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.
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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.
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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.
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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 Iāve read the crosses are more succesfull when the seed parent is the higher ploidy one. Still worth a try.
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Yeah iām going to give it a try.
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The thornless University of Arkansas varieties came from a 2n seed parent called āHillquistā, and a 4n pollen parent called āBrazosā. It resulted in a 4n offspring they named āARK 593ā. It canāt hurt to give it a try. I donāt 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.
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Thornless varieties worth considering are the ones derived from Austin Thornless. Thatās where most of the trailing varieties (Waldo, Black Pearlā¦) derive their thornlessness. Eastern types have the resessive gene. Iām 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.
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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 .
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WadaSugaeHorticultureStandardizingGerminationProtocols (8).pdf (343.2 KB)
A less gross way to germinate Rubus.
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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 .
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Here are some photos of the Rubus ursinus I have been dusting with Joan J. and Freedom pollen. I have removed many of the petals to make them unattractive, and I am removing the male flowers when I find them open.
Some nice male flowers
If nothing kills or eats the plants/berries, I should get some good seeds this year.
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Keep us posted how it goes. Rubus ursinus imo is ideal for pollen chucking. -Zero chance of self fertilization and it also has higher ploidy levels.
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I knew a guy here in Fairbanks, Alaska, who told me he had obtained a cloudberry/blackberry hybrid. It was still winter, and I never followed up to see if it survived and heās since moved away. Iāve got Anelma, Heisa, and Heija, which are nectar raspberries. I never found them in the US trade and had to request them from the USDA germplasm repository.
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the blackberry/ cloudberry cross sounds cool! never heard of nectar raspberries. are they small like arctic raspberries? we have cloudberry and arctic rasberries here but never found the cloudberries.
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Nectar raspberries were bred in Finland; they have arctic raspberry in their lineage. I have three: Anelma, Heisa, and Heija, which I had to get from USDA because I could never find them in the trade. Anelma is my best raspberry; itās very sweet and rich and less acid then most. Heisa is similar, but the berries are much smaller. Heija hasnāt fruited yet but should this year. Iām in Fairbanks, and red raspberries, arctic raspberries, and cloudberries are all native and abundant. Iāve found that allfieldberries, which were bred in Sweden as hybrids of the European and North American arctic raspberries, are far more productive than the native nagoonberries (arctic raspberries). They have incredible flavor. Getting ready to make some mead with some!
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i have 5 cultivars of the swedish bred arctics but for some reason none have fruited in the 3 years having them despite them spreading like crazy and some flowers. i got some from hartmanns nursery and the others from honeyberry USA. i think i used too good a soil for them and they may have got over fertilized. hopefully i get fruit from them this year. how big do yours get? mine only grow 4-5in.
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I may have got some of mine from Hartmannās too; I bought a couple batches and have four different varieties going, which have commingled so Iāve lost track of whatās what. Like the wild ones, theyāre short and spread via runners. I donāt do anything for mine, and they have also spread like crazy (which I like!). Each plant only has one berry, so the yield is low but now I get a couple quarts or so a year. Their outstanding flavor is what prompted me to go on an obsessive search for the nectar raspberries, which took me years to satisfy. Those donāt really taste like nagoonberries, but they do taste different (and better, in my opinion) than a typical red rasperry. They do need cross pollination to fruit, so it may be important to keep them close to one another.
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you got my interest peaked. could i possibly convince you to send me a few cuttings of them next spring? id pay shipping and i have a z3 hardy blackberry called Nelson i got from fedco that i could trade with you if youre interested. its the only blackberry i found thats hardy to my z3b winters. might handle Fairbanks too. my arctics are all mixed also and ive transplanted them all under my tress and shrubs as a groundcover. now i have to figure how to get them to fruit for me. 
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Sure, Iād be down to trade Heisa and Anelma; I donāt think Heija is established enough yet, though. Iāve heard of Nelson; canāt remember if I tried it yet, but all the blackberries I have tried havenāt succeeded.
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