Ontario Fruit Explorers

["Thomas Olenio" <tolenio@sentex.net>]

Hello All,

 

Made an interesting discovery yesterday while going through my larger pots.  I had originally had grafted apples in them that had failed.  This season I found a bramble that evidently came up last season in one of the pots.

 

   

 

It came up and grew about three feet.  It comes up and then trails downward.

 

I am guessing it is a black raspberry (if a fruiting cane at all), as blackberries are not hardy in Ontario (except warmer areas), and this survived in a large pot above ground.

 

Anybody in the group good with clues in identifying young brambles?

 

I will give it opportunity to fruit, as any variety this determined to survive deserves a chance.  If it over winters in an above ground pot (10-15 gallon) that is a bonus.  The winter low in my backyard was -17.6F.

 

It must have been bird planting, for the only raspberries that come through my kitchen are ever bearing red raspberries that spoiled before I could use them (not many), and those are upright cane varieties anyway.  All the black raspberries  in our house come in through preserves and pies and they NEVER see the compost.  Ha, ha, ha.

 

Any clues to determine what a volunteer bramble is when it is young?

 

Thanks,

Tom