What is a primocane-fruiting blackberry? This is a type of
blackberry that fruits on current-season canes (primocanes). All previous
blackberry varieties are floricane-fruiting, thus the canes must be
overwintered for fruiting the second year. This new type of blackberry could
greatly change blackberry production.
These hold great promise for several reasons. First, they have the potential
to produce more than one “crop” per year, having the potential for the
normal summer crop (the floricane crop) and a later crop on the current
season primocanes. In fact, these new varieties have been observed to flower
and fruit until frost, depending on late summer and fall temperatures, plant
health, and location they are grown. In more northern climates, they have
the potential to provide a crop even if floricanes are damaged by winter
cold since the primocanes grow and fruit in the same season. In this
instance, pruning is done simply by mowing the canes down in the winter.
The first commercial primocane-fruiting blackberry varieties were released
by the University of Arkansas in 2004. These are the first in what should be
a number of advances in this exciting type of blackberry.
Prime-Ark™ Floricane-Fruiting blackberries is a series of varieties of which
the first two are Prime-Jim® and
Prime-Jan®. Read more about these
new developments. They are available now from
licensed propagators.
