David Handley Vegetable/Small Fruit Specialist
Today we’re going to talk about raspberry varieties of the ever-bearing type, also known
as primo cane-fruiting raspberries. These raspberries will bear a crop on the two-year
canes at a normal time in the summer, but they’ll also bear a small crop in the fall
on the primo canes, or those first-year canes with the green bark. One of the things you
need to look for with primo cane-fruiting or ever-bearing raspberries is maturity date,
because most of the ever-bearing varieties won’t mature in time. They won’t ripen
that fall crop in time for you to pick a good crop, so you need to look for early-maturing
ever-bearing-type raspberries. That really limits our selection. I’ve got
some of them here – not all the ones I would recommend for this area, but some of the newer
ones you should be taking a look at that mature nice and early.
First on the list is Polana, a variety from Poland that’s actually been with us for
quite a while. Polana is bred from good stock in that one of its parents is Heritage. Heritage
is one of the better ever-bearing varieties we have, but unfortunately it’s too late
for most of Maine. Unless you’re in the southernmost part of Maine, such as Portland
and south, I wouldn’t recommend Heritage. But Polana is considerably earlier than Heritage,
by about two weeks. That means it’s going to start ripening about the third or fourth
week of August depending on the year. As you can see, the fruit size is a little
bit small. This is actually the summer crop, so I’m not seeing as much potential as I
could. It has good color, but the flavor I would rate as only fair. But at that time
of year it’s probably the only raspberry in town, so you’re not going to get many
arguments about it. It still has pretty good raspberry flavor. So that is Polana.
This is a new one from the same program in Poland, called Polka. This is a few days later
than Polana, but from what I’m seeing of this, I like the fruit quality a little bit
better. It’s larger, firmer and has better flavor. So this is for trial, but if you’re
interested in something a little bit later – say starting about the last week of August,
first week of September – you may be interested in trying Polka.
A new variety from Great Britain is Joan J, and this one looks very promising. You can
see already we’ve got good yields. This is from the two-year canes, but the first-year
canes are also showing us very good yields, very pretty fruit, good eating quality and
very early maturing. So I have a lot of hopes for Joan J. I need a few more years with it
to say it’s a great variety, but the early innings say it’s looking awfully good. It
might be one to try if your nursery has it available.
Now one of the standards here in Maine is Autumn Britten. This is actually a British
variety from Scotland. It matures fairly early, about the first week of September, and has
large fruit, kind of a round shape with excellent flavor. This is not a vigorous plant – it
will take a while for this plant to get established, so you may want to plant it a little closer
than we see in typical recommendations. But it will mature a nice, early crop of excellent-flavored
fruit and also does very well in high tunnel situations.
Finally one that’s a little unusual, a yellow-fruited variety called Anne. There’s another one
called Fall Gold, which is a little bit earlier. Anne is a little bit late for Northern Maine
but should do well in the Mid-State and Southern areas. Nice size, very pale yellow color,
attractive fruit, excellent flavor – this is one of the best eating varieties you’re
going to have. The problem with yellow varieties is if you’re trying to sell them, you have
a tough row to hoe because nobody really wants yellow varieties. They think they’re ill,
they think they’re sick and they don’t make a very attractive jam.
However, if you’re growing these mostly for yourself or you can do some good marketing
with pick-your-own, the flavor will sell people on these. So it’s something to try. This
is a tall plant, not likely very winter hardy if you’re trying to get two crops off of
it, but for just the primo cane crop this one will serve very well.
So remember, with your primo cane-fruiting varieties, you’re looking for a little bit
of hardiness but mostly you’re looking for early maturity. This is an exciting field
because right now there are a lot of new varieties starting to show up with early maturing from
your ever-bearing or primo cane types. So keep an eye on your nursery catalogues, and
of course, keep an eye on our recommendations on the Cooperative Extension website.