Brambles
Hort 414
Lecture Outline
Reading: Chapters 4 & 5 in Small Fruit Crop Management
Family: Rosaceae
Genus: Rubus
Subgenus: Ideobatus (Raspberries) Eubatus (Blackberries)
R.ideaus (Red & yellow raspberries) Erect types
R. occidentalis (Black raspberries) Eastern trailing types
R. neglectus (Purple raspberries) Southeastern trailing types
Western trailing types
Evergreen types
Cultivated types:
1. Raspberries red (fall and summer types)
yellow (fall and summer types)
black
purple
2. Blackberries
thorny (erect or semi-erect)
thornless (erect or semi-erect)
3) Dewberries (Trailing blackberries)
Thorny and thornless
4) Blackberry x red raspberry hybrids
US Europe
Loganberry Tayberry
Youngberry Sunberry
Boysenberry Tummelberry
Bramble History
Raspberry History
Europe
Discovered on Mt. Ida in Turkey (Rubus ideaus)
Greeks 350 B.C. harvested wild for food & medicinal uses
Romans 4th century A.D. cultivated
Europe 16th century A.D. popular garden plants
U.S. Post Civil War
Major production areas: New York, Michigan, Oregon, Washington, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana
1880- <2,000 acres
1919- 54,000 acres
1948- 60,000 acres
Present US production (2002): 19,888 acres
1. Washington: 10,045 Processing/fresh market
2. Oregon: 3,662 “
3. California 2,325 Fresh market
4. Michigan 590 “
5. Pennsylvania 497 “
6. New York 458 “
7. Ohio 427 “
17. Indiana 60 “
British Columbia: ~3,000 Processing/fresh
Red raspberries are much more widely grown than black or purple raspberries.
Blackberry History
Europe
Greeks - gathered from the wild - 2,000 yrs ago
16th century Europe - medicinal uses - leaves and fruit
19th & 20th century - Modern cultivars developed
U.S.
Forest clearing by early settlers lead to spread and hybridization
1850s-60s Cultivation of Evergreen and Himalayan types (from Europe)
1948 - 40,000 acres
Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Tennessee, Kentucky, West Virginia, Washington, Oregon, California
Present US production (2002): 10,210 acres
1. Oregon 6,431–Marion for processing (trailing types)
826- Boysenberry for processing
2. California 523 processing/fresh market
226 (trailing types)
3. Texas 479 fresh market
4. Washington 320 (trailing types)
AR, OK, VA, TN, MO (100-300
acres each) – erect thorny and thornless
types – fresh
Indiana: 40? acres (Rank unavailable)
Bramble Biology
Perennial plants with biennial top growth
Primocanes - 1st yr vegetative growth - set fruit buds
Floricanes - 2nd yr reproductive growth - mature fruit then die
Exception:: Primocane fruiting types (Fall or Everbearing types)
Primocanes flower and fruit on tips until frost
Basal fruit buds (<20 nodes) on primocanes have dormancy requirement - do not
fruit until following season
Tip fruit buds (>20 nodes) - do not have dormancy requirement so they begin
development immediately and fruit and flower
Root system is fibrous and perennial
~70 % is in the top 10 inches of soil
Raspberries are fairly drought prone due to weak root system.
Blackberries are fairly drought resistant due to strong, extensive root system.
Primocane development
1. Arise from base of overwintering canes (crown)
Eastern thornless blackberries
Black raspberries
2. Arise from adventitious buds (shoots) on roots
Thorny blackberries
Red, yellow, purple raspberries
Primocane branching:
Red raspberries - primocanes branch poorly
Black raspberries – primocanes branch moderately
Blackberries – primocanes branch heavily
Floricane development
-2nd year – do not elongate from tip.
Axillary buds (fruit buds) produce a flowering lateral that elongates to 7-8 nodes and develops flower clusters at the tip and for a few nodes back toward base
Cane diameter is proportional to productivity
>Cane vigor >flowers/shoot - can have 30-40 flowers/shoot
Cultural management is aimed at producing large diameter canes
Pruning
Nutrition
Irrigation
Flowers:
Flowers have 5 petals and 5 sepals
Self-fruitful – do not need cross pollination
Bees account for 90-95% of the pollination
Fruit:
Many pistils attached to a common receptacle (100-125) (aggregate fruit)
Pistils – 2 ovules each (only one develops)
ovule develops into a drupelet: a hard seeded peach-like fruit
Typically 75-85 druplets per fruit (aggregate fruit)
Druplet adhesion to receptacle differs between raspberries and blackberries
Raspberries – druplets separate from the receptacle when ripe
Blackberries – druplets do not separate from the receptacle when ripe so ‘berry’ is
the druplets and receptacle
Bramble Propagation
Red, yellow, purple raspberries
-Root suckers – dig in fall, store, plant in spring
Black raspberries
Tip layers (tips of primocanes bend down to soil and root)
Blackberries
- Root cuttings – especially for thorny blackberries
- Root suckers
All brambles
- Tissue culture meristems in aseptic conditions, transplant to greenhouse, mature in nursery or greenhouse
Bramble Production
Site Selection:
Full sun
Good air drainage
Soils:
Choose well-drained soils:
Avoid soils contaminated with disease causing organisms:
Verticillium, Phytophthora, Crown Gall (Agrobacterium)
Site Preparation:
Prepare site 1 year prior to planting
Test soil for nutrient, pH, nematodes
Adjust soil pH and add phosphorous, potassium, etc.
Increase organic matter by adding manure or growing green manure cover crops
Use crop rotation and cover cropping
Fumigation:
Planting:
Between-row spacing is dependent on equipment size
In-row spacing:
Raspberries:
Red: 24 inches
Black: 30 inches
Purple: 36 inches
Blackberries:
Thorny, erect types: 24 inches
Thornless, erect types: 30-36 inches
Thornless, semi-erect types: 36 inches
Row middles are usually planted to a permanent cover crop
Red & black raspberry plantings should be separated by about 300 ft to avoid virus spread (red->black)
Cultivar Selection:
One of the most important decisions a grower will make
1) Adaptation to region/site: cold hardiness, tolerance to heat, etc.
Cold hardiness
of Brambles:
Summer red raspberries -25 to –40˚F
Fall red raspberries -20 to –30 (NA if mowed)
Black raspberries -15 to –20
Thorny blackberries -5 to –15
Thornless
blackberries 0 to –5
Cold injury occurs most frequently during late winter-early spring.
2) Market potential
Preference for red or black fruit differs by region
Pruning:
Black raspberries and erect/semi-erect blackberries
Primocanes must be tipped during summer to promote branching
Red raspberries and trailing blackberries
No primocane tipping necessary
Floricanes are removed from all brambles after fruiting
either during summer or during the dormant season.
Primocane fruiting types can be handled two ways:
Fall only production
Summer and Fall production
Training Systems:
Some brambles benefit from a trellis system to hold canes upright
Red raspberries
Semi-erect thornless blackberries (Eastern Thornless Blackberries)
Trailing types
Some are self –supporting (e.g. erect blackberries)
“V” – Standard system
“supported hedge row” – canes not tied to trellis
canes tied to trellis
“I” – Modification of V to promote fruit production on outside
“T” – “Lincoln Canopy” - little used due to difficulty and reduced yields
Simple trellis – for trailing types
Pest
Management
Diseases:
Anthracnose – (Elsinoe veneta) most common disease problem on brambles in Midwest.
Cane blight – (Leptosphaeria coniothyrium) is common where winter injury causes weakening of canes.
Botrytis fruit rot - (Botrytis cinerea) commonly referred to as gray mold, is a serious pathogen of raspberries in the field and post harvest.
Orange rust – especially blackberries and black raspberries
Phythophthora root rot – especially red and purple raspberries
Verticillium wilt – all brambles are susceptible
Crown gall- (Agrobacterium tumefaciens)
Viruses – especially severe on black and purple raspberries.
Insects:
Direct Feeders
Tarnished plant bug
Japanese beetles
Sap or Picnic beetles
Thrips
Raspberry fruitworm
Indirect feeders
Cane borers and crown borers
Potato leafhoppers
Blackberry psylla
Mites