Just waiting for any potential blackfriday coupons before ordering the Snowbank. Given that these should be desease free tissue cultures, maybe they will perform better then the blogers
hey lordkiwi as i was watching the baker creek catalogue (again) tonight i noticed the shipping turn from 3.50 to free
i will be going to the bank tommorrow to put more money in my acount. these guys make it hard to stop buying
A friend of mine Tyler in Ontario got both these plants from that blogger, and then I got plants from Tyler. I’m now digging them out and giving them to Wills in Florida. Nettleton’s makes nice berries, but is the worst tasting blackberry i ever tasted, a terrible after taste, i tried it for two years cut it down, it came back, so giving it away. Burbank’s taste’s really good but the berries are just a little bigger than currants. They spoil easily and hard to pick.
I would avoid these plants, nothing special.
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haha thats a funny review and exactly what i was looking for, perhaps i will take the snowbank from my shopping cart.
hopefully other people find this review and save their money.
Nope, these cultivars have to be evaluated on there own. The Snowbank was bread to the point that it reproduced from seed. This Snowbank could be a different plant from Drew’s and stll entitled to the name Snowbank as Luther Burbank intended.
Could be? Mine tastes good! It is just hard to get a lot of whole large berries. For how much it grows, and how big the plant is. Berries are small too. Not very efficient, and not so great tasting as to warrant the space it takes up. At least for me.
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they might need some breeding to improve the size, esp with new blackberries out like columbia star and the new zealand karaka black, i am guessing someone already thought of this and maybe in the next few years we will see a viable white blackberry, if i ever do find seeds of the snowbank, i will most likely cross them with native blackberries, which taste pretty good
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By Drew’s account the snowbank already tastes good. Also it is a native Rubus allegheniensis cultivar, so crossing with other allegheniensis will only take it so far size wise. The Nettletons by all accounts appears to have nicely sized berries with very large drupelets, but tastes not so hot. The patent says they are Rubus fruticosus which means its supposed to be a European blackberry but in reality means they have no clue. The Nettelton would likely be the easiest cross to make and maintain flavor and size. But to get big berries is going to require outcrossing with a large drupelet or multiple drupelets cultivars, which are two different traits.
The problem with that is most commercial cultivars are x4 or larger polyloid’s and nettelton and Snowbank are normal 2x Diploid’s. That means to get fertile off spring you first have to double the chromosomes. Then you have to cross and back cross the offspring at least twice to ensure at least 4 sets of the gene for white get expressed or suppressed. And thats assuming one gene is at play. With any luck larger berries could result from chromosome doubling like how most triploid apples express larger fruit. Then all you need to do is select snowbank x nettelton seedlings for size and flavor first then double that plant.
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holy crap, i’ve seen rubus breeding logs before but i had no idea it was that complicated
i am thinking crossing it with native blackberries will improve vigor and fruit set in the hot humid south.
i so far only have a nettleton (bought as a polar berry) but repetitive backcrossing to local types seems like the best option to me so far (now you mention it) since it is already so productive.
Please do share. I have gotten interested in the topic recently as I have gotten close to acquiring a few very special Rubus species. I want to breed hardiness into it.
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I saw the clark gold dewberry mentioned in the polar berry patent info. looks like a yellow fruited blackberry is on it’s way.
i wouldn’t be surprised if a red when ripe blackberry exists in wild populations as it is so easy to miss.
I too have been interested in rubus for some time now, it was how i cut my teeth in plant genetics regarding dominance over time in response to a certain environment either artificial or natural, and the way plants reproduce and what things change and don’t change regarding the rules of nature they go by.
I think i will try and make a long yellow raspberry either with a tayberry or a loganberry once i do some more research.
also i will try and cross yellow raspberry “Anne” with a japanese wineberry in an attempt to make a vigorous yellow fruited rubus berry in the south
one rubus species i was interested in but no longer try to grow is the cloudberry. rubus chamaemorus
maybe someone in a northern climate could try and grow these. in the breeding journals i read it said they had a citrus aftertaste but weren’t worth growing in zone 7
if you want to take a look at the breeding journal i saw i’d be happy to give it to you
what rare rubus berries have you acquired?
the only ones im not mentioning are european dewberries rubus caesius, of which i have not started the seeds yet but have read they have glaucus fruit (powdery like a blueberry) and a sour taste, which i adore in rubus
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please share. Maybe it will finally convince me not to try. maybe not.
Some good ideas (and goals) here, nice to see interest in Rubus.
cloudberry is supposedly native to my area here in n. maine but I’ve never seen them. I’ve been trying to get someone from alaska to send me some for a trade. i have arctic raspberries, thimbleberries i planted last spring. rolling river has salmonberry but I’ve read they aren’t very tasty. I’ve posted this on other threads but i found a semi thornless wild blackberry patch in a field last summer. 1st blackberry I’ve ever seen in my z3b. growing a patch of them from my rooted cuttings i took this summer. grow lots of 1in tasty berries.
Oikios carries a yellow wild black raspberry cultivar that sounds interesting. id get one but I’m plum out of space! supposedly has a pineapple like taste.
hey moose i’ve seen seeds for sale on ebay and i’ve gotten plants in the past from someone in sweden on ebay too. It might be useful to acquire alot of them because you never know how many males and females you are going to get. Maybe you could try and ask around and someone would be willing to send to you, also i have researched that they have a few clones the university of sweden is working on but it may be too soon to acquire them.
Maybe some sort of treatment on the seeds would be useful all in all a beautiful plant
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wow amazing what plants did you use as breeding material keep us updated with the results how does it taste?
more details please
I only have Burbank’s for the white gene but grow many different thornless varieties. I’m still searching for crystal and Nettletons. The Burbank has some mean thorns and out of the few seedlings that sprouted they all where thorny. I’m not even growing them out if I see spines. I have too many other things going on to seek out different shades of thorny cultivars. I’m trying to breed hazelnuts, daylilies, blackberries, and thinking about trying my hand at crossing a few persimmon next year. Hybridizing is as addictive as collecting plants and I’m still grafting, rooting, and buying many new plants every year. I would advise anyone already short on time to not even get involved with breeding plants. I’ve taken vacation day’s off work waiting on flowers to open. I know, I know… I have a problem, my wife reminds me all the time. 
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