Obsidian blackberry variety

Rating [ 5 ]

Thorny trailing blackberry variety with early ripening, firm, uniform shaped berries and very good yields of excellent quality fresh fruits

Rubus subgenus Rubus Watson 'Obsidian'

Originated from a cross of ORUS 828-43 x ORUS 1122-1

Variety denomination - 'Obsidian', tested as ORUS 1369-3

Obsidian is the parent for HJ-7, HJ-6

Plants are thorny

Bushes have trailing canes

Fruit weight is 6 g

Berries have a conical shape

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 7 kg per plant

Soluble solids - 12.4%

Acidity - 1.7%

Cold hardiness is moderate

Heat tolerance is low

Current status - obsolete or rarely used

Recommended replacement - Columbia Sunrise

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

Obsidian is a thorny trailing blackberry variety from Oregon, Unites States. It is very early ripening plant with medium-sized, firm, uniform shaped berries and very good yields of excellent quality fresh fruits.
Plants are large and vigorous. Obsidian is thorny, similar to Marion, but less thorny than Kotata and Metolius. Obsidian cultivar has moderate resistance to different diseases.
The fruit ripening season starts at the end of June, peaks in early July and continues for 14-15 days.
Average yield is about 19000 kg/ha, fruit weight is about 6 g. Berries are conical in shape with a drupelet arrangement that produces a very uniformly shaped fruits. Berries are very glossy with excellent black color. The fruit of Obsidian blackberry separate easily from the plant. Flavor and taste is better than Black Diamond and Chester Thornless, but worse, than Marion. Firmness is superior, which is very good for shipping.
Winter hardiness is moderate, about minus 13 C.

Table 1. Comparison table of Obsidian, Marion, Kotata, Waldo and Douglass blackberry at the North Willamette Research and Extension Centre, Oregon State University (planted in 1996)
Cultivar	Fruit weight, g	Yield, t/ha
Cultivar	1998-2000	1998	1999	2000
Obsidian	5.5	55.0	18.2	18.6
Marion	5.1	20.0	9.2	18.2
Kotata	4.6	20.6	6.9	19.5
Waldo	5.4	13.8	13.0	17.8
Douglass	5.2	7.0	2.4	9.5

Table 2. Comparison table of Obsidian and some other blackberry cultivars at the North Willamette Research and Extension Centre, Oregon State University (planted in 1999)
Cultivar	Fruit weight, g	Yield, t/ha
Cultivar	2001-2003	2001	2002	2003
Obsidian	6.8	40.8	20.1	24.0
Silvan	6.2	31.7	16.8	21.4
Black Diamond	5.8	29.2	15.5	19.0
Marion	5.1	26.3	13.0	18.3
Metolius	5.6	31.3	12.5	12.5
Waldo	5.5	25.8	11.0	17.2
Siskiyou	6.9	20.9	9.8	9.3