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ARS Home » Northeast Area » Kearneysville, West Virginia » Appalachian Fruit Research Laboratory » Innovative Fruit Production, Improvement, and Protection » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #292538
Title: Method for producing long-cane blackberry plants

Author
item Takeda, Fumiomi

Submitted to: Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 4/20/2013
Publication Date: 7/15/2013
Citation: Takeda, F. 2013. Method for producing long-cane blackberry plants. American Society for Horticultural Science Annual Conference. p. 69.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Blackberry plants have been propagated by tip-layering, soft- and hard-cane cuttings, root cuttings, and tissue culture (TC). In the last 20 years, long-cane blackberry plants for off-season fruit production have become popular. Long-cane blackberry plants have been produced from TC-plug plants that could yield as many as 20,000/ha of bare-root plants with 4 1.5-m-tall canes. However, this system requires that the field be replanted annually with 8,000 fresh TC plug plants. A modified rotating cross-arm trellis system was used to produce over approximately 120,000 1.5- to 2.0-m-long cane ‘Triple Crown’ and ‘Siskiyou’ plants from stock plants established at a density of only 1,700/ha. Lateral canes that develop from horizontally trained primocanes were trained to grow upward on the wires positioned on a slanted cross-arm trellis and then down to the ground. Tips of lateral canes were inserted into pots for induction of adventitious roots. After 4 weeks, the entire lateral cane was detached from the stock plant and the proximal end also inserted into a moistened medium. Rooting occurred at that end. With this procedure, 3-m-long cane plants with roots at both ends of the cane were generated. Rooted cane plants were chilled and then grown in a greenhouse maintained at 17 to 22 degrees C during the day and 14 to 16 degrees C at night. In both cultivars, 70 percent of buds broke. Inflorescences developed on 68 and 46 percent of shoots on ‘Siskiyou’ and ‘Triple Crown’ cane plants, respectively. Each inflorescence produced over 5 fruit averaging 7.1 g/fruit. Additional studies are needed to determine the effect of longer exposure to cold temperatures and dark, cold-room storage on the performance of long-cane blackberry plants. The cold-stored, containerized long-cane blackberry plants have potential for late-season fruit production. Additional methods of producing long-cane blackberry plants will be discussed.