I had good luck with Navaho here in San Antonio.

I grew up in San Benito and my great uncle was the Cameron County Ag. Agent. And I never remember anyone growing any type of black berry. Call the county and find out.

Name: Cameron County of, Extension Service County Agent-Agriculture
San Benito, tx 78586-
Phone: (956) 361-8236

Kathy

Thank you for the info. I'll have to call and find out. I was thinking of buying the Arapaho and Apache blackberries also because I believe someone mentioned that the Arapaho grew very well in Florida, but don't know how to make up the chill hours. Two different maps (a U.S. and a Texas one) say that the San Antonio area gets 6-700 or 2-300 chill hours and that down here we get 200 or none at all. Then again, I have researched zone 9 and 10, and 9 gets between 4-600 and 10 gets 0-400, so I don't know. We became zone 10 a few years ago, but these last hard freezes make me think tat we may be back in zone 9 considering it got to the low to mid 20s, and for zone 10, 30* is supposed to be our lowest temp.

This is a crazy idea, but...- I was thinking of getting some of the material in the insulator bags from Sam's and H-E-B making something like a butterfly pavilion to cover the plant in the ground and I'd add ice inside it when needed. The material would insulate the cold, and the temps would be between 32-45. Anyone think it could work?

I also have a friend who lives in Weslaco, only about 30-45 minutes away, and is growing Blackberries and Blueberries. He said that the blueberries are easier to get to fruit than the blackberries, but that occasionally they will produce fruit.

You are right, it sounds like a crazy idea LOL!

I am surprised that blueberries grow in Weslaco. He must have acid soil or ammended it.
I was born in McAllen (that's where the hospital was) in 1943. I lived in San Juan until I was 4. We moved to Pharr anf I lived there until 1958, when we moved to San Benito.

I grew up around the fruit and vegetable business until 1958, as Daddy worked for Valley Fruit in Pharr.

When I lived in SB I would got out with my great uncle to pick veggies that the famers had told him to help himself. Several of the Japanese farms on the river were the ones I most recall. One lady had orchids growing a hanging bascket at the front door.

A close friend of mine was from Los Fresnos. Hilda Bearden. Probably none of her family there anymore.

From the Web;
Zones: 5 - 9 (-10� F.)
Height: Varies
Spacing: 4 - 5 feet rows 10 feet apart
Depth: Same depth as they were in the nursery.
Spread: 3-5 feet
Sun/Shade: Full to Partial Sun
Yield: 1 quart per plant
Color: White
Foliage: Dark Green
Blooms: Spring
Fruit: Very large and firm berries with possibly the best flavor of any blackberries
Comments: First semi-erect thornless. Canes are mostly self-supporting or free standing. Shows moderate resistance to anthracnose. Plant patent 6679. Introduced in 1988. Fruit are large and firm, and are less tart than other thornless. Hardy to -14 degrees F. Susceptible to orange rust and double blossom.
Shipping: View Shipping Schedule
Navaho Blackberry Ships In The Spring
Unable to ship to: AE AK BC GU HI PR

Yesterday I bought 5 more Blackberries: Ouichita, Arapaho, Nachez, Apache and I think Brazos. Different websites say that they need few chill hours and others say that they dont, so Im going to test them here. I bought peat moss to amend the soil and planted them in morning sun only.

I was wondering if a plant food or bloom booster would make a blackberry fruit if it almost got the required chill hours or even if it wasnt close? I read that Blackberries fruit in Mexico because they use chemicals and plant food ro get them to fruit.

I made a mistake in listing the varieties I bought. I just looked at the tags and they are Arapaho, Apache, Natchez, and Ouachita. So, I have 5 varieties total (including the Navaho), 1 Red Nova Raspberry, and 1 Blueberry (either Tift Blue or Power (or Powder?)Blue). I bought the blueberry in early fall before it went dormant so it got all its chill hours from here and it is budding out along with the low chill apples (Golden Dorsett and Anna), so I'm thinking that it may flower. I know that plants that don't get enough chill hours are usually late to break dormancy, which is the case with a Peach tree that I bought 4-5 years ago from Walmart. Back then I had no knowledge of chill hours, and every year it is late to break dormancy. This year we bought Florida Prince Peaches.

Since the Anna's Apple is breaking dormancy on time, I'm assuming we got between 2-300 chill hours this past winter, so I'm hoping some of the lower chill blackberries will flower in the years to come. We also had about an entire week of chill hours (day and night) which brought hard freezes to us, which hardly ever happen, so I'm sure that added greatly to the Chill Hour count (even with those anti chill hours of temps above 60*, if they are true) by about 168 chill hours in addition to the ones from December and January.