Thornless Berries

[Danny]

Got my order of SweetiePie blackberries and also a couple of Boysen berry plants, hardening them off to go into my planters. Also got some strawberries to get out in this round of planting. I am excited to grow these all as they should be easy to propagate and we do love all the various berries. I have an interest in the thornless ones as being old, my skin is thinner and even in my youth, lordy, got tore up picking the wild ones, but so worth the taste.

Now, if I could find marionberries in a thornless version and the white Burbank developed "snowberry" blackberry, it'd be a swoon !

The strawberries are from Baker Creek, forgot the name at the moment, started with a G and one North Sea plant survived the shipping. Smaller berries, but supposed to be very flavorfull strawberries. In the tubs and raised beds, it's easier to bird net the strawberries so we get to eat them, not the birds.

Any one growing unusual berries this year?

[habitat-gardener]

I’m growing a thornless blackberry whose name I don’t know. I got it from a local gardener who was moving.
Last year, I noticed (!!) a lot of thorny branches. After asking around, I learned that it was probably a « thornless periclinal chimera » and sprouts thorny canes that must be removed so that the plant does not revert to a thorny bramble. So this spring, iirc just as I saw blossoms, I pulled and cut a whole bunch of thorny canes. Interestingly, none of those had flowers. It’s now producing berries and so far, I have not seen any more thorny canes.

[Danny]

Never knew about that. Something to be aware of. Hope you get lots of good berries !

[Shule]

I grow wonderberries (they volunteer every year). We have thornless blackberries. We have gooseberries and blackcurrants. We've got some new raspberries in pots; I think one or two of them are thornless.

[svalli]

I wish there was a thornless blackberry variety which would grow outside in our climate. I know people here grow those in greenhouses, but I do not have room for perennials in my GH. I have some blackberries in my garden and I need thick clothes and gloves when removing old growth and tying the new canes to support. I have planted those in a small raised bed with heavy duty root barrier to keep them contained.

We have a lot of blueberries, strawberries ,raspberries and black, green and red currant bushes on our countryside garden. Newest addition are haskaps a.k.a. honeyberries. We have got good harvest from them during last two years, so now we are going to plant some more. I purchased potted plants in a sale last fall and overwintered them buried in one of my raised beds. Now those are waiting to be planted to permanent locations

[bower]

I have a lot of strawberries to plant, even though my garden is full of wild strawberries already. I have some Seascapes and some Lizonka F1 from Ukraine, which are types that produce runners and make more plants, and I have a load of Alpine strawberries, Reugen, Baron Solemaher, Renaissance.
Also grew some seedlings of Nanking Cherry, which I will grow bigger in pots for a year before I plant them out.
I have black currants which do very well here in years that they don't get bitten down too much by the moose.
There are quite a few wild lowbush blueberry plants around the place, but sadly not productive, I need to figure out what they're missing. They do get eaten back by rabbits quite a bit but we also tend to have late frosts which can damage the blossoms. Also last year I spied a single partridgeberry (same as lingonberry) - I would love to have more of these around.
We have wild blackberries, very thorny and aggressively spreading, but the berries are not that great. Large seeds, mild tasting berry. I've never even tasted a cultivated blackberry, so I don't know how they compare.

[Danny]

Well, the plants are adjusting well, so hopefully into the barrels tomorrow with a good drink to help them grow on happily.

Down here, the wild blackberries used to be quite tasty, but getting them involved blood and some pain ! Those thorns can be vicious. Many of the store bought blackberries seem to lack taste, watered down tasting. So looking forward to home grown and ripened on the bush berries next year.

Glad to read so many grow so many diverse berries, would like to try more varieties later. Foods make a link between us all.