Midnight
Date: 2021-10-25, updated: 2024-02-02
Europe commercial cultivar for large fresh fruit production
Rubus subgenus Rubus Watson 'Midnight'
Variety denomination '16TP4'
Plants are thornless
Bushes have semi-erect canes
Fruit weight is 15 g
Berries have a oblong shape
Soluble solids - 10%
Fruiting habit floricane fruiting (summer-bearing)
Flowering on floricanes starts in the first week of June
Ripening date (regular) - first week of August
Productivity is 5 kg per plant
Cold hardiness is moderate
Country of origin Netherlands
Patent US PP31,689 P3 dated April 19, 2020
Current status - modern or widely used
Midnight is a new blackberry plant selected for commercial fresh fruit production. Variety was discovered by the Johannes Adrianus Petrus de Jongh as a chance seedling in spring of 2016 amongst seedlings that were grown from an unnamed blackberry plant in Etten-Leur, The Netherlands. Asexual propagation of the new cultivar by root cuttings, stem cuttings, and tissue culture using meristem tissue has shown that the characteristics of the new cultivar are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations.
Plant habit is semi-upright. Bushes are very vigorous, strong canes have an average height of 2.2 m with 10 cm internodes. The surface of stems is glossy, thornless, moderately to densely covered with soft hairs (about 1 mm in length). Primocanes develop in spring and initiate flower buds in autumn and develops into the floricane the following season that flowers and produces fruit, the botanical description are similar in all aspects to the floricanes with the exception of producing flowers an fruit. Large leaves are broadly cordate in overall form and have 3 to 5 leaflets. Blooming period is late and extended, flowering for 8 weeks in summer in The Netherlands. Flowers are large, up to 3.6 cm in diameter.
Fruit has oblong shape, grouped in large clusters. Berries of Midnight have great size (up to 4 cm in length and an average of 3 cm in width) and weight (from 10 to 20 g per fruit) with numerous drupelets. Fruits maturity date is late summer. The harvest period is long, up to 8 weeks. Flavor is pleasant, moderately sweet with an acidic aftertaste.
Winter hardiness has not been fully characterized in a range of cold weather climates but the plants can successfully grow in central Europe. No resistance or susceptibility to pests or diseases has been observed.
Plant habit is semi-upright. Bushes are very vigorous, strong canes have an average height of 2.2 m with 10 cm internodes. The surface of stems is glossy, thornless, moderately to densely covered with soft hairs (about 1 mm in length). Primocanes develop in spring and initiate flower buds in autumn and develops into the floricane the following season that flowers and produces fruit, the botanical description are similar in all aspects to the floricanes with the exception of producing flowers an fruit. Large leaves are broadly cordate in overall form and have 3 to 5 leaflets. Blooming period is late and extended, flowering for 8 weeks in summer in The Netherlands. Flowers are large, up to 3.6 cm in diameter.
Fruit has oblong shape, grouped in large clusters. Berries of Midnight have great size (up to 4 cm in length and an average of 3 cm in width) and weight (from 10 to 20 g per fruit) with numerous drupelets. Fruits maturity date is late summer. The harvest period is long, up to 8 weeks. Flavor is pleasant, moderately sweet with an acidic aftertaste.
Winter hardiness has not been fully characterized in a range of cold weather climates but the plants can successfully grow in central Europe. No resistance or susceptibility to pests or diseases has been observed.