Monitoring flower to fruit development of blackberries

Several of you saw the talk  that Daniel Shires gave at the Georgia Fruit and Vegetable Growers meeting in Savannah in January.  Last summer,  Daniel, me and an intern helped to set up a demonstration that could help growers determine when a variety would ripen. We set up the demonstration at Killdeer Farm in Kings Mountain and posted weekly updates here on Team Rubus Blog. Here is how you can do it this year at your farm.

All you need is some flagging tape and a permanent marker.

Step 1. When you think the field is in full bloom, find a flower that is on the outside upper portion of the canopy. This fruit will most likely continue to be easy to spot if not buried too far into the canopy.

Step 2. Cut a 12" piece of flagging tape and put the date on one end of the flag (we used numbers for our trials instead of dates as you can see below)

Step 3. Tie the flagging tape around the base of the flower. We suggest you do at least 3 flowers from the same variety at the same time. We lost many fruit to a number of mishaps before the fruit was ripe.

Step 4. Return to the flower on a weekly basis and monitor. Record stage of plant development. Examples of a few of the stages are below.

Step 5. Keep the records so you can compare how long it takes each year. After a few years, you will have a good idea how long it should take variety to ripen at your location once it is in full bloom.

If you don't want to keep track of all of the stages, make sure at the least that you have a date for full bloom and shiny/dull black.

We also suggest that you let your pickers know that they should NOT pick this fruit.

Example of a data sheet for recording the steps of blackberry development.

Flower full bloom

Green fruit

Red-green fruit

Red fruit

Shiny black fruit

Blackberry flowers to fruit project: More ripe fruit July 3

Pictures from last week, July 3, show that Osage was picked, Natchez and Ouachita were ripe, Navaho is red and Von is still green. We have five fruit of each cultivar labeled, so there is some variation in ripeness. Once all fruit is black, we will average he number of days that it took five fruit to get from flowers to fruit in 2014. 

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.

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. 

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.

Flowers to Fruit 2014

Daniel Shires and his summer intern flagging individual flowers in the blackberry field. 

Yesterday, while on a farm visit with Daniel Shires, Area Agent, Agriculture, at the Cleveland County Cooperative Extension office we started a little project. We flagged 5 flowers from Natchez, Ouachita, Osage, Navaho and Von. He took pictures and will be going back to those same flowers as they develop into fruit to determine how long it takes for each of these blackberries to get from a flower at full bloom to a ripe berry ready to harvest. We will be posting pictures here, as he sends them.

How long do you think it will take for each berry to get ripe? 20, 30, 40, 50 or more days? Follow the progression here.