Vol. 40, 2013, No.

2: 88–91 Hort. Sci. (Prague)

Evaluation of blackberry and hybrid berry cultivars

J. Wójcik-Seliga1, E. Wójcik-Gront2

1
Research Institute of Horticulture, Skierniewice, Poland
2
Department of Experimental Design and Bioinformatics, Faculty of Agriculture
and Biology, Warsaw University of Life Sciences – SGGW, Warsaw, Poland

Abstract

Wójcik-Seliga J., Wójcik-Gront E., 2013. Evaluation of blackberry and hybrid berry cultivars new to Polish
climate – Short communication. Hort. Sci. (Prague), 40: 88–91.

There were 13 blackberry cultivars new in Poland tested, including: Black Butte, Boysenberry, Chester Thornless, Helen,
Karaka Black, Kotata, Loch Ness, Loch Tay, Loganberry, and Oregon Thornless. The experiment was conducted between
2005 and 2010 in central Poland with the main focus on resistance of the cultivars to adverse local environmental condi-
tions, as well as to assess the yield and fruit quality. Analysis of data on fruit yield and fruit weight indicated significant
differences between cultivars and years. There were slight differences in harvest date from year to year. Cv. Chester
Thornless had the greatest yield – avg. 12.9 kg/plant (2007–2008). All of the hybrid berries and the trailing blackberries
had yields that were not different – below 3.5 kg/plant. Cvs Black Butte and Karaka Black had the heaviest fruit, above
6.0 g (2006) and up to 10 g per fruit (2007 and 2008). Cv. Oregon Thornless had the smallest fruits – 2.1 g per fruit
(2006) and up to 3 g (2007, 2008). The experiment showed that plants were influenced by the Polish weather conditions.

Keywords: Rubus; fruit yield; fruit quality; harvest season; winter tolerance

The main goal of conducting experiments on black- tive foreign cultivars. Therefore, the main motivation
berries (Rubus subgenus Rubus Watson) in Poland for the tests conducted in the Research Institute of
was to test the performance of foreign cultivars that Horticulture in Skierniewice was to examine new cul-
appear to be very attractive to farmers due to their tivars of blackberry and hybrid berry while they re-
taste and appearance. Another important factor was mained covered with straw during winter.
to evaluate the cultivars for their tolerance to low win- Besides a nice appearance and delicious taste,
ter temperatures. The Research Institute of Horticul- blackberry fruits are good for human health (Ames
ture in Poland (Skierniewice) started their blackberry et al. 1993; Heinonen et al. 1998; Ding et al. 2006;
breeding program in 1979. The main goal of these Lewers et al. 2010). A survey conducted in 2005
types of experiments was to identify cultivars that showed that there was 45% increase in comparison
are less prone to freeze injury. The scale of blackberry to 1995 in the area of worldwide blackberry plan-
cultivation in Poland is not large; however, the popu- tations and commercial cultivations estimated at
larity of these fruits has been steadily growing in the 20,035 ha (Strik et al. 2007). According to the au-
recent years. The main obstacle for routine farming is thors, Poland was the fifth biggest producer in Eu-
adverse weather, especially during winters, when the rope and 13th worldwide with the production of
temperature can drop below –30°C. These conditions 551 t. Blackberry cvs like Thornfree and Black Satin
are too harsh for many of very interesting and attrac- from the USA, and the Polish cv. Orkan are the most

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popular so far but new genotypes become more at- was set in the Pomological Orchard in Skierniewice.
tractive for their taste and fruits appearance. The experiment started in the spring of 2005. The
A major problem in Poland is a poor selection of trial included blackberries as well as hybrid berries.
cultivars for growers to choose from. Polish black- While the hybrid berries are also botanically black-
berry growers focus mainly on cultivars that are berries they have red raspberry in their pedigree.
tolerant to low winter temperatures and then on The cultivars represented semi-erect blackberries
fruit quality. There are not many winter tolerant developed in the eastern USA (cv. Chester Thorn-
cultivars available. In the past, several experiments less) and Scotland (cvs Loch Ness and Loch Tay);
were conducted in the Research Institute of Hor- trailing blackberries developed in the western USA
ticulture regarding fruiting of blackberries with (cvs Black Butte, Kotata, Silvan and Oregon Thorn-
origins in regions with different climatic and soil less sometimes known as Thornless Evergreen) and
conditions. Similar research was previously done England (cv. Helen); and hybrid berries discovered
in other parts of Poland (Danek, Kolodziejczak in the USA (cvs Boysenberry and Loganberry) or
1993) as well as in e.g. Spain (Fuertes et al. 1993). bred in Scotland (cvs Tummelberry and Tayber-
The latter experiments provided European growers ry). The hybrid berries genetic background is very
with attractive cultivars. similar to the trailing blackberries predominantly
The cultivars tested in the current trial in Skier- developed in the western USA. They were com-
niewice came from different breeding programs – pared with standard semi-erect cultivars grown
mostly from the United States, especially from the in Poland: cvs Black Satin and Orkan. In the years
USDA-ARS in Oregon and from the Scottish Crop 2005–2010 yield and fruit quality were evaluated.
Research Institute. It was also very important to check the tolerance to
adverse weather especially the frost that is typical
during Polish winters.
MATERIAL AND METHODS The blackberries were planted in a randomized
block design. There were six, two plant plots per
To assess several blackberries and hybrid berries replication and each plot was 2.5 × 2.5 m. The
that are new or new to Poland, a field experiment plants were drip irrigated. There were no pesti-
Table 1. First and last picking, yield and berry weight (for 2006, data not shown) for 13 blackberry cultivars grown in
Skierniewice, Poland and harvested in 2006–2008

Mean of first and last Fruit yield (kg/plant) Weight of 100 fruits (g)
Cultivar
picking in 2006–2008 2007 2008 mean 2007–2008 2007 2008 mean 2007–2008
fg
Black Butte 27.06–03.08 2.5 3.8  3.2 768 998 883a
Black Satin 30.07–05.10 8.2 12.5 10.4b 444 601 523d
Boysenberry 28.06–24.07 2.1 3.1  2.6g 424 587 506de
Chester Thornless 26.07–03.10 10.1 15.7 12.9a 434 616 525d
fg
Helen 02.07–07.08 3 3.2  3.1 546 649 598bc
Karaka Black 25.06–04.08 2.4 4.6  3.5fg 636 698 667b
Kotata 05.07–03.08 3.3 5.1  4.2ef 431 646 539d
Loch Ness 13.07–21.09 5.2 8.1  6.7c 471 698 585c
Loch Tay 02.07–25.08 5.7 6.6  6.2cd 413 537 475e
Loganberry 25.06–31.07 1.8 3.4  2.6g 462 526 494de
Oregon Thornless 29.07–22.09 4.3 6.2  5.3de 284 297 291f
Orkan 22.07–19.09 5.6 7.4  6.5c 479 562 521d
Silvan 27.06–12.08 2 3.6  2.8fg 447 587 517de
Tayberry 25.06–31.07 2.9 3.3  3.1fg 431 514 473e
g
Tummelberry 26.06–20.07 2.3 2.4  2.4 568 680 624bc

values marked by the same letter are not significantly different (at the 95% confidence level) according to the Duncan’s t-test

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cides used. Before the plants were planted manure many weeks with cvs Chester Thornless and Black
was applied on the field. In the early spring of 2006 Satin finishing up in October over 10 weeks after the
nitrous and in the early summer mixed fertilizers first cultivar finished. The fruit of the late cultivars
were applied between the rows. Mixed fertiliz- were picked up until the first frost. The range in fruit
ers were applied in the early spring of each of the harvesting interval was quite variable with some like
following years. Every year primocanes were lim- cvs Tummelberry, Boysenberry and Kotata ripening
ited to 4–5 the most dominant ones. In summer, all of their fruit in only 24–29 days while others like
primocanes were tipped to about 2 m in length to cvs Black Satin, Chester Thornless and Loch Ness
promote branching. After the harvest all fruiting taking 66–70 days to ripen their crop.
canes were cut down to ground level. In the late fall While the crop a year after planting is not repre-
of 2005–2008 the primocanes were laid down and sentative of crops’ long term productivity, cvs Black
covered with straw to reduce winter injury. In the Satin, Loch Ness and Oregon Thornless were pre-
last two years of the experiment (2009 and 2010), cocious with over 4 kg/plant in the first year (data
there was no winter protection applied. This pro- not shown).
vided information on whether these cultivars could Cv. Chester Thornless had the greatest yield
be planted without tunnels that are being used to in 2007–2008, 24% higher than the standard cv.
protect against adverse weather. Black Satin. All of the hybrid berries and the trail-
Fruit yield and weight of 100 fruits were recorded ing blackberries had yields that were not different
in the years 2006–2008. The plants bore a “baby” and were below 3.5 kg/plant. Cv. Kotata produced
crop in 2006 that was not included in the statisti- over 4 kg/plant; this was still much less than any of
cal analysis. Fruits were picked almost every other the higher yielding semi-erect blackberries. Their
day not including weekends and all fruits from each yields, even with winter protection were disap-
plant were weighed and counted. The data on 100 pointing, yet, these cultivars can be very attractive
berries were collected based on yield in 3rd, 5th, 7th for the appearance of their fruits. From 2007–2008,
etc. harvest which is at least once a week. First and the cultivars averaged a 46% increase in yield with
last harvest dates were determined based on 5 and cv. Karaka Black having an increase over 90% and
95% harvest. The yield data were analysed with R cvs Loch Tay, Tummelberry, Helen and Tayberry
environment (R Development Core Team, available having less than a 16% increase.
at http://www.r-project.org). The results are pre- Cultivars Black Butte and Karaka Black had the
sented in Table 1. heaviest fruit, above 6.0 g, in 2006. Their fruits are
cylindrical, elongated and glossy with very attrac-
tive appearance. Cv. Oregon Thornless had the
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION smallest fruits – 2.1 g per fruit. In 2007 and 2008,
the heaviest fruits were reported at cv. Black Butte
The results of statistical analyses indicated that with up to 10 g per fruit and the fruits were much
there were significant differences (α = 0.001) in bigger than fruits of the standard cultivars. The
yield and fruit weight due to cultivar and year, and smallest fruits in these years were observed at cv.
there were significant cultivar × year interactions. Oregon Thornless – 2.9 g. This cultivar can be rec-
While there were slight differences from year to ognized as small-fruited, which is quite typical for
year with harvest date, on average the cultivars fell this cultivar in other parts of the world.
into groups with cvs Tayberry, Loganberry, Karaka According to 20 volunteers invited to sample the
Black, Tummelberry, Black Butte, Silvan and Boy- fruit, cvs Chester Thornless, Loch Ness and Loch
senberry being the ones with the earliest first ripe Tay were very tasty and of very good quality. Cv.
fruits and cvs Chester Thornless, Oregon Thornless Oregon Thornless had firm but small fruits. The
and Black Satin having the latest ripening of first rest of the cultivars had soft fruits that can espe-
fruits. The last harvest date was much more spread cially be a disadvantage during rainy harvest sea-
out with cvs Tummelberry and Boysenberry being sons. For that reason it is suggested that these cul-
the earliest to finish harvest, cvs Loganberry and tivars should be grown under covers.
Tayberry were about a week later, cvs Black Butte, The last two years of the experiment showed that
Kotata, Karaka Black and Helen about two weeks among all cultivars only cv. Chester Thornless was
later, cv. Loch Tay three weeks later, and the rest of highly tolerant to low winter temperatures. The low-
the cultivars last ripening date stretched out over est temperatures during the experiment was in win-

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ter 2008/2009 with –23°C in January and during the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA,
2009/2010 it was –20.4°C also in January. Therefore, 90: 7915–7922.
tunnel production is advised in most cases as it will Danek J., Kolodziejczak P., 1993. Breeding of blackberries
also protect against rain that is common during the for Polish climatic conditions. Acta Horticulturae (ISHS),
harvest and can lower the market quality of the fruits. 352: 283–284.
Until now blackberries were planted in Poland Ding M., Feng R., Wang S.Y., Bowman L., Lu Y., Qian
mainly in small gardens. Commercial plantations, Y., Castranova V., Jiang B.H., Shi X., 2006. Cyanidin-
producing fruit for fresh markets has just started to 3-glucoside, a natural product derived from blackberry,
develop. Producers are looking for big-fruited cul- exhibits chemopreventive and chemotherapeutic activity.
tivars of good taste and appearance and with a long Journal of Biological Chemistry, 281: 17359–17368.
shelf life. Producers should be able to deliver fruit to Fuertes M., Belen Diaz Hernández M., Ara M., Berrios
the market for as long as possible. Cultivars evalu- J., 1993. Blackberry cultivars response in the north of Spain.
ated in this experiment produced fresh fruit from an Acta Horticulturae (ISHS), 352: 311–316.
open field for about 90 days of a year, from the end of Heinonen I.M., Meyer A.S., Frankel E.N., 1998. Anti-
June until the middle of September. Additional ex- oxidant activity of berry phenolics on human low-density
tension of harvest period is possible by production lipoprotein and liposome oxidation. Journal of Agricultural
under covers like plastic tunnels and greenhouses. and Food Chemistry, 46: 4107–4112.
Early cultivars are preferable for such production. Lewers K.S., Wang S.Y., Vinyard B.T., 2010. Evaluation
This is the first time when the cultivars have been of blackberry cultivars and breeding selections for fruit
tested in climatic conditions of central Poland. They quality traits and flowering and fruiting dates. Crop Sci-
are quite new and in most cases they were evaluated ence, 50: 2475–2491.
only in the countries of origin before. Strik B.C., Clark J.R., Finn C.E., Bańados M.P., 2007.
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Ames B.M., Shigena M.K., Hagen T.M., 1993. Oxidants, Received for publication January 1, 2012
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Corresponding author:

Dr. Elzbieta Wójcik-Gront, Warsaw University of Life Sciences – SGGW, Faculty of Agriculture
and Biology, Department of Experimental Design and Bioinformatics, Nowoursynowska 159,
02 776 Warszawa, Poland
phone: + 48 225 932 721, fax: + 48 225 932 722, e-mail: ewojcik.gront@gmail.com

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