I pretty much agree with your statement. Although when I breed rubus I strip the male pollen before the flower is open. I also bag the ovaries with an organza bag. I’m fairly confident the technique works. I have bred three raspberry plants so far and I know it worked. As the traits of the pollen was obvious in the offspring.
I still have a couple crosses I would like to do. I want a primocane fruiting yellow cap. And I would like to cross tayberry and marionberry. I believe they both have 42 chromosomes.
Marionberry is the king of blackberries. No matter how simple the hybrid it is the king. The most complex flavor by far. Tayberry is super unique and any offspring with Marion must be amazing.
Speaking of complex New Berry has Marion and Logan in its lineage. It is the latest super cool blackberry raspberry hybrid. Over 30 cultivars are in its linage. I think it’s the best berry to come out of the Oregon program. By far!!! The Oregon Columbia series sucks compared to New Berry. It may surpass Marion. It’s that good. Although it is an interspecific cross and Marion is all blackberry. So it still holds its crown of king of the blackberries.
i think both the book and extension source have made an error.
In this paper i found
https://ibn.idsi.md/vizualizare_articol/77151
Tayberry is a hybrid obtained by the crossing of the blackberry - Rubus fruticosus and the raspberry - Rubus idaeus. The original plant was selected from a family of seedlings resulting from a cross made in 1969 at the Scottish Horticultural Research Institute, Dundee, UK, between the octoploid blackberry Aurora and a tetraploid raspberry 626/67.
is also an amazing source.
Heirlooms like these are much sweeter than primark 45 and freedom Blackberries by the gallons but that’s not to say the fruit are not seedy and plants unruly and shamelessly prolific.
I have the ‘thornless’ Boysenberry from Pense… got it as a plug last year so wont know much for awhile. Currently the plant is super thorny…
I recently bought Boysenberry plants from Mr. Boysens grand daughter who claims that the family has kept the original canes in the family since the beginning.
I found a site selling #43 and Riwakas Choice Boysenberry… which are i think after the New Zealanders have messed with them. Both say Zone 5-10
Wyeberry sounds to be a superior berry to them all. I will likely just stick with Ms. Boysens family heirlooms and see how they do. I will buy Wyeberry if/when it ever comes available again.
I would rate it to zone 5 too. Just no fruit. The plant roots and crown can survive the cold. The canes cannot but that won’t kill the plant. Someone sent me some Knots Berry farm products in the past. Truthfully I was not impressed. Way too much sugar. The berries are so awesome in my jams. I was greatly disappointed in the commercial product. I ended up throwing it out.
I found some more crosses that arent talked about much…
Lavacaberry The LavacaBerry is a hybrid between the loganberry and boysenberry,
Ranui Berry The Ranui Berry is a hybrid berry achieved by crossing Auroraberry and Marionberry
Sunberry - Sunberry is a cross between a Raspberry and Blackberry. The flavour is like a Loganberry.
Asterina is great choice for areas with mild climate (warm winters and not hot and wet summers), I think. I have one bush. In my conditions (long, hot and dry windy summer) it shows bad results, fruit are easily damaged in the sun and buy air temperatures over 82F, fertility is low. But the berries, which ripen in the penumbra, are very sweet indeed.
At my farm the heirloom called health berry is the sweetest. It’s very large, aggressive and not really for a home grower unless they have a lot of room.
I talked to Mr Gary Pense Sr. for a long while about some of the lesser known and lost berries. His family grew Lavaca and recently he grew it again as he was young when they grew it last. He reported that without a doubt… Lavaca is Boysenberry. During the depression and after, a guy bought 1000 ‘raspberry’ plants from a farm in California and grew them in Lavaca Ark. He had so much success with them that local farms bought thousands of plants from him and the town exploded with sales of Lavaca Berries.
The town of Lavaca Ark. has a Lavacaberry festival yearly and is very proud of their heritage…which i think there is nothing wrong with that.
Full history here.
In my experience the sweetness of outdoor berries varies 1st by climate, and second by personal taste.