Blackberry Prime Ark Freedom Live Plant – Thornless, 1 Gallon Pot, Outdoor

Overview

Bring the joy of fresh, homegrown berries to your garden with the Prime Ark Freedom blackberry live plant. This remarkable variety is celebrated for its unique combination of desirable traits, making it a favorite among both novice and experienced gardeners. Unlike traditional blackberries, the ‘Prime Ark Freedom’ is notably thornless, simplifying harvesting and pruning. It produces large, delicious fruits with excellent flavor, perfect for eating fresh, baking, or making preserves. As a self-pollinating variety, you only need one plant to ensure a bountiful harvest. This robust plant is also known for its strong disease resistance, ensuring a healthier and more productive growing season. Shipped as a healthy, established plant in a 1-gallon pot, it is ready to be transplanted into your garden or a larger container upon arrival, offering an immediate head start to enjoying your own fresh blackberries.

The Prime Ark Freedom blackberry live plant is a true game-changer for backyard fruit production. Its vigorous growth habit and reliable fruiting make it an ideal choice for creating an edible landscape or a dedicated berry patch. Experience the satisfaction of harvesting your own succulent berries, knowing they are fresh, organic, and grown with your own care.

Key Benefits

The Prime Ark Freedom blackberry live plant offers a multitude of advantages for the home gardener, transforming your outdoor space into a productive and enjoyable haven. Its exceptional qualities ensure a rewarding growing experience and a delicious harvest:

• Thornless Canes: Enjoy hassle-free harvesting and pruning without the worry of painful thorns. This feature makes berry picking a pleasant activity for the whole family, including children.
• Large, Flavorful Fruits: This variety produces impressively sized blackberries known for their rich, sweet, and juicy flavor, superior to many store-bought options. Each berry is a burst of deliciousness.
• Self-Pollinating: You only need a single Prime Ark Freedom blackberry live plant to ensure fruit production, eliminating the need for multiple plants or cross-pollination partners. This is ideal for smaller gardens.
• Disease Resistant: ‘Prime Ark Freedom’ exhibits strong natural resistance to common blackberry diseases, reducing the need for chemical treatments and promoting healthier plant growth. This contributes to a low-maintenance gardening experience.
• Excellent for Fresh Eating & Preserving: The high quality and abundance of fruit make it perfect for fresh consumption, as well as for making jams, jellies, pies, and other culinary delights.
• Vigorous Growth: This variety is known for its strong, upright growth habit, quickly establishing itself and producing fruit. It’s a reliable performer that will quickly become a highlight of your garden.
• Extended Harvest Season: ‘Prime Ark Freedom’ is a primocane-fruiting variety, meaning it can produce two crops per year – one in summer on floricanes (second-year canes) and another in fall on primocanes (first-year canes). This provides a longer window for enjoying fresh berries.

Plant Care & Growing Tips

Caring for your Prime Ark Freedom blackberry live plant is straightforward, and with proper attention, you’ll be rewarded with abundant harvests. Blackberries thrive in full sun, requiring at least 6-8 hours of direct sunlight per day for optimal fruit production and plant health. Choose a location in your garden that receives ample sun exposure throughout the growing season. While they can tolerate some partial shade, fruit yield and quality may be reduced.

These plants prefer well-draining, loamy soil with a slightly acidic pH between 5.5 and 6.5. Amend heavy clay soils with organic matter like compost to improve drainage and aeration. Consistent moisture is crucial, especially during flowering and fruiting. Water deeply 1-2 times per week, ensuring the soil remains evenly moist but not waterlogged. Mulching around the base of the plant with straw, wood chips, or shredded bark can help retain soil moisture, suppress weeds, and regulate soil temperature. Fertilize in early spring with a balanced slow-release fertilizer or a granular fertilizer formulated for berries, following package instructions. Pruning is essential for maximizing yields and maintaining plant health. Since ‘Prime Ark Freedom’ is a primocane-fruiting variety, you can choose to prune for a single large fall crop by cutting all canes back to the ground in late winter, or for two crops by pruning out only the floricanes (canes that fruited in summer) after they finish fruiting, leaving the primocanes for a fall crop. Regularly inspect your plants for any signs of pests or diseases, though this particular thornless blackberry plant is known for its good resistance.

Protecting your plants in winter is important in colder climates. While the ‘Prime Ark Freedom’ is generally hardy in USDA zones 4-8, extreme cold snaps might require some protection, such as covering the plants or laying canes down and mulching over them. Ensuring good air circulation around the plants can also help prevent fungal issues. By providing these basic care requirements, your Prime Ark Freedom blackberry live plant will flourish and provide you with delicious fruit for many years.

Size & Details

The Prime Ark Freedom blackberry live plant is shipped as a healthy, established specimen in a 1-gallon nursery pot. Upon arrival, the plant will typically stand between 8 to 18 inches tall, depending on the growing season and recent pruning for shipping. This robust start ensures quick establishment in your garden. When mature, these vigorous plants can reach heights of 5-8 feet with a spread of 3-5 feet, often requiring support like a trellis or stakes for optimal growth and fruit production. The plant’s upright, thornless canes make it easy to manage.

As a primocane-fruiting variety, the ‘Prime Ark Freedom’ has the potential to produce two crops annually: a summer crop on floricanes (second-year canes) and a fall crop on primocanes (first-year canes). This extended fruiting period means you can enjoy fresh, delicious fruit from early summer through late fall. Expect your plant to begin producing fruit within one to two years of planting, with increasing yields as it matures. Growing your own grow blackberry at home has never been easier or more rewarding with this exceptional variety.

Frequently Asked Questions

• Q: How big does the Prime Ark Freedom blackberry plant get? A: Mature Prime Ark Freedom blackberry live plant can reach heights of 5-8 feet tall with a spread of 3-5 feet. They are vigorous growers and often benefit from a trellis or other support structure.
• Q: Is this an indoor or outdoor plant? A: The Prime Ark Freedom blackberry live plant is an outdoor fruiting plant. It requires full sun and is best suited for planting in a garden or a very large outdoor container.
• Q: How much sunlight does it need? A: This blackberry variety thrives in full sun, meaning it needs at least 6-8 hours of direct sunlight per day to produce the best fruit and remain healthy.
• Q: Is this plant easy to care for? A: Yes, the Prime Ark Freedom blackberry live plant is considered relatively easy to care for, especially due to its disease resistance and thornless canes. Regular watering, annual fertilization, and proper pruning are key to success.
• Q: What condition will it arrive in? A: Your Prime Ark Freedom blackberry live plant will arrive as a healthy, established plant in a 1-gallon nursery pot, ready for immediate transplanting into your garden.
• Q: Can I grow this thornless blackberry plant in a container? A: While it prefers in-ground planting, you can grow a thornless blackberry plant in a very large container (at least 20-gallon capacity), ensuring it has adequate drainage, sunlight, and consistent watering.
• Q: When is the best time to plant Prime Ark Freedom blackberries? A: The best time to plant is typically in early spring after the last threat of frost, or in early fall in milder climates.
• Q: Will it survive winter in my zone? A: ‘Prime Ark Freedom’ is generally hardy in USDA Zones 4-8. In colder zones, winter protection like mulching or covering the canes might be necessary to ensure survival.
• Q: Do I need more than one plant for fruit production? A: No, the Prime Ark Freedom blackberry live plant is self-pollinating, so you only need one plant to get fruit. However, planting multiple can increase your yield.
• Q: How long until it starts producing fruit? A: You can typically expect your Prime Ark Freedom blackberry live plant to start producing fruit within 1-2 years of planting, with increasing yields as the plant matures.