Amanda blackberry variety
Early-season ripening large berries with very good sub-acid fruit flavor, high fruit quality with excellent postharvest potential and permanent high yields
Rubus subgenus Rubus Watson 'Amanda'
Originated from a cross of APF-46 x Natchez
Variety denomination - 'Amanda', tested as A-2491T
Plants are thornless
Bushes have erect canes
Fruit weight is 9 g
Berries have a conical shape
Fruiting habit - floricane fruiting (summer-bearing)
Flowering on floricanes starts in the fourth week of April
Ripening date (regular) - second week of June
Productivity is 6 kg per plant
Soluble solids - 9.2%
Acidity - 0.089%
Cold hardiness is good
Heat tolerance is moderate
Patent US PP33,140 P2 dated June 06, 2021
Current status - modern or widely used
Country of origin - United States
Agawam Amanda Anastasia Wyeberry Apache Arapaho Babycakes Bailey Big Daddy Black Butte Black Diamond Black Gem Black Jack Black Magic Black Pearl Black Satin Blakely Boysenberry Brazos Caddo Chesapeake Chester Thornless Cheyenne Chickasaw Chief Joseph Choctaw Clark Gold Columbia Giant Columbia Star Columbia Sunrise COX's miracle berry Danna Douglass Doyle's Thornless Eclipse Evergreen Thornless Galaxy Hall’s Beauty Heaven Can Wait Hedrick HJ-6 HJ-7 Hull Thornless Illiny Hardy Kelly Kiowa Kotata Loganberry Lucretia Marion Mary Carmen Metolius MM01 Natchez Navaho Nettleton Creamy White Newberry Nightfall Obsidian Onyx Osage Ouachita Ponca Prime-Ark 45 Prime-Ark Freedom Prime-Ark Horizon Prime-Ark Traveler Prime-Jan Prime-Jim Reuben Schultz Shawnee Siskiyou Smoothstem Sweetie Pie Thornfree Triple Crown Twilight Von Waldo Wild Treasure Willamette Thornless Marion
The bloom period of the Amanda cultivar begins at the end of April, very near that of APF-45 (Prime-Ark 45), Osage and Ouachita. Fruit of the new cultivar has an average first harvest date of second week of June and was very near that of Natchez and APF-45, little earlier than Osage and Ouachita. The average fruiting period is long, about 50 days. Fruit yields of the new cultivar on floricanes are on average 6 kg.
The fruits are long conical in shape, glossy with a uniform black finish. The primary floricane berries are large (avg. 9 g), next berries are lower (avg. 6 g). The overall postharvest storage potential of fresh fruit of the new cultivar is greater than that of Natchez (red drupelet reversion is substantially less). The fresh fruit rates very well in flavor and is a noteworthy attribute of the cultivar and is comparable to or exceeding that of Natchez. A primary fruit characteristic of Amanda is reduced acidity. The flavor is sweet and sub-acid with desirable aromatics.
Plants and fruit are resistant to anthracnose and plants have shown no evidence of susceptibility to orange rust. Bushes are hardy to minus 17 C.