奥萨奇 (Osage) 黑莓品种

I ordered two Osage Blackberry plants last year, around late July, as tissue culture plugs and finally planted them in the ground in late August. Going into last winter I had about 1ft of cane growth on each. The young plants were covered with pine straw and made it through the cold winter uninjured. This year their growth has been vigorous, more so than the Ouachita of which that they are often compared. I pruned the plants to maintain a 4ft height, so they expanded outwards in response to the pruning, so they are quite wide (about 5-6ft). My Ouachita, which are allowed to grow to 5ft unpruned, tend to not be wider than 3ft in diameter and make a nice hedge.
From that 1 ft cane, I had several 3ft long fruiting laterals grow out and 20-30 berries to sample. Fruit size is smaller than Ouachita, in the 6-8 gram range; the berries tend to be round or at least rounder than Ouachita. The flavor is sweeter, when ripe, than Ouachita but not as full flavored as Triple Crown. You do have to wait a day or two from the black color stage for the sweetness whereas Triple Crown can be tolerable to eat just as it turns black. Ouachita always requires several days after turning black to arrive at mild sweetness. I would recommend it as a thornless blackberry option but make sure you give it at least 3ft between plants.
I'm including a picture of some of its fruit late in the year (Sept.)