cold then as well.  Often times the buds on 'Marion' 
> start to swell in mid-late January here making the plants particularly 
> susceptible to late cold snaps like the teens that we had a week and a half 
> ago.  
> 
> 'Black Pearl' is quite a bit less susceptible to these issues than 'Marion' 
> but this will probably be the biggest problem for trying most of the 
> trailing types in the mid-atlantic and northeast.
> 
> Michael
> 
> Michael Dossett
> Corvallis, Oregon
> www.Mdossettphoto.com
> phainopepla@yahoo.com
> 
> 
> --- On Mon, 3/7/11, Scott Smith <scott@cs.jhu.edu> wrote:
> 
>> From: Scott Smith <scott@cs.jhu.edu>
>> Subject: Re: [NAFEX] source for 'Black Pearl' blackberry?
>> To: "North American Fruit Explorers" <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
>> Date: Monday, March 7, 2011, 1:10 PM
>> Melissa, I had two Black Pearls and
>> both died to the roots and my low was only about 4F that
>> year which is zone 7.  So, zone 6 is a long ways off, I
>> would put Black Pearl in 7B or 8A.
>> 
>> I am testing many of the new Oregon releases for hardiness;
>> thus far the only hardy one for me is Metolius but it
>> produced poor tasting fruit in my climate.  In your
>> zone 5 I expect none of the western trailing varieties will
>> be hardy and I would recommend growing Triple Crown
>> instead.  Its not as good as Marion but it is still a
>> delicious berry both fresh and cooked.
>> 
>> Scott z7a MD
>> 
>> On Mar 7, 2011, at 9:20 AM, Melissa Kacalanos wrote:
>> 
>>> After thinking for years that blackberries were
>> pointlessly flavorless, I finally tried some 'Marion'
>> blackberry jam, and now I see the point. Delicious!
>>> 
>>> 'Marion' is zone 7, and I'm not foolish enough to try
>> growing it here in zone 5. However, the new cultivar 'Black
>> Pearl' supposedly tastes almost the same, and is reputed to
>> be zone 6, and I might be foolish enough to try that.
>> However, the only source I see for it is Raintree, and their
>> minimum shipping is rather a lot for just one plant. Is
>> anyone else selling it, maybe closer to NY state?
>>> 
>>> Or, does anyone have an extra plant to spare? I could
>> trade plants from my small fruit collection, or my larger
>> collection of culinary herbs.
>>> 
>>> Melissa
>>> zone 5, central NY, under yet another foot of snow as
>> of last night.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> __________________
>>> nafex mailing list
>>> nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
>>> Subscribe, unsubscribe, change your user configuration
>> or find out more about the list here:
>>> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/nafex
>>> NAFEX web site: http://www.nafex.org/
>> 
>> __________________
>> nafex mailing list
>> nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
>> Subscribe, unsubscribe, change your user configuration or
>> find out more about the list here:
>> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/nafex
>> NAFEX web site: http://www.nafex.org/
>> 
> 
> 
> 
> __________________
> nafex mailing list
> nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
> Subscribe, unsubscribe, change your user configuration or find out more 
> about the list here:
> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/nafex
> NAFEX web site: http://www.nafex.org/