I don't think it is any great surprise to anyone who knows me that I dabble in plant breeding. I particularly like growing edible things. One I have been working on for a while now is a raspberry.
I had a few good lines, some I culled because they weren't great, some died off last year with the drought and smoke, I still have the best one.
It is a completely thornless red raspberry that is dual cropping (primocane). The berries are sweet, reasonable size, fragrant, don't seem to crumble, and are produced abundantly in rather large clusters.
Being a primocane variety it flowers and fruits twice a year, if the weather is odd it can sometimes sneak in a (small) third crop, once they even produced a tiny fourth crop in winter and didn't go dormant. Pruning is simple, you can just cut it to the ground at the end of autumn, or you can tip prune, or you can leave it, no matter what you will get a crop.
Like most/all other varieties of red raspberry, this sends out underground rhizomes and divides rather well.
Lacking any thorns means that it is not a hassle to work with, and even children can easily harvest the delicious berries.
The berries are produced in large numbers, each cluster can have dozens of berries. I counted 48 individual flowers in one cluster! When some berries are ripe there will still be unopened flowers in that cluster, meaning you get a long time of berry harvest.
All in all this is a great raspberry variety for back yards. No thorns, great taste, multiple large crops, easy to harvest, simple/no pruning, quick to divide, there are no down sides to this variety.
I really need to name these, I am quite proud of them. Most years I sell bare rooted crowns in winter through my for sale page.
Looks like an amazing variety for home production. I wonder if it will perform in the subtropics (common raspberry strains grow but almost never fruit well here).
ReplyDeleteHi Shane,
DeleteI have only grown these in semi-arid Central West NSW, where it was far too dry/hot for them, and cool climate near Canberra, where they perform well most years. They needed a lot of water to get through last year, but usually they aren't too bad.
I have no idea how they would perform in the subtropics. If you are willing to give the a try remind me early winter and I will send some your way.
I want some, they sound perfect, and with young grandsons we can have loads of fun harvesting and eating by the handful. A great improvement, love your work Damien
ReplyDeleteHi Warren,
DeleteWhen developing these I had a long list of things I wanted in a raspberry. I want good taste, I don't like thorns, I wanted primocane, I disliked how varieties such as Heritage tend to crumble, and I had a few other criteria. This one ticks all the boxes.
Now to cross this with my yellow raspberries and aim for thornless primocane yellow. Or if my black raspberries go ok try to cross with them and see if I can eventually breed a thornless primocane purple. If I find a diploid blackberry I would have a shot at crossing with that and see what I could breed from there.
Honestly I don't know if I have the space/time to try a lot of these possible crosses, plus I have a low success rate emasculating raspberry flowers, so we will have to wait and see what (if anything) I can do from here. Even if I never breed anything new from here, I really like these.