I tried to think of how to describe the taste of these berries, saying "they are really delicious", or "I like them", probably isn’t all that useful to anyone. So I thought hard about how to describe the taste of strawberry x raspberry hybrid berries.
To me they are sour, but not in a bad way, and certainly not as sour as store bought strawberries or raspberries. They taste like strawberry mixed with something tropical. They taste warm (is warm a taste) and floral (is floral a taste) and really nice. They are very fragrant, the smell is delicious and similar to the taste. The fragrance is like strawberry mixed with something tropical. That is the best description I can come up with.
I asked someone else to describe their taste, and was given the following elaborate and rather fancy description.
- They taste sour and warm with a delicately intense combination of wild strawberries, apricots, bananas, and raspberries. They have the unmistakable heavenly scent of a lolly shop.
I asked someone else to describe the taste and was told:
- are AMAZING!!!!!!!! They’re little flavour explosions! So YUMMY!!!!
- Booom!
The texture of strawberry x raspberry hybrid berries is different from that of either parent. Perhaps something akin to a ripe pear, but without any grittiness that pears often have.
The hybrid berries all look similar to strawberries. They have achenes (the true fruits that most people refer to as 'seeds') on the outside of a fleshy receptacle. These achenes are barely attached to the receptacle, and I wonder if they would fall off from the lightest hint of a breeze, yet somehow they stay attached. The skin and achenes are red, and the flesh is white all the way through.
They are vaguely strawberry shaped, but all of them are odd looking, lumpy, bumpy, and bulbous. They all have irregular bumps, some are curved, in some the end is slightly forked, or the berry is twisted, some are short and fat while others are elongated. The weird shapes do not appear to have been caused from issues with pollination.
At this stage I don't know if they are self-pollinating, or if they are being pollinated by strawberry or raspberry plants growing near by. I don't know if any of these seeds are viable and will grow. I have many breeding experiments I want to try with this hybrid and will try to write more blog posts as I discover more.
All the following images are of strawberry x raspberry hybrid fruit off the same plant.
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| Strawberry x raspberry hybrid fruit, has lumps and the end is slightly forked |
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| Strawberry x raspberry hybrid, note the base is bulbous |
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| Strawberry x raspberry hybrid, note the irregular shape and the leaf arising from the calyx |
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| Strawberry x raspberry hybrid, berries are all irregular |
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| Strawberry x raspberry hybrid berry |
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| Strawberry x raspberry hybrid |
Edit to add: I sent samples of these plants to the CSIRO who
tested them and determined that they are true intergeneric strawberry
raspberry hybrids. The results can be seen here.
Are any of the seeds viable? Hopefully.
ReplyDeleteI am not sure yet if it can produce viable seed. The seeds do not appear hollow, so that is a positive start. I have collected a few seed from each of the berries so far and plan to cold wet stratify them and see what happens.
DeleteIf they are viable and have been self pollinated the progeny will be a crazy mix of hybrids ranging from almost strawberry to almost raspberry.
If it does produce viable seed, or even viable pollen, it opens itself to all kinds of breeding. Incorporating new disease resistance, breeding new tasting berries, etc.
I also wonder if this plant can cross with something like a boysenberry.
I have a lot of breeding experiments I want to try, but the first step is seeing if it produces viable seed and/or viable pollen!
Hey! 4 years ago i found that rubus/fragaria in most cases have the same basic chromosome number, and i found the same articles from web that you, then i attempted to do this by my own. From my Fragaria vesca I gained about ten seeds (F.V flowers were poorly pollinated, 2 seeds per flower was a success becouse most flowers just dried up), it gave me 4 hybrids with R.Fruticosus, but... they all died during the winter as I remember.
ReplyDeleteThis year i will try again.
I have R.occidentalis, R.phoenicolasius, R.idaeus, R.fruticosus.
If the barrier in pollination was not environmental, i will try to overcome incompatibility by cutting out stigmas. What do you think about it?
Can you tell me how you pollinated plants? Any problems occured?
- Driss
Hi Driss,
DeleteDid your hybrids ever set fruit? Do you have any pictures of the plants or fruits? If so I would love to see them!
As far as I can work out this has long been thought of as something that won't work, so much so that almost no one tries it. Hopefully some really interesting and disease resistant plants will be produced from this.
I had similar issues, I cross pollinated a lot of different plants and got very few seeds for my efforts. I attempted to cross basically every strawberry and every raspberry I have. Most didn't work, some of the diploids had limited seed set, which was a win. One of my biggest concerns was excluding ants. I used fine mesh bags that kept out flies and bees, but tiny ants were difficult.
Dear Damo,
DeleteIf you ever started strawberry from seed, you know how it looks like before it will even set 5th true leaf. This how looked mine berries. Then they died couse of grey mold. I don't have any photos.
And yeah, that was disappointing. Now i have "potassium permanganate" for this, so fungi won't be problem anymore.
I was searching for some methods to better pollinate flowers. If a blockade is "technical", i mean cells at the top of stigma are blocking
pollen to get dna inside, let's just cut it off (maybe not whole stigma just the top or to the middle), I suppose i will need a magnifier.
Another method i never used is menthor pollen. I don't trust it. I would get then a few seeds, and they all could be just strawberries.
Let's move it even further.
Have you ever guessed what would it be like to see a raspberry growing just like a tree? Maybe that is too hard to achieve.
Let's say like fine shrub that can be formed nice also.
Basic chromosome count in rosaceae, section maloidae (trees like apple pear sorbus) is 2n34.
For a raspberry it is 2n14/28
Take a raspberry with 2n14 and cross it with any of these. You would get a hybrid with count 2n24, it could set fruit maybe.
Back cross it with something like Rubus Caesius (2n28). You got then Hybrid2 with chromosome count of 2n26 theoretically.
Do good selection becouse genes will be very very mixed.
Sorry for spam, i'm just sharing my ideas of what can anybody do, i have only my balcony for my experiments.
I will try this, if this year i'll get any success i'll start a blog, share photos.
English is not my native language. If i made some grammatical mistakes, just skip them :)
- Driss
How did you cross breed the two fruits?
ReplyDeleteI attempted to cross pollinate every strawberry and every raspberry I have. Most combinations did not set seed, very few of the seeds were viable, and many of the seedlings that started died early. I think I wrote more on the process in other blog posts (if not I should do a post on that).
DeleteThere is a "search this blog" button on the top right hand side of the page that you can use to search for other posts on strawberry raspberry hybrids.
k
ReplyDeleteWOW! just found this shared on the growing fruit forum!
ReplyDeleteI had the same idea that i had wanted to do someday! You are my hero. I had suspected that using a diploid wild strawberry could work if Burbank’s attempt had worked as well as reported. I’m glad you have found this to be the case.
What generation are you on? F2? F3? I am curious to see how this get’s on. Will any seed or cuttings be available from either of you in the near future?
Hi Keen,
DeleteThe F2 have just started flowering. It has taken a little over 2 years from planting the seed until flowering.
As the F2 are flowering going into winter they may not ripen and I might have to wait until spring to taste them. Not much I can do other than wait. I will try to save some seed from them when the time is right.
Hi Keen,
ReplyDeletethanks for the kind words.
Before I get your hopes up too much, I am not certain if these are hybrids. I have sent samples to the CSIRO for testing. Some comparison pictures of the leaves can be seen here: https://living-mudflower.blogspot.com/2020/10/strawberry-raspberry-hybrid-leaves.html The samples have been tested, but the results have not yet been analysed. Until I get the results I can't be certain. Regardless of the outcome I plan to update the blog.
I am only up to F2. I planted hundreds of F2 seeds and only 3 germinated. I don't understand why this would be as all germplasm has been diploid. The strawberry parent reaches maturity in about 5 months from seed, the F2 plants are 19 months old but are small and still not flowering!