Garden Success with Sweet Repeat (Nantahala) Raspberry

I love getting garden success stories! Ernie F. Has a good one:

I would like to share with you the success I’ve had in only one season with the Sweet Repeat raspberry, a new introduction from N.C.. I live in southern Cherokee County and three years ago I planted Heritage, Dorman Red and Black Jewel raspberries . Soil prep was exceptional and the site has plenty of sunlight. The Dorman Red was too tart for fresh eating (though I am sure some love it for jam making) and the maintenance too aggravating and the Black Jewel the same with almost no fruit production. The Heritage, which I was told would not do well in my area, has performed very well and will be on its 4th season.

I would probably have thought this was the ticket for raspberries if I had not tried the Sweet Repeat this past winter. By summer my bare root cuttings had grown into canes twice the size of my Heritage and although they both started producing about the same time, a little in summer and then an absolute festival in fall and still both were producing heavily until the freezes in Dec. put them to rest, the Sweet Repeats were twice the size and much sweeter. I am very much in awe as you have probably sensed by now on its performance and just wanted to share this with you and any others in the gardening world.

The only downside to my experience was an infestation of wing drosophila maggots which you assisted in the diagnoses on your website. A dip in salt water took care of them and eventually I got use to eating berry and maggot(but not my wife)

Walter Notes: Sweet Repeat is the trademarked name of the raspberry cultivar ‘Nantahala’ released by North Carolina State University.

Looks like a great plant!

Nantahala Raspberry

Mike C. says: I have tried at least six types of raspberries and the only ones that have done anything are ‘Nantahala’ and ‘Dorman Red’. I don’t care much for the Dorman Red’s so I was excited to discover ‘Nantahala’. I got a ton of raspberries from it in the FIRST year!