Vol. 80 No: 3

Title:
Scheduling primocane-fruiting raspberries (Rubus idaeus L.) for year-round production in greenhouses by chilling and Summer-pruning of canes

Authors:
A. DALE, S. PIRGOZLIEV, E. M. KING and A. SAMPLE

pp: 346-350

Abstract:
Two greenhouse experiments were performed to investigate the effects of Summer-pruning in the first year, and cold-storage, on primocane-fruiting raspberry (Rubus idaeus L.) cultivars. In the first year in the greenhouse, primocanes were Summer-pruned when they were 60 cm tall which delayed fruiting by approx. 1 month, but decreased yields slightly. Plants cold-stored below 7°C for 6 weeks, markedly and consistently out-yielded those that had not been cold-treated. In the second experiment, yields on the floricanes and primocanes were separated and clearly showed that floricane dormancy was broken, so that double-cropping could occur. ´Heritage` produced few fruits on its floricanes, which indicated that it requires a longer cold treatment than cvs. ´Autumn Britten`, ´Polana` and ´Summit`. In this system, 10 canes m^-2 appeared to be the optimum number of primocanes needed to produce the highest yields. These experiments confirmed that adventitious buds will eventually break dormancy without a chilling period, as daylength increases. Also, they show that primocane-fruiting raspberries can be manipulated to fruit all-year-round in the greenhouse.

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