Chester Thornless Blackberry vs Heritage Raspberry - TreeTime.ca

Chester Thornless Blackberry vs Heritage Raspberry

Rubus fruticosa Chester (Thornless)

Rubus x Heritage

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Chester Thornless Blackberry
Heritage Raspberry

Chester Thornless Blackberry is a self-pollinating fruit-bearing shrub. In mid-summer, the Chester Thornless Blackberry produces large, sweet-tasting, heart-shaped blackberries that are perfect for fresh eating. It is a semi-erect blackberry plant that requires little support from a trellis to keep its fruit off the ground. Don't forget to protect your berries. The birds love this shrub almost as much as you will.

Chester Thornless Blackberries are floricanes, primarily fruiting on second year canes. Each spring cut back all two-year old canes, leaving only the last year’s growth.

The Heritage Raspberry is a deciduous thorny shrub that produces two crops in the year: a moderate one in early summer followed by a heavier harvest in the fall. This plant blooms with white, rose-like flowers and fruits with extra-sweet, dark red berries that are great for fresh eating, canning or freezing.

The Heritage Raspberry is a primocane-fruiting variety, meaning that it produces fruit on first years' growth. Prune stalks down each winter or early spring to get higher fruit yields and easier harvesting.

Chester Thornless Blackberry Quick Facts

Heritage Raspberry Quick Facts

Zone: 3b
Zone: 4a
Height: 0.9 m (3 ft)
Height: 1.5 m (5 ft)
Spread: 3 m (10 ft)
Spread: 1.2 m (4 ft)
Light: full sun
Light: partial shade, full sun
Moisture: normal, wet
Moisture: dry, normal
Growth rate: fast
Growth rate: fast
Life span: short
Life span: short
Suckering: high
Suckering: medium
Maintenance: high
Maintenance: medium


Flowers: pink
Berries: heart shaped black
Berries: red
Fruit size: large
Firmness: firm
Flavor: extra-sweet
Harvest: July
Harvest: June-July, September to October
Hybrid: no
Hybrid: no
Catkins: no
Catkins: no


Other Names: chester blackberry, hardy blackberry