Raspberry-Blackberry Hybrids: Loganberry and Tayberry

Raspberry-blackberry hybrids are considered one of the most promising areas for breeding these plants. New varieties inherit from blackberry high productivity, unpretentiousness to soil and cultivation conditions, and from raspberry - its crown winter hardiness and relative stiffness of stems.

The very first variety was a hybrid that developed naturally in the United States, and it was named Logan's Blackberry after whoever discovered it in the late 19th century. Subsequently, new hybrid plants appeared - Boysen's blackberry, Young's blackberry, which, without using special ingenuity, were called according to the same principle.

But Russia also did not lag behind the West, and already at the very beginning of the 20th century, Ivan Vladimirovich Michurin created the first and still significant raspberry-blackberry varieties: Progress, Commerce and Productive.

Not competing, but rather keeping up with the times, the American breeder L. Burbank at the same time bred his varieties Primus and Phenomenalnaya. Fairly productive varieties were obtained in England. The most famous, perhaps, and to this day is considered the variety obtained there, Tayberry.

Loganberry

Loganberry is a raspberry-blackberry hybrid that combines economically useful traits of both raspberries and blackberries. In Russia, this plant is little known and is found only in the areas of amateur gardeners. The positive features of the variety are: the complete absence of thorns, larger and much tastier berries, high yield, sufficient winter hardiness, and even high decorative qualities.

The variety forms sprawling bushes with arched stems reaching a height of 1.5–2 m and requiring a garter. Another plus is the complete absence of root growth. A plant of this variety blooms in the middle lane already in mid-June and blooms for up to one and a half months. During this period, the plants are distinguished by increased decorativeness: the brushes, consisting of 15–20 large pale pink seven-petal flowers, stand out very well against the background of greenery. And during the fruiting period, the plants are also spectacular and very decorative. The ripening period of berries in the variety is extended - from mid-August to the very frost, however, such a late ripening of berries is also a valuable property of the plant. The very first berries are large, reaching a mass of 10 g, elongated, shiny and very sweet. Up to 10 kg of berries can be harvested from one bush.

In addition to good taste and nutrients - sugars, organic acids, biologically active substances, iron, calcium, sulfur, phosphorus and others - Loganberry fruits also have medicinal properties. They are used both fresh and for making jams, jellies, compotes, juices, they make excellent assorted apples or strawberries.

The Loganberry variety reproduces very easily by rooting the tops of annual shoots, lignified and green cuttings.

When planting plants in a permanent place, they try to adhere to a distance between plants of 1 m, and between rows of 1.5–2 m. Naturally, the best results are achieved on a trellis, its optimal height is 1.5 m. Immediately after planting, the seedlings are shortened to a height of 25 cm, be sure to water and mulch the bust circles. In the future, they monitor the plant, remove the fruiting shoots, and in the fall the bushes are bent to the ground and covered with spruce branches or fallen leaves.

Tayberry

It is a modern mid-season variety. A powerful shrub, reaching a height of 1.5 m, with beautiful leaves. Ripe elongated berries, more like blackberries, ripen in August. Tayberry fruits are large, more than 5 g, sweet and sour, with a blackberry flavor, reddish at the beginning and almost black at full maturity. Fruiting is annual, from late August to frost. The yield is very high, often more than 10 kg per bush, delicious berries suitable for all types of processing.The variety is less winter-hardy than raspberries, but differs from it in much greater drought resistance and productivity.

The best results are obtained when growing this variety on a trellis, since the Tyberry shoots are quite heavily loaded with fruits and hang down to the ground under their weight, from this they get dirty, acquire a non-marketable appearance, and the shoots may even break.

From the practice of the gardener Elena Litvyakova:

For the most part, blackberries and raspberry-blackberry hybrids do not have enough winter hardiness for the North-West. In order for the lashes of blackberries and raspberry-blackberry hybrids to not freeze out, you need to lay them on the ground for the winter and cover them with spruce branches, rags or padding polyester.

But removing thorny lashes from a trellis is not a pleasant and not safe occupation. Therefore, it is possible to build a removable trellis, which will be laid on the ground together with the whips for the winter. The trellis can be made from wooden posts or small diameter pipes. The trellis is installed in pipes dug to a depth of 30–40 cm (the diameter of the pipes must be larger than the diameter of the posts of the trellis!), So, for two bushes, three pipes are enough driven in at a distance of 2 m from each other. It is easy to remove such a trellis from the pipes in autumn and lay it on the ground together with the bush, and then cover the bush.

"Garden affairs" No. 1 (45), 2011