Wound up planting several rows of wineberries. Can’t wait to see how they do!
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Did you prep the soil any, or is it naturally fertile? When do you expect to see any berries?
Speaking of bush-hogging, I did some of that today. I mowed down 3 of the garden plots that had long since stopped producing, and were weed and briar patches. Plus I mowed the south pasture a bit, and around my “orchards”. It was a fine day for it, about 80 and breezy. But it’s supposed to rain tomorrow, and get much cooler later this week, maybe even get a freeze.
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I tilled in about a foot of manure, ashes, and hay about 3 years ago. It was one of my extra beds I hadn’t used yet.
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I somehow missed this topic. I always feel a need to throw in my opinion for better of for worse and I have to say that wineberries are fine for forage but not worth the space to grow for me. The flavor is thin compared to other brambles- but then, I’ve stopped growing them as well. There is just too much to do to harvest small fruit that spoils quickly and takes too long to fill a bucket. My last survivor in that dept. is blueberries, which I will never give up.
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Wineberries have mostly died in Kansas because they can’t handle our heat and drought. The toughest survivors will be the next generation of Kansas wineberries. They can handle months of 90 + degrees or -10F and drought or heavy rains. They are adapting slowly but surely 2-7 plants will survive out of all those I planted.
The plants remaining all but died though a few are starting to do better and adapt. This is a Kansas wine berry that survived in one of the 5 or so locations I tried and it is adapting and becoming very strong. In my location they like clay soil rich in locked up minerals normally unavailable to plants. They are similar to autumn olive in that respect where they can use minerals other plants can’t. They might be invasive where they came from but so far they are not showing it here.
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The harsh, semi-arid wall that is the middle of the country seems to be the reason this fruit hasn’t expanded to the West Coast. I like the wild black cap raspberries a little bit better than the wineberry, by a nose. Wild blackberries can be hit or miss, the wilds growing in a neighbor’s yard are a hit. I’ve never had a bad wineberry.
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Unfortunately my wineberries are dead. They met with death by bulldozer for the greater good of the pond project. I will soon replant. In addition i lost many pawpaws, some peaches, grapes etc…
So the wineberries wouldn’t go without a fight? If they took out the peaches and pawpaws on their way out, I’d think twice about re-planting them 
Scott
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@Chills
They are not overly hardy here. Rather than being a pest here they are a well mannered bush. Will they adapt over time is the question.
We have a bunch of wild wineberries patches at our home. I notice they love to grow along steep slopes that are in partial to full shade. They do take quite a lot of time (and care!) to harvest, but considering they’re a freebie snack that don’t require any attention from me except when harvesting, they are great! We probably collect a liter or so of wild wineberries here every year, starting in early July.
A pint of wineberries collected today. They’re a bit inconsistent in taste as the deep red berries are so much sweeter and less tart than the brighter red ones. If you grab a handful, the general flavor is sweet and tart, with crunchy texture (owing to small seeds).
One of the wild brambles.
Bonus: I noticed a thorny pear seedling (probably escaped Bradford) in the middle of the brambles. May try to practice grafting with it.
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In the northeast they seem to thrive most in partial shade- and they can even be productive in pretty heavy shade. Only specific need in soil I’ve observed is the usual- good drainage.
It’s amazing how much shade wineberries tolerate, though I think the ones in dappled lighting produce the best. The patch in my picture was actually shaded by a big ash tree, until it was chopped due to EAB. What struck me as funny is it’s way cheaper to plant trees than to chop them down!
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The wild wine berry here ( western West Virginia )
, look spectacular, taste is lacking
About any other Berry is better.
I don’t bother picking them…
They do grow on there own in odd places .
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i did not know there was a japanese wineberry (Rubus phoenicolasius) topic.
They are my favorite of the Rubus family.
They don’t taste like raspberry’s to me. To me their a distinct taste with their own aroma. (just like blackberry’s don’t taste like raspberry)
The difference between blackberry and rasphberry imo is larger than between rasphberry and wineberry though.
Anyway, a lot of the plant is red, stems leaf stalks. sepals/calyx
The fruit is perfect when it goes deep dark red. The fruits are unfortunately quite small. And picking thus is a lot of work.
It also stores for only the shortest period of time. Put some in a jar and let it sit for a few hours and you’ll already see it ferment.
It’s also a intresting plant, since after flowering and the flower petals drop, the sepals/calyx closes again. And the fruit grows hidden enclosed in the sepals. And then it opens again shortly before the fruits are ripe.
If had people ask me “when are the flower finnaly going to go open? it has had flower buds for over a month” for me to respond "it already flowerd, those are fruit buds "
@Hillbillyhort are you sure you tasted a wineberry? and was it ripe?
Could it have been a Rubus spectabilis - Wikipedia
The fruits look identical. But spectabilis, does not have the red thorns. Or the sepals/calyx coverd in hairs with sticky droplets. (think drosera carnivorous plant like. ) Spectabilis also has a much more attractive flower.
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I think Hillbilly is probably talking about the same plant. I’m not wild about them either, and most aren’t because of their relatively low brix and bland flavor in general. However, some (perhaps with more sensitive palates) do love them, and lucky them. It doesn’t seem to succumb to viruses here and only extreme cold has killed them in the 25 years in NY that I’ve been aware of them. They seem to be a bit more sensitive to cold than our native blackberries which are killed at somewhere around -20F
(“ @Hillbillyhort are you sure you tasted a wineberry? “)
Not sure about a lot of things these days…
But this is what I know as wine berry .
Some are larger, darker , clear red when ripe .
Not much flavor here
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yes that seems to be wineberry.
judging by the colour on the picture, those 2 fruits are not ripe yet though. i pick them when they get dark red. way darker than strawberry’s.
if never measured brix on mine. But when properly ripe, they do taste sweeter than raspberry’s. But that could also just be a lower acid not hiding the sweetness.
i wonder if different variety’s are around in the US from the EU. because i and most people i let taste the winberry’s would not consider them bland or not sweet.
Yes , I know these are not quite ripe.
But the ones here just are not very good.
If I happened to bump into some ripe fruit, I may eat them. As a snack . But would not go out of my way to pick.
Yet , there are large patches on unkept farms
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I agree with @oscar on @Hillbillyhort 's pic, those particular berries look to need another day. The one in the picture would be very sour.
Unfortunately it’s very difficult to just pick the ripest and sweetest dark red wineberries since picking them would be even more time consuming. The ripest ones also are on edge of going bad so timing is hard.
We all really like the flavor though even even if we can’t get all the ripest ones. It reminds me a bit of fruit punch.