The Magic of Gardening

Meet Me at the Blackberry Patch

Most folks that grew up in the South of my generation (Baby Boomer) or older have spent some time this time of year literally picking their way through a patch of wild blackberries. You younger folks need that experience to toughen you up just a little. Nowadays we have cultivated blackberries planted on farms in rows both managed and trellised for easy harvesting. We miss out on a lot in this new way of growing blackberries. There is less chance of getting ticks or chiggers and much less chance of stepping on a snake. This is not to mention the dreaded thorns that require great skill to avoid. However, one of the things I hear most from old timers who have forgotten all the negatives is that cultivated blackberries don’t taste as good as the wild types. This is changing primarily due to the efforts of gifted plant breeders.

My days of wandering through wild blackberry patches are quickly growing to an end, but thankfully we now have some great cultivated thornless varieties of this prized summertime fruit. We can’t grow good raspberries or gooseberries, but we are in a great area to grow some of the best blackberries in the world. Once upon a time we thought the holy grail would be the development of a thornless variety, but over time, breeders not only achieved that goal but developed more disease resistance, better flavor and even fall-fruiting varieties.

Blackberries are biennial in growth habit. They produce a vegetative cane the first season that fruits the next year followed by those canes dying. The vegetative canes are called primocanes and the next year the same canes bear fruit and are called floricanes. This was an easy way of differentiating between the new canes coming up in the early to midsummer from the ones that had fruit on them at the same time. The plant breeders have confused things once again by developing a unique fall-fruiting type of plant called primocane fruiting blackberries.

The first time I heard that phrase I thought it was an oxymoron. By definition, fruit form on floricanes not primocanes. But, oh no, the plant breeders threw us a curve and came up with varieties that fruit in the fall on the primocanes that just came up earlier in the summer. To make matters even more confusing, these same primocane fruiting varieties can be managed to fruit as floricanes the next year rather than in the fall. The way this is accomplished is to keep tipping the new growth back all through the summer to prevent flow-

er production. I know a farmer in Cullman County that does this and when I asked why he said, “It’s too hot here to make good fall fruit, but tipping regularly stops fruiting and these plants will then make very early fruit the next year before any of the traditional floricanes varieties are ready thus extending my season.” Are you confused yet? If you want to try a fall primocane-fruiting variety, he suggested you try Prime Ark Freedom. If you want fall fruit, tip it out early in the summer when it reaches 4 feet in height and then allow it to produce flowers for fall fruit. These same canes will produce a late spring to early summer crop the next year.

The newest traditional floricanes variety released from the premier blackberry breeding program at the University of Arkansas is a thornless variety called Ponca. I will harvest my first fruit off plants I started last year early in June and I can’t wait to try them. This is the way it is described on the University of Arkansas website: “Ponca was released in 2019. It is a high-yielding thornless, erect cane with medium-sized fruit with enhanced sweetness and good post-harvest handling traits. Ponca is the sweetest cultivar released to date. A commercial cultivar with good potential as an early-market berry for shipping, local market production and home garden use.” The plants were difficult to find last year, but should become more available over time. I will let you know how they perform when I have a chance to evaluate them myself.

The local producer I mentioned earlier said he is also very pleased with a 2018 released variety called Caddo. He harvested his first crop off these plants last year and said they yielded very well and tasted great. They are also thornless and are ripe about midseason. Another thornless variety that has been around a few years called Ouachita (pronounced watch-a-taw) would also be a good one to have since it ripens a little later than Caddo. If you planted Prime Ark Freedom, Ponca, Caddo and Ouachita they would ripen in order with a few fall fruit from Prime Ark Freedom. This will give you fruit over a fairly long period of time without being inundated all at once with fruit. For small-scale commercial growers, this is important. If you are a hobby grower that primarily wants a crop to make jams or jellies, this is not that important and you might want to try several varieties and then concentrate on the one or two you like best.

If you still prefer the wild thorny fruit, I suggest boots, long pants, long sleeves and a lot of bug spray to keep the ticks and chiggers away. Also, watch out for snakes!

Once upon a time we thought the holy grail would be the development of a thornless variety, but over time breeders not only achieved that goal but developed more disease resistance, better flavor and even fall fruiting varieties.