The Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station has released its sixth primocane-fruiting blackberry variety, according to a news release.
Prime-Ark Horizon is noted for high yields and an extended primocane fruiting season.
Blackberry plants produce biennial canes that have 2-year lifespans, professor John R. Clark said in the news release. Clark is a professor of horticulture and fruit breeding for the Experiment Station, the research arm of the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture.
Most blackberries flower and fruit on the second-year canes. The harvest date is usually in mid-June at the Division of Agriculture's Fruit Research Station near Clarksville. Primocane-fruiting blackberries flower and bear fruit in the spring or early summer, as well as on the first-year canes -- or primocanes -- later in the summer.
Prime-Ark Horizon's first harvest on primocanes begins around Aug. 4 and can extend to mid-October, according to the news release.
"That's a fruiting period of over 60 days, which is longer than any other primocane-fruiting variety from our breeding program," Clark said.
Experiment Station fruit breeders have released 21 public blackberry varieties since James N. Moore began the program in 1964.