Thornless and double-cropping black raspberries

[Shule]

Gurney's has been selling innovative black raspberries, lately:

Thornless:
https://www.gurneys.com/product/born-fr ... -raspberry

Two harvests:
https://www.gurneys.com/product/sweet-r ... raspberry-

I thought I'd share. It used to be (not long ago, it seems) that they all had thorns and a single crop.

[Setec Astronomy]

Do black raspberries have any more thorns than red raspberries? When I was a kid we at one time or another had red, yellow and black, I don't remember the black having any more thorns than the others but I don't really remember. Certainly the red raspberries, while being rough, didn't have thorns anything like blackberries, and I know they had thornless blackberries back then, because we grew them...a lot more friendly than the wild blackberries I used to pick, ouch!

I loved the black raspberries we grew, I would love to grow some now but I don't think I really have any place to do it.

[Shule]

@Setec Astronomy

I haven't compared them to red raspberries and blackberries side by side, as our blackberries and red raspberries have been thornless for years.

Blackcaps (Rubus occidentalis) have thorns on the fruit stems, and you can expect a certain amount of pain in your fingertrips during a harvest if you don't have gloves. The branches are pretty thorny and to be avoided, but the scratches I've had have been pretty shallow; I don't think they did more than barely draw blood, if that, but they still hurt.

If my memory serves me, the damage they do isn't as bad as that of thorned blackberries, but the fruit stem thorns are harder to avoid (perhaps because the fruits are smaller). I don't think the thorns are as durable as those of blackberries, either.

In my climate, the blackcaps dehydrate on the plant if you don't harvest them in time, and picking dehydrated berries is more likely to get your fingers pricked.

I've never harvested from the other species of black raspberry (the ones that aren't called blackcaps: Rubus leucodermis and Rubus coreanus).

[Tormahto]

Black raspberry and red raspberry thorns? That's like chin stubble.

Get yourself into a large grove of wild blackberries on 12' canes, with last years standing dead canes as a bonus, and you'll find out what real thorns are. And, if you're not familiar with them, the long sharp thorns are down swept, which means the more you try to pull out from them, the more the canes come down on you. I learned a painful lesson that one has to first move into them for the thorns to pull out of one's skin, then move down and out afterward.

I think the only thing worse would be falling into a mayhaw tree. I have a young one growing in the yard. It has 2"+ long "needles".

I've trialed several cultivated black raspberries. Jewel is the only one I liked. The wild ones around here tasted much better than all of the other cultivars.

If you like candy, Fall Gold (a yellow raspberry) is hard to beat.

[Setec Astronomy]

Black raspberry and red raspberry thorns? That's like chin stubble.

Get yourself into a large grove of wild blackberries...and you'll find out what real thorns are.

That's the way I remember it.

If you like candy, Fall Gold (a yellow raspberry) is hard to beat.

Ha...that sounds familiar, the last raspberries my father planted were the yellow ones.