Arkansas Blackberry Field Day Brings Research Together From Across the Southeast

By John Lovett

The latest in blackberry research, including production techniques, insect control, cultivar field trials and marketing, took center stage at the 10th annual Blackberry Field Day at the Arkansas Fruit Research Station.

Over 100 people gathered for the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture event, including Arkansas blackberry growers and researchers from land-grant universities in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina. The field day is co-sponsored by the Arkansas Blackberry Growers Association.

“Our program has been ongoing since 1964, and we are the nation’s, maybe the world’s, largest public-sector blackberry breeding program,” said Margaret Worthington, an associate professor in the department of horticulture and director of the Fruit Breeding Program for the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station, the research arm of the Division of Agriculture. 

Blackberries are the leading crop of the Fruit Breeding Program, with 43 varieties developed for early, mid and late season harvesting, each with its own distinct flavor profiles and post-harvest qualities. Arkansas-developed varieties like Sweet-Ark™ Caddo are grown across the nation and bring in about $1.5 million in royalties each year to support the breeding program and the Fruit Research Station. Researchers with theprogram also developed the world’s first primocane-fruiting blackberries that flower and fruit on first-year canes. 

“We’re very focused on the fresh market here and make about 65 crosses a year, planting about 8,000 blackberry seedlings in the ground,” Worthington said. “From there, we pick about 100 a year to go into trial, and we can pick about 10 a year that make it to replicated trials that we think are worth testing for yield.” 

At the field day, which took place on June 9, Arkansas Secretary of Agriculture Wes Ward presented a proclamation from Gov. Sarah Sanders recognizing June as Arkansas Blackberry Month. The proclamation noted the Fruit Breeding Program’s developments of primocane, thornless and late-season cultivars and how blackberries provide supplemental income for many rural families.