Prime-Ark® Horizon, a new primocane-fruiting blackberry from the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station, offers growers a new option with an extended fruiting season and high yield potential.
Prime-Ark® Horizon is a thorny variety and the sixth primocane-fruiting blackberry from the experiment station’s fruit breeding program. Experiment Station fruit breeders have released 21 public blackberry varieties since James N. Moore began the program in 1964.
Blackberry plants
produce biennial canes that have a lifespan of two years, said John R. Clark, Distinguished Professor of horticulture and fruit breeding for the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station, the research arm of the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture. Most blackberries flower and fruit on the second-year canes, known as floricanes. Harvest date for floricane blackberries on Prime-Ark® Horizon averaged about June 12 at the Division of Agriculture’s Fruit Research Station near Clarksville.
Primocane fruiting blackberries flower and bear fruit in spring or early summer on those floricanes, Clark said. They then flower and fruit on the first-year canes, or primocanes, later in the summer. For Prime-Ark® Horizon, the first harvest on primocanes begins about Aug. 4 and extends to as late as mid-October.
“That’s a fruiting period of over 60 days, which is longer than any other primocane-fruiting variety from our breeding program,” Clark said. “Prime-Ark® Horizon just fruits longer, and that makes for a nice extended picking season for Arkansas growers.”
Clark said Prime-Ark® Horizon makes an excellent complement to Prime-Ark® 45, which has similar postharvest potential and ripens about six days earlier.
Prime-Ark® Horizon’s floricane berry crop has high yield potential, exceeding 30,000 pounds per acre in some years, Clark said. He advises pruning to control the harvest and to balance the yield between floricanes and primocanes. A very large floricane crop can also lead to smaller leaf size and upward leaf curling on floricanes, which can hurt plant health, he said.
The primocane yields at the Fruit Research Station ranged from 3,000 to 9,000 pounds per acre.
Berries average 7.8 grams overall, Clark said, and floricane berries can get as big as 10 grams. Primocane berries average 7.3 grams. Prime-Ark® Horizon berries have good flavor with light aromatics, though they can be tart, especially when floricane yields are high.
Postharvest storage for seven days has been comparable to Prime Ark® 45 for reversion, a postharvest disorder in which black drupelets revert from fully black to a reddish color, Clark said. The berries retain excellent firmness. Leakage and decay are minimal, measuring among the best in the Arkansas program.
For more information:
Fred Miller
U of A System Division of Agriculture
Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station
Tel.: +1 (479) 575-5647
E-mail: [email protected]