Kiowa blackberry variety

Kiowa is one of the several varieties in a series of erect-growing, thorned productive blackberry cultivars, developed in the Arkansas Agricultural Expteriment Station, US.
Kiowa produces larger fruit and has a longer harvest period than previously released Arkansas cultivars. Kiowa has thorned canes with large thorny leaves. Canes are self-supporting and require no trellis.
A major feature of blackberry Kiowa is its large fruit size. Kiowa produces large fruit during all the harvest season. The harvest season of Kiowa is long, with fruit ripening over six weeks compared to the four to six weeks harvest periods for most blackberry cultivars. Kiowa fruit are blocky, oblong and have an attractive, glossy black finish. Kiowa plants are not very vigorous. Fruiting row establishment has been good, using either plants or root cuttings. For best production, primocanes of Kiowa blackberry should be tipped in summer when they reach 1.0 to 1.2 m high, and lateral branches must be pruned to 40 cm during winter dormancy.
Kiowa variety is moderately resistant to anthracnose and there have been no disease problems following a fungicide program consisting of a single application of liquid lime sulfur at budbreak. There has been no orange rust on Kiowa. The reaction of plants to rosette has not been determined.
Plants have shown no visible injury following field exposure to minus 23 C, and annual ratings for cold hardiness indicate that Kiowa is enough hardy. The outstanding characteristics of Kiowa blackberry are its large fruit size, which is maintained throughout the harvest season, and its long ripening period.
Kiowa was very good blackberry for markets, in which large fruit and an extended harvest season are desired. Its fruiting characteristics also make Kiowa popular as a home-garden cultivar.

Table 1. Yield and fruit weight of Kiowa variety comparised to Shawnee and Choctaw blackberries (plantings established in 1992)

Cultivar	Yield, kg/ha		Fruit weight, g
	1993	1994	1993	1994
Clarksville
Kiowa	7200	7600	11.1	10.0
Choctaw	5100	6900	6.1	4.8
Shawnee	7700	12300	7.6	5.9
Hope
Kiowa	5100	12800	13.0	10.0
Choctaw	5100	8500	4.9	4.2
Shawnee	9700	18200	9.0	6.7
Fayetteville
Kiowa	3000	7300	9.6	7.0
Choctaw	4800	13900	5.8	3.8
Shawnee	3500	15400	5.9	5.1
Bald Knob
Kiowa	7700	8000	9.3	6.8
Choctaw	4200	6200	4.6	2.7
Shawnee	5900	9700	5.6	3.7

Table 2. Сomparison table of Choctaw, Shawnee and Kiowa blackberries at the University of Arkansas Fruit Substation, Clarksville

Main features	Variety
	Kiowa	Choctaw	Shawnee
Date
Budbreak	Feb. 22	Feb. 25	Feb. 25
50% bloom	May 2	April 26	April 30
First  crop (5%)	June 12	May 31	June 9
Peak (50%)	June 30	June 10	June 24
Last crop (95%)	July 23	June 22	July 11
Fruit (rating scale of 1 to 10 where 10 is the best)
Firmness	8.0	7.6	7.5
Flavor	8.2	8.7	7.6
Seed size, mg/pcs	3.8	1.9	3.9
Soluble solids, %	10.3	9.2	9.9
Plant (rating scale of 1 to 10 where 10 is the best)
Vigor	7.6	9.0	9.8
Health	8.6	9.0	8.8
Winter injury	9.5	8.2	9.6