I am not talking about a strassberry, which is just a variety of strawberry, I am not talking about a GMO or something produced through somatic protoplast fusion, I am not talking about Rubus illecebrosus (which is not a hybrid at all), I am not talking about a grafted plant. I am talking about cross pollinating strawberry and raspberry, and growing out the hybrid seeds. These are true intergeneric hybrids that I am referring to.
A few years ago I read a post on a blog called 'The Biologist is in' about some plant breeding work done by the late Luther Burbank. I found this blog post to be inspiring, so I went on and read more about Luther Burbank and his strawberry raspberry hybrids in other places.
Luther Burbank was a remarkable plant breeder, he crossed a raspberry with a strawberry about one hundred years ago. He didn't use crazy chemicals or GM technology, he also didn't know a lot about genetics. At the time this kind of hybrid was thought to be impossible and many people mocked him. We know a lot more about genetics because Luther kept doing things that were considered impossible. I can't find any reference to anyone actually attempting to cross strawberry and raspberry since then.
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| Luther Burbank's raspberry strawberry hybrid. Picture from http://bulbnrose.x10.mx/Heredity/Burbank/Burbank_raspXstraw.html |
This got me thinking: if a man one hundred years ago with very little understanding of genetics could cross strawberries and raspberries then there is no reason that I can't do it today. So I tried to cross strawberries and raspberries, and I succeeded.
