Topic: Foul blackberries

[pigeonseed]

In the last week the blackberries have started to taste foul. At first it was just one in a dozen, this morning my kids found each one they tried tasted so bitter they spat it out.

Does anyone know what might be causing this?

[telboy]

If the berries are adjacent to fields, they could have been sprayed?

[squeezyjohn]

I'm afraid it's probably just the change in weather that's happened.  The berries get more bitter and smaller as the weather closes in.  If it's a lovely indian summer then the blackberries can stay lovely all through September, but it's changed really fast this year and I've noticed the berries are not so good this year.

[bcday]

Another possibility -- look for larvae of Drosophila suzukii, a fruit fly from Asia that has now spread to many parts of Europe and North America. I discovered them in my blackberries here in New York for the first time this year.

There aren't very many egg-laying adults about early in the season, so early fruits are less likely to be affected, but the early-season larvae mature and reproduce rapidly so that later on it seems every berry is infested.

The berries will look perfectly fine, but you won't see anything by looking at fresh-picked berries in your hand. Just picking the fruit isn't enough to make the larvae come out of hiding.

Put a handful of berries in a clear container and add a pinch or three of salt and enough room-temperature water to cover the berries. Periodically over the next hour or two, stir them gently and check to see if any tiny (1/16 - 1/8 inch long) white maggots have emerged into the water or are poking their little white noses out of the fruit.

Even if you don't see anything this year, check again next year, because this pest is spreading. It was unknown in my area until recently.

I pulled up my blackberries (don't care for them all that much anyway). I may do the same for the fall raspberries if I can't keep the flies out with netting. Spraying is futile since the larvae are inside the fruit, not on the surface.

[pigeonseed]

They're not anywhere which could have been sprayed.

It might be some insect activity. We have flies here bcdav, which lay eggs, but as far as I know we've had them for a long time, so I don't know how I'd tell the difference between them and new Asian ones!

Any backberries which I collect to take home I've always soaked, I was taught to do that as a child. But I never heard of them changing the taste of the berries before.

Maybe you're right, squeezyjohn - it's the sudden Autumn :-(

[star]

The little blighters also crawl out if the berries are put on a tray and into the freezer for an hour or so.......

[ACE]

As they appeared a bit earlier this year. The 29th  of September has come a bit earlier too. The 29th is the traditional cut off day for blackberries as that is the day the devil spits on them.

[davee52uk]

At this time of year blackberries go off. This particularly happens when it is wet. I have heard an old folk saying that this because  "the Devil pisses on them"

[ACE]

  "the Devil pisses on them"

Wrong. It is a common misconception that the devil is a male entity. Only a woman could be that devious and cause so much trouble. Also  squatting over a  bramble bush is definitely a no no.

[shirlton]

Picked some yesterday and got Tony to taste them. He said they were ok so we took them home. :)

[antipodes]

Only a woman could be that devious

Picked some yesterday and got Tony to taste them.

Is it me or did Shirlton just accidentally prove Ace to be right!!! 

There seemed to be lots of blackberries around this year but the taste was not great and they were at least 3 weeks late.

[shirlton]

We ate them and they were lovely (laugh at antipode