will blackberry seeds come true to type?

[Jim]

Just wondering. I got a package of blackberries today and wondered if the seeds could come true to type.

[sammyqc]

Are they the store bought berries, or did you mean seeds? If it says on the box what type they are, you could probably look up the variety to see if they are hybrids or not. I have a type of wild black raspberry that grows all over in my yard, the birds are so helpful! They are not much use for cooking or baking, but at least my kids love them fresh. They are really thorny, prickly devils though, and I need thick gloves to pull them out of places they really shouldn't be.
Could be worth a try, even if they are hybrids. You may get something out of them.

[lavandulagirl]

Does the package have a producer addy on it? You might want to find out how they farm, too. An whether their plants are erect or trailing. (Erect plants are more cold hardy, so it pays to know where yours were produced, and what kind of plants they have.) That all said, blackberries are usually propagated by either root cuttings or tipping, so coming from seeds, you may have a really long wait for berries.

[kctomato]

blackberry seed crops will usually vary. how much depends on the population they came from originally.

[Jim]

just looked at the package. Says Mexico.....long way from Michigan..Probably pass on trying planting the seeds.

[sandbar]

At least it was close ... alphabetically.

[redbrick]

Honestly, unless you have the spare ground for playing, you're usually better off with vegetative starts from known varieties when you're talking about fruits, soft fruit included. If you have the room, go for it, though!

[evilfruitlord]

They won't come true from seeds...anything commercially produced (and, really virtually everything else) is highly heterozygous.

If you do plant them, you'll want to acid scarify the seeds for a good long while, or you're going to be waiting a long time for most of them to germinate. Once they grow, though, they ought to fruit the second year, at least to a small extent.

If it's coming from Mexico, there's a limited range of things it could be, none of which are going to be happy in Michigan. If it was produced by Driscoll's, it's likely a proprietary variety. Otherwise, it's probably either 'Tupy', a rather odd Brazilian variety, or 'Brazos', an old variety from Texas. (Conceivably, it could be any of several Arkansas varieties, but 'Tupy' and 'Brazos' seem to make up the bulk of stuff coming out of Mexico).

Very few cultivated varieties are going to be happy in Michigan, as they're going to have a tough time surviving your winters (though you might be able to manage a little better if you're right on one of the lakes). You might try something like 'Illini Hardy'...

[mnjrutherford]

I pulled 3 cane starts from the edge of our "forest" area last year and planted them along our driveway. They are thorny and they all have blossom buds at the moment. I was thrilled to see bushes in the forest when we first got here but very dissapointed when they never bore fruit. We also have a couple of thornless, nursery varieties. One, "Arapahoe", that is 3 years in ground and produced about a dozen berries last year, and another we put in just this year. I can't remember the variety.

Any clue why the wild ones in the forest don't fruit? I'm excited to see what comes from the transplants.