# Blackberry Question: Thorns or Thornless



## Cliff (Jun 30, 2007)

I am in the house taking a break from trying to get our thorned blackberry patch back into some kind of usable formation  

This patch came from my grandmother's blackberries from the old days in Kentucky. Very old variety. No idea what they actually are. They are thorny and pretty wicked to work with - and pick. I've put up with them because they are very hardy, heavy producers of decent sized berries and the berries taste great. Great rich blackberry taste with more acid than the thornless blackberries I've tried. 

I've only tasted maybe a couple varieties of the thornless, but I didn't like them. They were huge and sweet enough, but bland. Really bland, like not worth the trouble of eating. Certainly not worth the trouble of growing. I'm wondering (after a couple hours of being stabbed by thorns lol) if there are any really good flavorful varieties of thornless blackberries and I just don't know about them?


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## rags57078 (Jun 11, 2011)

my next plant order will have blackberries , thorns or not I want flavor


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## CIW (Oct 2, 2007)

Cliff,
Have you tried Apache thornless? The neighbor down the road swears them to be really a good one.
Me, I guess I'm a bleeder. We like ours. Don't know what they are, as we dug them out down in the river bottom and transplanted them. But your mouth will burn they are so sweet.
I know that the taste of next years crop is greatly effected if we aren't able to get manure on them each fall. Our soil tends to be a little more alkaline. I think the manure keeps that in check.


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## praieri winds (Apr 16, 2010)

the thornless berries are a hybrid they are gtafted onto thorned berry roots so if you don't keep the new shoots trimmed you will have thorns mixed in with the thornleass and they will take over asthey are very prolific but as for flavor I prefer the thorns kind


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## Callieslamb (Feb 27, 2007)

I can't stand the thorns and put in a thornless variety. I don't like arms ripped to shreds. I tasted some from a local Upick that were thornless and we thought they were great.


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## Paquebot (May 10, 2002)

I also have tasted fruit from a thornless variety and wasn't impressed. I already have red and black raspberries but would also have blackberries if I had more space. 

A side note is that my father always claimed that he was allergic to blackberry brandy. May have been some truth to it since I don't dare allow my arms to be scratched by a blackberry thorn. If I do, the scratches swell like red welts and burn like crazy. Doesn't happen with any other thorny plant.

Martin


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## How Do I (Feb 11, 2008)

I prefer thornless myself. Triple Crown. Some people don't care for them and that's all good. My neighbor makes the best wine you ever tasted with them and I _absolutely_ dislike any other wine I've ever tasted. I've tried some thorned varieties that I didn't really care for. One that my aunt gave me ended up getting pitched into the woods. Is there really a standard we're supposed to measure against? I think it's more of a personal taste.


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## Cliff (Jun 30, 2007)

How Do I said:


> I prefer thornless myself. Triple Crown. Some people don't care for them and that's all good. My neighbor makes the best wine you ever tasted with them and I _absolutely_ dislike any other wine I've ever tasted. I've tried some thorned varieties that I didn't really care for. One that my aunt gave me ended up getting pitched into the woods. Is there really a standard we're supposed to measure against? I think it's more of a personal taste.


I guess what I'm wondering and just didn't put it into words very well is are there thornless varieties that still have the full flavor of the thorned kinds. Like I said I've only tried a couple of kinds and it could've been a bad year or not so great variety. 
Basically in general is there a flavor trade off to get rid of the thorns?

I grew up picking wild blackberries so I guess that's what became my ideal as far as taste when I was young. As a side note, wild blackberries in tn are yuck in general - I wonder why they are so different than the wild ones in ky and alabama and ga..

Also if you know of a thornless variety that's really good - and I guess by good I mean it has some acid as well as sweetness to it, not bland - I may try growing it. 
Thanks for the suggestions so far


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## ACountryMomma (Aug 10, 2008)

praieri winds said:


> the thornless berries are a hybrid they are gtafted onto thorned berry roots so if you don't keep the new shoots trimmed you will have thorns mixed in with the thornleass and they will take over asthey are very prolific but as for flavor I prefer the thorns kind


I don't know, but we planted thornless varieties in 2007 & 2008 Y they spread like crazy (and I encourage it), but we haven't had any of the new growth come in with thorns.

I need to hunt around and find the name of our variety. They are good & the berries quite large, but not near as sweet and tangy as those thorny little wild buggars I remember having as a kid.


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## Leo (Feb 7, 2006)

Apache is good, so is kowaii, oawii or whatever it's called. I do prefer the wild strains as the seeds are smaller, but my kids hate the thorny varieties.


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## salmonslayer91 (Oct 10, 2010)

praieri winds said:


> the thornless berries are a hybrid they are gtafted onto thorned berry roots so if you don't keep the new shoots trimmed you will have thorns mixed in with the thornleass and they will take over asthey are very prolific but as for flavor I prefer the thorns kind


thats not true... im going to go out on a limb and say darn near EVERY commercially availible "thornless" blackberry is Geneticly thornless... which is why the university of arkanses has such a huge breeding program... each tribally named variety comes from here. 

Oregon state also breeds blackberries and as the OP was wondering i have good news. OS just came out with a new varoety call : wild treasure : the only nursery that sells it is raintree nursery (online) is brand new on the market but it is a cross between waldo a thornless variety and a pure strain of mountain blackberry the cross has no thorns (trailing variety) and taste similer VERY similer to its wild parent 

SO give wild treasure a go  i just got mine in and its growing quite nicly :nanner:


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## pinfeather (Nov 12, 2006)

Gotta say I love my Apaches. I grew up picking wild thorned blackberries and admit I was spoiled by the small seeds and sweetness, but the picking is so much easier with thornless that I don't mind the more tart flavor and larger seeds!


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