US: New Arkansas blackberry performs late in the season

The Arkansas Fruit Breeding Program has released a new late-season blackberry to give growers a premium product after other varieties are done yielding. Commercial scale propagators have licenses and material for sale for the 2024 planting season. Sweet-Ark Immaculate is a trademarked thornless, floricane-fruiting blackberry that offers medium to large berries that have been shown to hold up well after harvest. Floricane varieties produce flowers and fruit on second-year canes. “It is named to highlight its berry quality, which is beyond reproach, and its late-ripening season,” said Margaret Worthington, director of the Fruit Breeding Program for the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station. “People have been asking about a new late-season variety from the Arkansas program for a long time now. The main advantages Sweet-Ark Immaculate has over other late-season blackberry varieties are its outstanding postharvest performance and its great yield potential.” The experiment station is ...