Reuben blackberry variety
Two-season ripening prickly erect blackberry cultivar with high crop
Rubus subgenus Rubus Watson 'Reuben'
Originated from a cross of A-2292T x APF-44
Variety denomination - 'Reuben', tested as HPB3
Plants are thorny
Bushes have erect canes
Fruit weight is 14 g
Berries have a ovate shape
Fruiting habit - primocane-fruiting (everbearing)
Flowering on floricanes starts in the first week of June
Ripening date (regular) - first week of August
Blooming on primocanes starts in the third week of June
Ripening date (remontant) - third week of August
Productivity is 3,5 kg per plant
Soluble solids - 11.5%
Acidity - 0.47%
Cold hardiness is moderate
Heat tolerance is low
Patent US PP23,497 P3 dated March 24, 2013
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
Rueben was introduced to broaden the choices of this innovative, prickly primocane-fruiting blackberry cultivar. This unique type of blackberry Reuben fruits on current-season canes (primocanes) and probably on second-season canes (floricanes), potentially providing for two cropping seasons, both traditional summer fruits in addition to late summer to fall production. Traditional blackberry cultivars fruit on floricanes, requiring canes to be overwintered to produce a crop.
This fruiting habit has the potential to expand blackberry production much like that which has occurred for primocane-fruiting red raspberries.
The average primocanes length is about 2 m. Primocanes are strong and vigorous, have prickles like Kiowa. Reuben bushes don't like full-sun placement. High temperature and low humidity prevents Reuben blooming and ripening.
Reuben berries are large size, average weight of berry is about 14 g. Color is glossy black. Each plant produces groups of berries, 8-10 pcs in each. The first yield starts forming at primocanes in the middle of June and continues three to four weeks. During this first harvest season, Reuben intensively produces floricanes, which soon begin to bloom. This is the second harvest season, which continues up to first frosts. After the end of the second harvest season, Reuben requires winter shelter from frost or completely cropping for current-season stems, freezing and cold wind, because the cold-hardy of this blackberry variety is moderate, about minus 13 C.
It seems to me it will be better to cultivate Reuben as primocane-fruiting only. I have tried to cut all stems on one of my plants last November. I will look at the result this year