Breeding Autumn-Fruiting Raspberries

Abstract

Autumn-fruiting, or so-called everbearing, raspberries have long been known in this country and abroad. Many have been introduced from time to time and they occur in the wild. Most of the more important varieties, except Ranere, were polyploids. All were very similar and had certain characteristics in common which were undesirable from the pomological point of view. The plants were vigorous, suckered profusely, lacked winter hardiness, and were unproductive. The leaves were dark green, thick and coarse. The berries were small, crumbly and often with very few drupelets on the autumn berries. They were very soft, dull, dark red, tart and poor in quality. Erskine Park and LaFrance were sold by nurseries for a few years during the twenties. Hailsham, a tetraploid variety, was possibly slightly better than the others at Geneva.