Silver Creek Nursery Ltd.

Chester Thornless Blackberry

Species: Rubus sp

History: Chester Thornless was created and released as a collaboration between the Agricultural Research Service, USDA, Illinois Agricultural Experiment Station, Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Station, and Maryland Agricultural Experiment Station. It was first bred in Illinois in 1968 and was selected for its thornless nature and cold hardiness. It was later released in 1985.

Why We Grow It: Chester Thornless is easy to grow and rewarding. It produces a reliable bounty of firm, sweet, juicy blackberries that are great for a wide variety of uses.

Pictured on the left: top: Chester, bottom: Illini Hardy

Fruit Specs

Recommended Use: Fresh eating, jam

Fruit Size:

Storage: Keeps up to a week when stored in the fridge

Harvest: September - Early

Growing Specs

Canadian Hardiness Zone: 5

Soil Preference: Loam and sandy loam, prefers soils that are moist but well-drained

Flowering Time:

Bloom Colour: White

Pollination Requirements: Self-pollinating, this variety will produce fruit without a different blackberry variety but will produce more and better fruit if one is present

Sun/Shade Requirements:

Full sun (approx. 8-10 hours of sun daily)

General Growth Habits:

Very vigorous and cold hardy, produces heavy and reliable crops. Good disease resistance.

Type: Floricane, bears fruit only on second year growth

Thorns: None

Shipping vs. Pick Up

CLICK HERE to see how shipping compares to pick up.

Shipping: Every year we ship thousands of trees across Canada (except BC due to CFIA regulations). We carefully bag roots in damp sawdust, then box them and send them out via courrier. CLICK HERE to see our shipping policy.

Pick-up: We also have thousands of trees picked up from our nursery each year. The pick-up options is free, though you must wait until you have been emailed a confirmation that your order is ready to pick up, which will have further information such as hours, locations, etc. We really appreciate if you can make an appointment to pick up, then we can be as organized as possible during our busy season.

Size at Purchase

Blackberries are divided into the following grades:

2 year plant - pruned to ~30cm, extensive root system

There is some overlap in size since we are also taking the age of the plants into account. Some older plants may not have put on quite as much vegetative growth but will have larger root systems.

Unless specified, heights exclude the roots since seedlings and some berries will often have a lot of root growth but relatively little vegetative growth (ex. our Shagbark Hickories seedlings are often 5-15cm above the soil but will have roots that reach 20cm+ in length).

Not all of our berries and seedlings will be available in all of these grades since growth rate can vary significantly across species and even varieties. While we remain competitive in our plant size, it's also worth noting we don't use synthetic chemicals to push vegetative growth, therefore you may find conventional nursery stock larger in some instances comparatively.

Why plant small? It's best to transplant when a plant is young so it can establish its roots before it has a lot of vegetative growth. This is much less stressful on it and bareroot plants tend to catch up and even surpass larger potted ones planted at the same time, after a few years.

Orders that are cancelled last minute due to size (being "too small"), will still incur the applicable cancellation fees if the plants are true to our grading standards as per the agreement of sale when the order was placed.

Size 2 year plant

Quantity