Blackberry varieties /

Thornfree blackberry variety

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Old commercial thornless cultivar for processing and wine production

Rubus subgenus Rubus Watson 'Thornfree'

Variety denomination - 'Thornfree'

Thornfree is the parent for Hull Thornless, Chester Thornless, Black Satin

Plants are thornless

Bushes have trailing canes

Fruit weight is 7 g

Berries have a oblong shape

Fruiting habit - floricane fruiting (summer-bearing)

Flowering on floricanes starts in the second week of June

Ripening date (regular) - fourth week of July

Productivity is 15 kg per plant

Cold hardiness is good

Heat tolerance is low

Current status - obsolete or rarely used

Country of origin - United States

Agawam Amanda Anastasia Wyeberry Apache Arapaho Babycakes Bailey Big Daddy Black Butte Black Diamond Black Gem Black Jack Black Magic Black Pearl Black Satin Blakely Boysenberry Brazos Caddo Chesapeake Chester Thornless Cheyenne Chickasaw Chief Joseph Choctaw Clark Gold Columbia Giant Columbia Star Columbia Sunrise COX's miracle berry Danna Douglass Doyle's Thornless Eclipse Evergreen Thornless Galaxy Hall’s Beauty Heaven Can Wait Hedrick HJ-6 HJ-7 Hull Thornless Illiny Hardy Kelly Kiowa Kotata Loganberry Lucretia Marion Mary Carmen Metolius MM01 Natchez Navaho Nettleton Creamy White Newberry Nightfall Obsidian Onyx Osage Ouachita Ponca Prime-Ark 45 Prime-Ark Freedom Prime-Ark Horizon Prime-Ark Traveler Prime-Jan Prime-Jim Reuben Schultz Shawnee Siskiyou Smoothstem Sweetie Pie Thornfree Triple Crown Twilight Von Waldo Wild Treasure Willamette Thornless Marion

Old American variety of thornless floricane-fruiting blackberry (selected in 1966 in USA). Plants are very trailing and vigorous, stems can achieve up to 5 m in length and up to 2 m in height. Large white (with low pinkish shade) flowers appear in June. Flowers have 5 to 7 petals. Thornfree is late-ripening variety. It has long harvest season - gives mature berries from late July to October. Fruit are big (typically 6-8 g, and up to 14 g), oblong in shape, have black color and glossy. Oftentimes even ripen berries have sour taste. If such berries have been leaved on bushes, after few days with good weather conditions they gain sugar taste, but lose glossiness. Firmness is very low, because Thornfree's berries is great juicy. Such features define the main markets of this cultivar - processing and wine production.
Yield is big, 15-20 kg/plant when using appropriate autumn cropping and fertilizing.
Pests and disease resistance are normal, winter hardiness is good, about minus 20 C. Thornfree's berries are sensitive to high summer temperatures (boiled berries), need to be sheltered from direct sun rays.
In some areas Thornfree is widely used as commercial variety even today.