Buy Austin Mays Blackberry Plant from Ty Ty Nursery (a link I got from @nil)
1 Like
Ty Ty has the very worst ratings of any nursery. Dave’s Garden had to remove it’s review, they threatened to sue.
3 Likes
I have not bought from them for that reason. You are rolling the dice with nurseries like that. This late in the season you are as likely to get whatever they have in their bargain bin, as what you paid for. Shady places just want to get paid for the rest of their inventory, and will send you just about anything to avoid giving you your money back for an out-of-stock item.
I found that link, but I am not in the market for that variety.
1 Like
I have some extra Salmonberry pollen on
q -tips . It’s a superior plant.
I only ask for a few seeds in the fall.
I think it’s close to Raspberry but what do I know?
Only need the priority postage refund.
1 Like
Never dealt with them. Thanks for the heads up. Don’t know about these folks either but Dewberry - Direct Gardening
1 Like
lol. I used to get a similar catalog regularly. Same stock photos. On a good day you get a barely rooted cutting. You will likely have better luck posting in the trading post or requesting a cutting from USDA during the next open order period for Rubus.
1 Like
I have photos of the pure Rubus ursinus that is growing down the street.
The male flowers are fat and round. The female flowers are long & skinny. They are growing in a diseased hedge, and show no sign of disease. They get very little light there. These are the plants that were measuring 18-22 Brix last year. No spray, no fertilizer, and minimal light.
5 Likes
Now that looks like it might be a pure pacific blackberry. How cold does it get where you’re at? I’ve had difficulty wintering these things even in a cellar.
2 Likes
It occasionally drops down to 17F, but it mostly stays above 20F.
I found the ursinus in my backyard is a hybrid. The stamen are extremely short on the hybrid, and easy to miss. It also has evil hybrid thorns.
1 Like
I found a variant of
Rubus ursinus
Western Trailing Blackberry.
This one is a Male
with much heavier flowering than usual.
Leaf shape is also different from most.
1 Like
Not the breeding project I intended but my Yellow black cap and Polarberry will bloom at the same time. On its own polarberry has terrible druplet set while the yellow blackcap did just fine last year. To the right is Snow bank which is flowering but not in great quantity due to transplant shock and age. If anyone wants seeds to grow out let me know.
2 Likes
Ursinus is 6n, 8n,10n, or 12n. 6n is uncommon outside California. That is a nice male you have there. I have started dusting some female ursinus with Joan J. and Freedom pollen.
The sources I have found say that ursinus crosses with most cultivated Rubus, but I do not know if it works the same when ursinus is the pollen parent.
1 Like
It might be more difficult when the female plant is the lower ploidy parent in the cross. That diploid cell will have to make room for another four or six sets of chromosomes and what I’ve read the crosses are more succesfull when the seed parent is the higher ploidy one. Still worth a try.
2 Likes
Yeah i’m going to give it a try.
1 Like
The thornless University of Arkansas varieties came from a 2n seed parent called ‘Hillquist’, and a 4n pollen parent called ‘Brazos’. It resulted in a 4n offspring they named ‘ARK 593’. It can’t hurt to give it a try. I don’t need to emasculate the female ursinus, so that is a plus for me. I would suggest crossing it with something thornless, because hybrid ursinus thorns are pure evil. When ursinus crosses with another species, it picks up the worst thorn traits of both.
If my new Tayberry flowers this year, I may try dusting 1 or 2 with ursinus pollen.
1 Like
Thornless varieties worth considering are the ones derived from Austin Thornless. That’s where most of the trailing varieties (Waldo, Black Pearl…) derive their thornlessness. Eastern types have the resessive gene. I’m now growing Black Pearl that I intent on crossing with some erect varieties. I have a hard time keeping the canes alive (no luck so far) through the winter even though I have a cellar. They hate being frozen solid for half the year.
1 Like
Some raspberry seeds sprouted . So last year I ate a bunch of raspberries and pooped in a half barrel pot as a experiment . Left outdoors for a natural stratification . Worked . A mamals digestion is enough acid to germinate . I do a little rubus breeding .
1 Like
WadaSugaeHorticultureStandardizingGerminationProtocols (8).pdf (343.2 KB)
A less gross way to germinate Rubus.
1 Like
Sorry too technical for me . I have tried bleach and battery acid = poor results . Even talked on the phone to breeders on west coast only to find lab techs germinate their seeds for them . Gross is easy and works . Even used chickens and it works . I have a native blackberry that needs a pollinator . Easy as planting a pollen parent nearby .
Eat the berries and plant the seeds as described .
1 Like