Ponca
Date: 2020-08-08, updated: 2023-04-14
Probably, Sweet-Ark Ponca is the sweetest blackberry cultivar in the world today
Rubus subgenus Rubus Watson 'Ponca'
Originated from a cross of A-2406 x A-2253T
Variety denomination 'Ponca', tested as A-2538T
Plants are thornless
Bushes have erect canes
Fruit weight is 6 g
Berries have a rounded shape
Soluble solids - 13.4%
Acidity - 0.54%
Fruiting habit floricane fruiting (summer-bearing)
Flowering on floricanes starts in the first week of May
Ripening date (regular) - third week of June
Productivity is 5 kg per plant
Cold hardiness is good
Country of origin United States
Patent US PP33,330 P2 dated August 08, 2021
Current status - modern or widely used
Ponca (Sweet-Ark Ponca) offers the top of flavor from one of the world’s leading public blackberry breeding programs. Ponca was selected by John R. Clark, and this cultivar is the twentieth blackberry from the fruit breeding program of the division’s Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station.
Ponca is floricane-fruiting medium-sized thornless blackberry cultivar. Bushes are moderately vigorous and very prolific. Plants are low in height, about 1,5 m when properly tipping. Primocanes and floricanes are erect in growth habit. Berries and flower clusters are medium-large, cymose, and are mostly borne on the periphery of the plant canopy, providing easy access to harvest.
The canes can be trained to a self-supporting hedgerow although it is beneficial to use a trellis with supporting wires to prevent canes from falling over due to wind or heavy fruit loads.
The bloom period of the Ponca cultivar begins in the last week of April. Flower fertility is high and clusters are well filled. Flowers are big (about 40 mm in diameter), have white color. Berries ripen in the first week of June. The average floricane fruiting period is 55 days. Fruit yield on floricanes averages 5.8 kg per plant.
Average berry weight is about 6 g, slightly larger than Osage and nearly the same as Caddo. The fruit is round, slightly oblong in shape and glossy with a uniform black finish. Size is maintained well throughout the entire harvest season. Ponca cultivar exhibits excellent fruit fertility with full drupelet set.
The fresh fruit rates very well in flavor and is a noteworthy attribute of the cultivar and is comparable to Osage and Caddo. Consistent flavor was noted at repeated observations of fruit of this cultivar over the years of evaluation including after rain events that can reduce flavor and overall fruit quality. The flavor is sweet and sub-acid.
Storage potential of fresh fruit of the new cultivar is good and overall comparable to Osage and Caddo, berries are very firm.
Ponca is disease-resistant. Plants and fruit have shown no evidence of anthracnose and no evidence of susceptibility to orange rust. Plants have shown slight susceptibility to cane and leaf rust.
Winter hardiness has been comparable to Ouachita and has shown very little injury to a low of minus 17 С.
Blackberry | Berry weight, g | Size, LxW, mm | Soluble solids, % | Acidity, % | Ratio |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Caddo | 9.15 | 33x24 | 8.50 | 1.33 | 6.44 |
Natchez | 9.98 | 35x25 | 9.33 | 1.37 | 6.80 |
Osage | 4.83 | 23x22 | 9.80 | 0.64 | 15.39 |
Ouachita | 7.74 | 28x24 | 9.30 | 1.61 | 5.87 |
Ponca | 6.70 | 26x22 | 10.40 | 0.82 | 12.83 |
Prime-Ark Traveler | 6.97 | 29x23 | 9.50 | 0.67 | 15.85 |
Prime-Ark 45 | 7.64 | 33x23 | 9.47 | 0.81 | 12.30 |
A-2491T | 9.70 | 37x23 | 10.97 | 0.97 | 13.49 |
On the basis of Threlfall et al.’s (2016) findings on ideal composition parameters for fresh-market blackberries and according to market research, made in 2020 by Threlfall and John Clark et al.’s, Ponca have the most ideal composition of the cultivars evaluated, with a 12.83 soluble solids/titratable acidity ratio, 10.40% soluble solids, and 0.82% titratable acidity.
How to cultivate blackberry Ponca?
2. Summer tipping of primocanes at 1.1 m;
3. Use a hedgerow training system including a trellis;
4. A single application of liquid lime sulfur (94 L/ha) each spring at budbreak for control of anthracnose;
5. Use insecticides for spotted-wing drosophila control during the harvest season;
6. Plant spacing at least 0.6 m.
Relevant documents
Useful Growing Guides:
Reviews of the variety Ponca
การทดลองปลูกแบล็คเบอร์รี่ไร้หนามด้วยต้นเพาะเนื้อเยื่อ (พันธุ์ ponca) และการทำค้างให้ต้น Blackberry
Growing Tissue Culture Ponca Blackberry Thonless
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Take a trip with me to Bob Wells Nursery at Sorelle Farms to get some new PONCA blackberries!
I think this is going to be a great new variety for the Homesteader/Backyard Gardener.
Ponca ripens early. It's very near Natchez season, one of our earliest varieties, and so it'll get into the market in the early season. Ponca's characteristics include: a berry size of about seven grams, which is comparable to Ouachita, a very important Arkansas variety, and larger than Osage, one of our most popular high flavored varieties. The berry chemistry is one of the best I've seen for a blackberry. Anywhere from 10 to 13 percent average soluble solids for the season, the sweetest one we've released. It has a sub-acid flavor which always complements the sweetness, and it has a tremendous aromatic profile.
The storage of Ponca is very good. It retains its black color very good with very limited reversion or reddening of the cells in storage. It maintains its shiny appearance, that sweetness carries through on flavor. I think for a storage berry and for shipping, it has great potential. And for local markets, your customers are going to come back and ask for Ponca.
Yield is very important in our blackberry breeding program because we want to have productive plants year in and year out. The yield for Ponca is approximately 15 to 20 thousand pounds per acre in our test plots, and is equal to that of Ouachita and Osage, two of our successful varieties that have been stable yield plants in the commercial market.
Ponca has a couple of unique plant characteristics that are new to our blackberry variety profile, and that includes the ability to produce the primary crop which ripens early very similar to Natchez in season, and the secondary crop which ripens anywhere from 14 to 20 days later. When we have a frost, we have a little bit of recovery crop potential because these buds break a little later. A unique aspect of Ponca is its plant type. It has a shortened internodes, and that's the space between leaves and shoots and flower clusters, and it allows a more compact type plant. This is the fruiting area which is about shoulder heigh to slightly lower, where the canes have been tipped to train them the prior year. However the primocanes on Ponca emerge above the fruiting canopy later, which is an added benefit in that tipping is not required early or during harvest in our trials, and it also allows the tipping to be done after harvest. This is a labor saving technique and reduces some management costs, which probably will be beneficial to growers of commercial blackberries.
In the berry category, blackberries have the greatest growth potential, and the only thing holding back is marketing and better varieties. Often times people say, "I don't like blackberries because they're tart or sour." Ponca is sweet. Berry to berry to berry consistency is better than any blackberry I've ever experienced. Give Ponca a try. I think it can expand your blackberry sales, and put smiles on customer faces.
We planted 1/4 acre of Ponca this fall. We are somewhat cautious since the new variety produces a small secondary crop and requires a different management technique when toping the canes. I suspect it’s going to be an excellent addition or terrible.
Placed the new Ponca side by side with Caddo, Ouachita and Von in a new field. Von ripens at the same time as Navaho. Since its a NCSU variety it has been tested a lot in my area. Brix, yield and flavor has been described as about the same as the Arkansas berries. It has better resistance to orange rust than Navaho.
Still have about an acre of Natchez, Ouchata and Navaho in the old field. I like the Navaho fruit a lot but the plants are consumed with orange rust and will be removed. These plants are 12 or more years old and we have noticed some decline in vigor and plant survival over time.