Here are the three answers I got on the Doyle Thornless
Blackberry. I prefer strongly not to inquire further of
these people: I do not know any of them and I'm really on
their fruit growers list by sufferance. It's supposed to be
confined to members of NAFEX and I'm not a member. So I
hope there aren't any questions on what they wrote.
The three answers are separated by lines.
Cheers,
Pat
FIRST ANSWER
You are asking the identical question (of NAFEX)that I did a
year ago. I received zero response so I wondered if any
NAFEXers have it. Locally, I got alot of negative response,
no positives. Since I can grow items that most other
(local) folk don't seem to be able to, I ordered two, just
to see what they are. What I received was two round dirt
balls - apparently, two tissue-cultured plants were sent to
me sans packaging filler. It took several complaints to get
a response and was promised a replacement for this year.
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SECOND ANSWER
My experience has been negative. They've been infected with
anthracnose and also double blossom. If your area is free
of these, you might have better luck than I did. Even
before they got sick, they were not particularly productive
or outstanding in taste.
(The writer is in) zone 6 middle TN
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THIRD ANSWER
My experience with the Doyle blackberry has been much more
positive than [the second answer, above]. I have been
growing Doyle, more or less side-by-side with Triple Crown
for 6 years now, after have rid myself of various thorny
blackberry varieties (Darrow, Shawnee, Cherokee etc.).
Here in northern Virginia, the Doyle is a blackberry
producing machine, outproducing TC by a factor of four or
five. Doyle berry panicles are much larger than anything
else I have seen, and will continue to ripen large
quantities of berries at least 10 days longer than other
varieties. I started with four Doyle plants, and by the
third year those plants produced over 25 gallons of
blackberries. We filled the freezer with them, and I made
blackberry wine, using over 5 gallons of pure juice. I have
had no sign of disease on either Doyle or Triple Crown here,
which was not true of the thorny varieties, which regularly
suffered from crown gall, and various wilts, including, I
suppose, anthracnose. They seem bulletproof to diseases
here.
The quality of the Doyle berry is not quite up to the Triple
Crown standard, since it produces a slightly smaller berry,
which makes it seem a little seedier. And it can be more
tart than some other varieties unless allowed to fully ripen
on the canes. But this is true to some extent of all
blackberries, and if you want a lot of berries for jelly or
winemaking, or just for freezing for winter consumption,
Doyle is hard to beat for the sheer volume of berries it
will produce.
Both Doyle and Triple Crown require a very strong and tall
support trellis to achieve their maximum design potential.
Mine is over 6 feet tall, using treated 4x4's supported by
2x4's across the top, and three No. 9 wires stretched across
at appropriate heights. Both are vigorous growers, TC
slightly more so than Doyle, and will grow thick main canes
nearly an inch across at the base in rich soil. The more
mulch you can give them, the better they like it. I use
stable manure right from the riding stable.
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.
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--
Northern Pennsylvania
"Fascism should more properly be called corporatism,
since it is the merger of state and corporate power."
- Benito Mussolini
