I want to tell you today about Prime-Ark® Horizon, the newest primocane fruiting
blackberry from the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture Fruit Breeding Program.
Take a look at Prime-Ark® Horizon: beautiful berries. These berries are born on floricanes,
harvested in late June in west central Arkansas and our University's Fruit Research Station,
and they have large size, good flavor. It's a very firm berry, which will handle well. And a
key trait that Prime-Ark® Horizon has is primocane fruiting. Prime-Ark® Horizon is intended to be a
complement to Prime-Ark® 45, a very successful variety from the Division's blackberry breeding
program. I'm showing Prime-Ark® Horizon on my left, Prime-Ark® 45 on my right.
Both of them are beautiful berries. Prime-Ark® Horizon tends to be a little larger and a little
firmer to the feel. Both of them have nice shine and both are very attractive.
I think Prime-Ark® Horizon will complement Prime-Ark® 45 primarily because it's a good idea
to have more than one variety in a planting where you can spread any concerns about environmental
risk or pathogen risk that sometimes happen in commercial production. Prime-Ark® Horizon and
Prime-Ark® 45 have one major difference. Even though both are thorny, Prime-Ark® Horizon is
much less thorny than Prime-Ark® 45. This is the Prime-Ark® 45 stem — you can see
a large number of thorns along the stem or the cane. This is Prime-Ark® Horizon — a much reduced
number of thorns. We can't call it thornless, but it definitely is not as intrusive for picking and
handling and other activities in the blackberry field. a difference between Prime-Ark® horizon
and Prime-Ark® 45 are the ripe dates of the fruit first off Prime-Ark® 45 on the floricanes ripens
a little earlier than Prime-Ark® horizon however Prime-Ark® horizon has a higher yield potential
on the floricanes as far as primocane fruiting shown here with these green berries and these
developing flowers Prime-Ark® horizon blooms a little earlier and ripens a little earlier for the
primocane crop compared to Prime-Ark® 45. These berries will ripen anywhere from 25 to 35 days.
So, that'll be on into mid-summer, and if our temperature does not get excessive,
this fruiting type can extend on into the fall and that's a great advantage to blackberry producers.
This is primocane fruiting on August the 8th in west central Arkansas. So, what are we seeing
here? Primocane fruit. These are flowers as we see in my hand here that flowered in the summer
and will continue on into the fall, particularly if cool conditions are existing in the location,
and will produce another crop after the floricane crop that's born back in June and early July.
There are a lot of berries here and they'll ripen over quite a long time. From a bloom,
it's about 30 to 35 days to ripe, so these berries will extend on into September. And there
are additional buds forming now to carry fruiting later. This extends the fruiting season, extends
the marketing season, extends the time that we have blackberries available to us as consumers
and as farmers and marketers. One characteristic that is seen at times on Prime-Ark® 45 are double
fruits. Double fruits, I believe, are developed because of high temperatures during bud set.
Remember these buds set back in the growing season and therefore the heat that probably contributed
to this back in late June made this berry have two berries rather than one. We consider this a
defect for Prime-Ark® 45. Prime-Ark® Horizon has seldom to no double fruit, so that's an
improvement in the fruit morphology for Prime-Ark® Horizon. Prime-Ark® Horizon has an attribute that
is really positive and one I've noticed about it and during its testing and it has a more extended
fruiting period compared to Prime-Ark® 45 in Arkansas. Look at the fruit in my right hand,
black and red ready in August in west central Arkansas. And in my left hand we can see flowers,
flower buds, small green berries which will extend the fruiting season on into September, so this is
a quite a long period for the plant to fruit. Remember we got a crop in June and early July
and now another crop in August and into September, possibly on in October if we have a moderate fall
without extremely high temperatures and we take care of the plants carefully. This can provide
for a very long fruiting season for blackberries and it's all provided for with primocane fruiting
Prime-Ark® Horizon provides another option for growers in this exciting primocane fruiting type
of blackberry. We need more variety options. We need more diversity to match the variety to
different environments. Prime-Ark® Horizon is particularly valuable for commercial growers
to expand primocane fruiting options, and let's hope it serves the industry well
and provides a good product for consumers.