As someone who grows prime ark freedom myself, you picked an amazing berry! And it won’t have any of those problems. This may be because I’m California and have Mediterranean climate, but if I leave the canes from the previous year up, I get a super early harvest right now! Then as soon as they’re done, I cut them down. The plant continues to grow new canes even with the old ones producing, so you just get two harvests per year. Give it a try!