Does anyone know if any of the thornless blackberries have a thorned parent or grandparent? I have a seedling that was found several feet away from my row of thornless blackberries and it has thorns. Of the few seedlings I find each year, none have had thorns.
I removed a couple Snowbanks out of the row last year, so I am assuming this could be one of the parents. I saved a sucker and as you can see the seedling leaves do not match the Snowbank leaves.
Snowbank:
Seedling:
The others I grow are PrimeArk Freedom, PrimeArk 45, PrimeArk Traveler, Sweetie Pie, Navajo, and Ouachita.
If I’m not mistaken it doesn’t matter how many generations the line has been thornless. If it gets pollinated by a thorny variety it still has potential to produce thorny offspring. That said, I think there is more than one genetic route to thornlessness in Rubus species so that does make it slightly more difficult to predict your results.
Besides the Snowbank, all other blackberries are thornless in my yard. Given my experience of finding several thornless seedlings each year I was under the impression that having the thorny trait show up was rare. I’m also growing a few thorny raspberries nearby such as Yellow Anne, Fall Gold, Heritage, and a wineberry but I think they all flower a couple weeks earlier than any of my blackberries so I doubt they are involved.
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Your thorny seedlings are probably rare because statistically many of them have two thornless parents due to having multiple thornless varieties planted along with the fact that many of them will self pollinate.
