If you want predictable results, buy the plants. Growing them from seed will not necessarily reproduce the parent plants. With that said, if you get lucky or try a lot of hybrids, you may end up with a new and exciting variety.

It is clear that many of the black raspberries on my 5 acres were planted from seed, via birds. Some are delicious, some are a little off, most are quite tasty. Most are smallish but some are very large. Basically you don't know but yes, they do clearly grow from seed, because they start growing in places there were no plants previous. The problem with letting birds plant your raspberries (and gooseberries and currants) is they mostly grow under trees. If you fling the seed around yourself, you can at least guarantee a sunnier location. :-)

Well the problem with spreading yourself is you miss the acid bath from the birds gut, the seeds may germinate in a couple years after the coating wears off. So seeds need to be scarified before planting.

Drew. Do you think soaking them in vinegar would help scarify them? I have a few seeds I'd like to scarify but don't really want to mess with sulfuric acid.

Red raspberries are generally easy to germinate, or at least such has been my experience. I collect the fresh seed and sow about 1/4 in deep in a shallow tray containing slightly moistened sterilized starting mix, then cover with plastic and set in my unheated attached garage. I bring the container back into the warmth in March and about ten days later the little guys begin to pop up.

With open pollinated raspberry seeds, you "may" end up with a few plants you'll want to keep, while culling the rest. If you have the time and extra space and wish to give it a try, I say go for it! I do a bit of raspberry hybridizing and although nothing earth shattering has come of it, I have a few rather outstanding plants I'll definitely be hanging onto and doing further breeding work with.

Twros - how far along do you let the crosses grow until you decide to discard them? I have several open blackberry crosses in process (one may fruit next year) but no raspberry crosses.

Hi jtburton ... weak plants and those with obvious unsatisfactory fruit traits are culled in their third season and remaining promising ones are transplanted the following spring. The process is sped up if I'm selecting on the basis of plants being thornless.

Yes vinegar should help speed things along. Seeds may sprout unscarified, it takes a lot longer though.