Navaho
Date: 2020-12-10, updated: 2023-03-29
First worldwide-known erect, self-fruitful, completely thornless blackberry cultivar
Rubus subgenus Rubus Watson 'Navaho'
Originated from a cross of A-583 x A-631
Variety denomination 'Navaho', tested as A-1172
Plants are thornless
Bushes have erect canes
Fruit weight is 6 g
Berries have a conical shape
Soluble solids - 11.2%
Acidity - 1.14%
Fruiting habit floricane fruiting (summer-bearing)
Flowering on floricanes starts in the second week of May
Ripening date (regular) - second week of July
Productivity is 12 kg per plant
Cold hardiness is moderate
Country of origin United States
Patent Plant 6,679 dated March 19, 1989
Current status - obsolete or rarely used
Recommended replacement - Ouachita
Bushes have clusters of pinkish-white, rose-like flowers, which give way to a heavy crop of large, blue-black, juicy-sweet blackberries over a harvest season from July to October.
Berries are medium-sized, very solid and very aromatic. Average fruit's weight is about 5-7 g. Fruit's number is very large. Color is deep black. Berries are firm and excellent for fresh market.
Navaho is extremely robust cultivar - good winter-hardy up to minus 26 C, easy tolerates drought, winter wind and frost. Navaho cultivar is very resistant to diseases and trouble free. Navaho doesn't require shelter for winter, exclude cold northern regions. Today Navaho is a family of varieties - Navaho Original, Navaho Big and Easy, Navaho Big and Early, Navaho Summerlong.
How to cultivate blackberry Navaho?
1. Include annual preemergence and postemergence herbicide applications;
2. Include annual spring nitrogen fertilization (about 56 kg/ha) using ammonium nitrate NH4NO3;
3. Summer tipping of primocanes at 1.1 m;
4. Sprinkler irrigation apply as needed;
5. Use dormant pruning;
6. A single application of liquid lime sulfur (94 L/ha) each spring at budbreak for control of anthracnose;
7. A single application of liquid ferrous sulphate each fall after the plants have gone into chill period;
8. Plant spacing at least 0.6 m.