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ARS Home » Pacific West Area » Corvallis, Oregon » Horticultural Crops Research Unit » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #182016
Title: ‘METOLIUS’ TRAILING BLACKBERRY

Author
item Finn, Chad
item YORGEY, B - OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY
item STRIK, B - OREGONSTATE UNIVERSITY
item Martin, Robert

Submitted to: HortScience
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 9/15/2005
Publication Date: 12/1/2005
Citation: Finn, C.E., Yorgey, B.M., Strik, B.C., Martin, R.R. 2005. 'Metolius' trailing blackberry. HortScience. 40:2189-2191.

Interpretive Summary: ‘Marion’ is currently the most important blackberry (Rubus L.) cultivar in the world. The recent expansion of the blackberry fresh market has led to significantly increased plantings of a number of new erect and trailing blackberry cultivars from private and public programs. While ‘Chester Thornless’ has admirable traits, particularly high yields of firm fruit, there is a need for cultivars that are adapted to atypical blackberry environments, e.g., low chilling, can be shipped between hemispheres, and have better eating quality. The older trailing blackberry cultivars such as the 1950 release ‘Olallie’, have soft fruit, and though they were shipped on the wholesale fresh market as recently as 2001, are simply no longer acceptable despite their outstanding flavor. In addition to excellent fruit quality, the trailing blackberries have an advantage in cool springtime climates as are found along the West Coast and in the Willamette Valley, OR, where the fruit ripen significantly earlier than either the erect or semi-erect cultivars. ‘Metolius’ and ‘Obsidian’ have been released simultaneously as new early ripening, trailing blackberry cultivars for the fresh market that combine earliness and excellent fruit quality with excellent horticultural traits. ‘Metolius’ is a new trailing blackberry from the U.S. Department of Agriculture- Agricultural Research Service breeding program in Corvallis, OR released in cooperation with the Oregon State University Agricultural Experiment Station and the Washington State University Agricultural Research Center. ‘Metolius’ is very early ripening, with medium-sized, firm, uniform shaped fruit and very good yields of excellent quality fresh fruit.

Technical Abstract: The U.S. Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service, the Oregon Agricultural Experiment Station, and the Washington Agricultural Research Center have released 'Metolius', a new, very early ripening, trailing blackberry. 'Metolius' was selected in 1997 from a cross between ‘Douglass’ and ‘Kotata’ and tested as ORUS 1452-1. ‘Douglass’ is an 8x trailing blackberry developed and patented by Mr. Barney Douglass (Hillsboro, OR) that has wild Rubus ursinus and selections from the USDA-OSU cooperative program in its pedigree. ‘Kotata', a 7x trailing blackberry, has two selections from R. ursinus (‘Jenner-1', ‘Pacific’), a raspberry-blackberry hybrid (‘Boysen’) and an eastern North America developed blackberry (‘Eldorado’) as grandparents. 'Metolius' is being released primarily due to its superior performance as a very early ripening fresh market berry. 'Metolius' is named after the very cold, spring-fed, scenic river in the Cascade Mountains.