Lucretia, Izobilnaya, Cumberland And Other Varieties Of Blackberries And Raspberry-blackberry Hybrids - 1

2023 Author: Sebastian Paterson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-11-26 20:34

Like all fruit and berry crops, blackberries have a wide variety of wild species that can be found in different regions of America and Europe, however, a relatively limited number of North American and European species participated in the origin of modern blackberry varieties. Blackberry was first introduced into cultivation in the middle of the 19th century in the USA, where most of its varieties (more than 30), including thornless ones, were created.

Particularly significant advances in blackberry breeding were achieved in the USA and Great Britain in the eighties of the XX century. Highly productive varieties with upright and thornless shoots were obtained here, however, as a rule, they are not distinguished by high winter hardiness, with late ripening of berries, which limits or makes impossible their cultivation in our country. Nevertheless, a number of foreign varieties are of considerable interest, especially for use in amateur gardening and breeding work. First of all, these are the relatively winter-hardy varieties Agavam, Kamanchi, Cherokee, Darrow, Eldorado, Lincoln Logan, as well as highly productive varieties with erect and thornless shoots Lochnessy, Thornfree, Smutstem, Chester Thornless, Hull Thornless and others. Of the creeping blackberries, the most valuable varieties are Lucretia, Himalaya, Thornless Logan, Muskwell Earley.

Active selection work with this crop is also carried out in Great Britain, Bulgaria, Hungary and other European countries.

In our country, the first to pay attention to the value of blackberries I. V. Michurin, who considered this berry culture extremely promising in our conditions and advocated its widespread introduction into production and cultivation on personal plots. As a result of long-term selection work, he developed and in 1904-1908 described new varieties of blackberries (Texas, Krasnaya, Vostochnaya, Izobilnaya, Enorm, Renovated Lucretia, Urania), which turned out to be more resistant to local growing conditions than the original varieties - Logano and Lucretia imported from America. With regard to the conditions of Russia I. V. Michurin also developed the basic techniques for growing blackberries. Russia is home to a wide variety of wild forms of blackberries (over 50 species), which have not yet found wide application in breeding,although there have been attempts to use them in recent years. Nowadays, significant collections of foreign and domestic varieties of blackberries and their local wild-growing forms are concentrated at the Maikop and Pavlovsk experimental stations of the VIR, as well as in the botanical garden of Tomsk State University, some of which deserve direct introduction into culture in different regions. In the middle lane, amateur gardeners successfully grow blackberries of varieties Agavam and Ufimskaya local, in the Krasnodar Territory - varieties Krasnodarskaya and Chernoplodnaya-1, promising forms Ufimskaya-85 and Shegarskaya-86 with high winter hardiness and productivity have been bred for Siberia. In the conditions of the North Caucasus, varieties with upright shoots Wilson Earley, Loughton, Erie, Kittatin, which withstand frosts down to -20 … -22 ° C, turned out to be winter-hardy. The Erie, Kittatini, and Lauton varieties are allocated to the group of more productive varieties.

Of the varieties of blackberries, according to economically valuable traits, the Bashkir population stands out, distinguished by large berries of excellent sour-sweet taste. Amateur gardeners have long attracted them to their gardens. A promising direction of breeding is the breeding of raspberry-blackberry hybrids. It is known that the potential yield of blackberries is much higher than that of raspberries, which is associated with the abundance of blackberry bushes and very large berries (up to 10-15 g) in the best varieties and forms, but in terms of winter hardiness it is inferior to raspberries. Attempts to create raspberry-blackberry varieties that combine the most valuable economic traits of both crops have been made more than once. One of the first raspberry-blackberry hybrids - Loganberry (Loganberry) - was obtained in the USA by Logan in 1881.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the raspberry-blackberry varieties of I. V. Michurina - Commerce, Progress, Productive. Subsequently, a number of valuable raspberry-blackberry hybrids were obtained in various countries of the world - Tayberry, Bedford Jant, Nectarberry, Youngberry and many others. Close to raspberry-blackberry hybrids and varieties of black raspberries, which include foreign, the most famous in Russia - Cumberland, Airlie Cumberland, Bristal, New Logan and domestic varieties obtained in the Siberian Scientific Research Institute of Siberia - Ugolek, Povorot. Below is a brief description of the most common blackberry, raspberry-blackberry and black raspberry varieties.

BLACKBERRY VARIETIES

Agave

An old American variety, bred over a hundred years ago. One of the most winter-hardy. In the central regions of Russia it can withstand frosts down to -40 … -42 ° C, fruit buds are damaged at -27 … -30 ° C. Plants are upright, powerful. Shoots are tall, arched, strongly thorny. Berries weighing about 3 g, black, sweet-sour, aromatic, universal use. The yield of the variety is 3-4 kg of berries from a bush.

Ufa local

It is assumed that this variety is a selective, more winter-hardy Agavam seedling. It is grown by amateur gardeners in central Russia. In terms of yield and taste of berries, it surpasses the Agavam variety. Berries weighing 2.7-3 g, shiny, black, sweet, with a strong blackberry aroma.

Darrow

A fairly winter-hardy American variety that can withstand temperatures down to -30 … -35 ° C. In the central region of Russia it winters somewhat worse than the Agavam variety, but it is larger-fruited. Berries weighing 3-3.5 g or more, black, glossy, sour-sweet taste. Powerful bush with erect prickly shoots.

Loughton, Erie, Kittatin

American varieties, morphologically close to each other, belonging to the group of upright blackberries. Withstands frosts down to -20 … -25 ° C. In the North Caucasus, it ripens from late July to late August. High shoots - 2-2.5 m, thorny. The flowers are large, white. Berries weighing 3-3.5 g, broad-ovoid, violet-black, are used for processing, giving high quality blanks.

Lucretia

An old American variety of creeping blackberries. The bush is powerful, with numerous prickly thorns. The berries are large, black, long-cylindrical, early ripening, but with a mediocre taste. Low winter hardiness, shoots require shelter for the winter.