- Author: Mark Bolda
A thread I have been participating on with the North American Raspberry and Blackberry Association (NARBA) email discussion group regards the heavy fruiting of the blackberry variety 'Natchez' and the subsequent repercussions on fruit ripening and to some extent flavor. This is a fairly common problem here on the Central Coast with growers of this variety and I have been asked on several occasions what to do about it.
As one can see from the picture below, the ability of 'Natchez' to produce fruit is tremendous, but unfortunately the leaf area to fruit ratio is rather low here, resulting in the ripening problems mentioned above.
This past week we were fortunate enough to have plant breeder John Clark, who among other blackberry varieties bred 'Natchez', weigh in on managing overcropping of this variety.
He writes that 'Natchez' plants without any lateral shortening, ie pruning of the laterals, overcrop (load up with too much fruit), especially on plants which are fruiting in the first year after planting. He suggests that laterals be shortened to 15-25 inches long (prior to flowering obviously) to limit the crop down to what the plant can ripen with the available leaf surface area and carbohydrate reserves in the plant itself.
Simply put, the key to getting 'Natchez' to ripen and flavor up properly is maintaining an adequate ratio of leaves to fruit by pruning the laterals back to 15-25 inches.
JIM
I also have 200+ one-two year old Kiowa plants whose berries last year were not as sweet, in most cases, as I was hoping. Hopefully cutting their laterals back to 15-25" will improve their leaf-to-fruit ratio along with their sweetness as well.
Ken
That is too bad to hear that your production didn't turn out that well last year. If you don't mind checking back and letting us know how it went after pruning in 2013, that'd be really great! Appreciate your comments.
Mark
Let me know and we'll take it from there.
Mark