XIth International Rubus and RIbes Symposium puts the Carolinas on the map!

The XIth International Rubus and Ribes Symposium was held in Asheville, North Carolina, June 21-24, 2015. There was also a pre-sympsium tour of research sites and grower locations in NC and SC. We had 190 people registered by the end of the meeting and 80 people on the Pre-symposium tour, from 26 countries.

This meeting is held every 4 years in regions where these crops are grown. Since hand harvested blackberries are a newer crop, the Carolinas turned out to be a good location for the meeting. We were able to bring in researchers from the region that had not attended the meeting before, as well as veterans of Rubus Ribes. We had 50 oral presentation and 93 posters. NARBA sent Debby Wechsler and she will be writing up some articles about the meeting in future issues of the Bramble and other trade magazines. We are still preparing the official technical report (Acta Hort Proceedings), it will be published late in 2015. Some of the comments from the participants were:

"Best Rubus Ribes meeting ever"

"I learned something from every presentation" 

"This puts North Carolina on the Map"

If you want to learn more about the sites we visited and the talks presented, you can check our our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts. They can be viewed at https://www.facebook.com/ISHSRubusAndRibes, https://twitter.com/RubusRibes2015 and under  ‘RUBUSRIBES2015’ on Instagram.

Participants of the XI International Rubus and Ribes Symposium, June 21024, 2015, Asheville, NC.