Blackberry 'Triple Crown'

Triple Crown produces as advertised. My plant is just completed its third season (planted spring of 2009) and I picked at least 3 gallon...Read Mores of berries with almost half again that much falling to the ground (my fault for not picking). The berries are as large as previously noted and have a great taste, nearly equal to the "feral" Himilayas that are so prevalent here in western Oregon. The canes do need some support and pruning of the terminal and lateral branches on the primocanes is necessary just so you can reach the berries the following year. My plant only receives about 6 hours of sunlight in the summer and does great, in fact that helps to reduce sunburn on the berries during hot weather. The new canes continually sprout from the same crown so the plant is not invasive (see my comments on "Prime-Jim"). With just minor staking Triple Crown can be grown in a 4' x 4' area, just give it about about about 6 - 10' of vertical space. In my opinion, this is a very good plant.

I am going to have to completely remove a stand of Triple Crown, probobaly 50+ plants, planted a few years ago due to the leaf curl virus...Read More. research has it to control this virus you must spray insecticide to control the aphid that carries this virus and remove those plants infected.

I have tried many organic approaches to control this situation including introducing Praying Mantis and 9,000 lady bugs to no avail. I absolutely refuse to spray my berries with any insecticide.

The berries I had last year were in fact very large, but super sour unedible.

I am replacing the Triple Crown with a more resistant and sweeter raspberry, the Purple Royalty.

UPDATE:

I changed my rating of this plant to neutral, as instead I let them be to see how they would do. I did lose some plants to the virus, however, the ones that did, and in its second year has made some of the best berries in size and taste that I or anyone else could believe.

The problem I had mentioned concerning the berries last year as I found - I was picking them too early, letting them sit for a couple of days to ripen and get sweeter failed as they remained sour, which in itself leads to another problem is that they must be processed or eaten within days, so this is another drawback to this berry. Becuase of this, shipping is virtually not an option should you want to do so while also these berries are very tender once ripe, they damge and mold easily.

Next year I will be implementing some measures to help reduce the aphid virus such as transplanting nearby tomatoes and cutting wild brush back.

Otherwise becuase of the susceptability to the Aphid Virus, while the fruit of this plant is "Top of its Class" it is a real bummer to have to pull out what was once a beautiful vine, thus upgrading my previous negative rating to a neutral

I did buy the Purple Royalty and planted elsewhere, so it is definately not a loss there in that sense. Will update when that comes in.

I purchaded a Flat (10 tubes) from 'Raintree Nursery' 4 years ago. the first year these thornless black berry gave us about 5 lbs of berr...Read Moreies total. The 2nd and 3rd years the berry production was outstanding! We picked 50+ pounds of berries. And they are as big as your thumb . the discription from 'Raintree' is below.
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An improved Chester that can produce 30 pounds of delicious berries per plant. A large, very sweet, shiny blackberry that is by far the most productive. It is great eaten fresh or used to make jelly, toppings or juice. It thrives in areas of the country too cold for other blackberries. Triple Crown begins ripening in early August when most of the other blackberries are winding down and continues prodigiously producing until fall frosts. The vigorous canes are up to two inches in diameter and can grow to 15 feet long. Grow it like a vining blackberry, at 8 foot spacing. Hint for those with less space: Cut the new cane the first summer at 6 feet tall and snip the laterals back to two feet long in the winter. If you use this method, use a 3 foot spacing and use a top wire to tie the upright canes to.