Flowers to fruit June 27 seeing red and black!

Natchez won the race, it is the first cultivar to produce a ripe fruit. Two of the five flagged berries are ripe. One was picked before the picture was taken and this one was fully ripe. It took 38 days for this berry to go from a fully open flower to a ripe fruit. We will calculate the number of days for the rest of the fruit as they ripen and post that list at the end of the season.

The flower below was actually at a stage we call petal fall, the flower has been pollinated (you can tell because the anthers are all brown, indicating that the pollen has been released).  It was probably in full bloom a day or so before the picture was taken.

Ouachita, Osage, Navaho are all at the red stage. Von was the only cultivar that still had only  green fruit.

In this little trial, we are determining how long it takes a group of five berries to progress from a flower to a ripe fruit. Fruit in the field are at a range of stages. We have been picking Natchez, Osage and Ouachita in our research plots for over a week.

Photo credits and big thanks to Abby Whitaker and Daniel Shires. Photos taken at Killdeer Farm, Kings Mountain, NC.

Flowers to fruit images from 5 dates

Here is an update on the flower to fruit project. Thanks to Abby Whitaker and Daniel Shires for their work. Navaho, Osage and Natchez are showing a little color change. All of the other  cultivars are still green.

Note, in the field, Natchez, Ouachita, and Osage are already starting to to be picked in some locations. The images below are showing  how long it takes a marked flower to turn into a ripe fruit, and we started taking these images all on the same day.

Field day this week at the Peidmont Research Station in Salisbury NC

Small Fruit Field Day

Thu Jun 19, 2014

4:00 PM - 8:00 PM

Where:

Piedmont Research Station

8350 Sherrills Ford Road

Salisbury, NC 28147-7579

PHONE: (704) 278-2624

FAX: (704) 278-1121

http://www.ncagr.gov/research/prs.htm

Shift trellis today

A grower asked me this week how our RCA trellised plants were doing. Here is a picture of them today. Other than a few stray primocanes on the wrong side of the trellis, they are fine. Fruit is green and I expect we will see some ripe fruit in a couple of weeks. We have Von, Apache and Ouachita on the trellis.

We did not see any significant winter damage to the the plants on the trellis, or any of the Univ. Arkansas blackberry varieties. We did see damage ranging from none to severe on some germ plasm from the USDA-ARS breeding program in Oregon and on selections that have some less adapted parents.

We have a field day at this station and you can see this trellis and more :
Small Fruit Field Day, June 19,  2014, from 4-8 pm.
Piedmont Research Station, 8350 Sherrills Ford Rd, Salisbury, NC 28147
(704) 278-2624.

Flowers to fruit third week update

These are images taken on 3 separate dates, showing development from flower to fruit of 5 cultivars, starting at full bloom. Images taken by Daniel Shires, NCCES Agent and summer intern Abby Whitaker. 

Field Days in NC in June

There are two small fruit field days coming up...they have been posted at various places, but thought it wouldn't hurt to post them here as well. We will be touring various plots of small fruit, including blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, strawberries, and muscadines. NC State Faculty and Extension Specialists will be talking about what is happening in small fruit research and production at the sites and in the state.

Small Fruit Field Day
Thu Jun 5, 2014
4:00 PM - 8:00 PM
Where:
Sandhills Research Station
2148 Windblow Road
Jackson Springs, NC   27281-9124
PHONE: (910) 974-4673
FAX: (910) 974-4462
http://www.ncagr.gov/research/srs.htm


Small Fruit Field Day
Thu Jun 19, 2014
4:00 PM - 8:00 PM
Where:
Piedmont Research Station
8350 Sherrills Ford Road
Salisbury, NC 28147-7579
PHONE: (704) 278-2624
FAX: (704) 278-1121
http://www.ncagr.gov/research/prs.htm

Lincoln County Extension Agent Daniel Shires and his summer intern Abby Whitaker are monitoring flower to fruit development at a blackberry farm in Cleveland, NC. They took pictures of 5 flowers of Ouachita (101-105), Von (201-205), Navaho (301-305), Osage (401-405) and Natchez (501-505) flowers when they were at full bloom on 5/21 (left image), then went back on 5/29 (right image) and took pictures of those same flowers/fruit. They will be returning on a regular basis so we can find out how long it takes each of the flowers to ripen fully.