Raspberry Selections Show Promising Winter-Hardiness

This article was reviewed by the editor of The Ontario Berry Grower for technical accuracy and appropriateness.

The New Liskeard Agricultural Research Station (NLARS) has been the winter-hardiness testing site for the Ontario Coordinated Berry Crops Variety Trials since 1984. This past winter was ideal for testing the winter-hardiness of several new raspberry cultivars and selections from across northeastern North America. In the fall of 2002, many woody plants in the north appeared not to go into dormancy with some retaining their leaves all winter. This included the raspberries in our current raspberry observation trial. Rapid drops in temperature with little snow cover early in the winter resulted in substantial winter injury.

Two selections from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) in Kentville Nova Scotia, K93-9 and K93-11, had the least amount of winter injury in 2003. These were followed by several selections from the University of Guelph raspberry breeding program, 88-117, 88-18b and 88-078. The New York cultivar, Prelude, also exhibited relatively little injury in 2003.

Encore suffered the worst injury of the group in 2003 followed by one Guelph selection and two selections from New York. It should be noted though, that Encore and 88-020 suffered very little winter injury in 2002 while Prelude and K93-11 had more than 20% winter kill.

All plots with greater than 30% winter kill were mowed to the ground in 2003 and left to recover for a year. The remaining six were harvested in 2003. Of these, only one selection managed to produce a reasonable yield. K93-11 produced 3.2 t/ha. K93-11 (Nova x Glen Moy) is a late midseason variety with short canes and shiny, firm, light-red fruit.

According to Dr. Andrew Jamieson (AAFC, Kentville, NS) K93-9 (K85-3 x Glen Moy) has been preferred over K93-11 for both its productivity and fruit in trials elsewhere. Evaluation of all the selections in this trial will continue over the next several years to determine winter hardiness, yield and quality in northern Ontario.

¹ Planted in 10-plant observation plots in the spring of
2001 with the exception of Boyne which was planted
in June, 2002.

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