My latest kick is strawberries. I was not planning on doing any breeding. Then I thought of a few crosses that I would like to see.
Sweetcrisp blueberry is the firmest blueberry out there. It is a Southern Highbush not well adapted to the north. So I want to cross with a northern to try and get a firm berry that is more adapted to my area.
Many of my ideas is to bring new flavors into very hardy plants that fit my area.
It’s not just breeding but also finding good plants. Recently I discovered a black mulberry (Morus nigra) that grew in zone 6 and fruited. Most will grow, but hardly ever fruit in Zone 6. They are zone 7 and higher type of mulberry. Well in Bulgaria one is fruiting in zone 6 and I obtained seeds. I got two to sprout and I hope this nigra is more adapted to my zone 6. It would be nice to have a male and a female plant, hopefully one at least is female. Males I could use for breeding. No nigra hybrids exist except for one that was just done and waiting to be confirmed. Bringing the superior flavor of these mulberries into a more hardy version would be an instant must have plant. As far as I know these two seedlings from this plant are the only examples in the USA of this line of hardy nigra’s from Bulgaria. It could turn out to be a very valuable plant if it really will grow here.I plan to try and do air layers off the mother plants or graft to test hardiness. I plan to protect these plants during the winter for now. My garage is attached and in winter has zone 8 coldness. So they will winter in containers in the garage until I can see if they are hardy enough to grow here. I’m very excited about these babies.
So far as far as breeding I have 3 peach seedlings. Goal was to create a red fleshed peach that ripens between August 15th and September 15th. I happen to love the red fleshed peaches and nectarines. I have 2, and this would give me one that ripens between them.
Next i would like to increase size. I will work on that with any seedlings that meet my first goal.
I wanted to create an orange raspberry. If you mix red and yellow you get orange. So I crossed a yellow with a red, and I didn’t get an orange, i got a pink. I’m going to try again with different yellows and reds. I’m going to use Cascade Gold which is the largest yellow berry by any cultivar. And Josephine which is a very large red. See what happens?
I do like the pink (named Irene) and will keep it. the flavor is excellent.
It does turn orange, but as it ripens it turns pink.
Here compared to a red, not fully ripe.
Fully ripe
I should get a few dozen fruits this year, so looking forward to evaluating the plant further. It grows faster than any of my other raspberries, it has many good traits. Raspberry breeders told me it takes 3 years to get fruit from seed. Well Irene fruited it’s 2nd year, it is showing great promise as a cultivar.
This is the first raspberry i ever crossed! Beginner’s luck! I have another that will fruit this year, but I don’t have high hopes for it. It also though is fruiting the 2nd year. As stated I’m going to try one more time. Happy with Irene anyway, yet still want to see what else can happen?