The Performance of Blackberry Cultivars in North Florida

Plant vigor, yield, berry weight and soluble solids were determined for six blackberry cultivars at the North Florida Research and Education Center-Quincy. Five University of Arkansas cultivars (‘Apache’, ‘Arapaho’, ‘Kiowa’, ‘Natchez’, and ‘Ouachita’), and a cultivar from Brazil (‘Tupi’) were evaluated over a three-year period. Most cultivars were fairly vigorous with the exception of ‘Arapaho’ and ‘Kiowa’ which were low in vigor. Yield estimates and berry weights were about 50% of that reported from trials in Arkansas, while soluble solids (°Brix) were similar to published values. Average yield estimate across all cultivars was about 4,300 pounds/acre (4,800 kg/ha), average berry weight was 4.4 g, and average soluble solids was 10.2 °Brix. ‘Natchez’ and ‘Ouachita’ (both thornless) and Tupi (very thorny) had the best overall performance. Data were not collected for ‘Chester’ and ‘Triple Crown’, because they both have much too high a chilling requirement for north Florida. Blackberries offer good potential for organic culture under the climate and edaphic conditions of north Florida.