Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station releases new Primocane-Fruiting Blackberry
Prime-Ark® Horizon, a new primocane-fruiting blackberry from the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station, offers growers a new option with an extended fruiting season and high yield potential.
Prime-Ark® Horizon is a thorny variety and the sixth primocane-fruiting blackberry from the experiment station’s fruit breeding program. Experiment Station fruit breeders have released 21 public blackberry varieties since James N. Moore began the program in 1964.
Blackberry plants produce biennial canes that have a lifespan of two years, said John R. Clark, Distinguished Professor of horticulture and fruit breeding for the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station, the research arm of the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture. Most blackberries flower and fruit on the second-year canes, known as floricanes. Harvest date for floricane blackberries on Prime-Ark® Horizon averaged about J