1. Blackberry Tissue Analysis Monitoring Nutritional Status in New Cultivars
David H. Hardy for BRC
Plant, Waste and Solution Section
NCDA&CS Agronomic Division
We have been doing some work on monitoring nutritional status in new Blackberry cultivars and I am going to summarize that work today..
Before I get started, I want to tell you about my New Year’s Resolutions. Well, I thought about making some – you know more exercising, better diet, less wine – then decided my best bet would be to resolve to be okay with whatever. So please control your expectations about this presentation. It will be okay and hopefully interesting.
Onto BB tissue analysis.

2. Blackberry Acreage in NC
1999: < 100 acres
2002: about 150 acres
2006: SunnyRidge Farm, Inc., indicated desire to expand production by A
Blackberry and raspberry
2009: about 400 acres
Future growth still expected
Historically, BB have not been a major commodity crop in NC. In 1999, <100 A
In 2002, had grown to 150A. Then in 2006 we found out that there might be a big increase in blackberry acreage. In response to SunnyRidge, who indicated a desire to expand BB and RB production in NC by A. Currently there are now about Who is SR????. They are a grower, packer and shipper of small berries. They grow their own berries in Fl and GA but also contract berries with growers from north, central, and south america

3. Blackberries – Yum!!!
I love them. And They can be a lucrative commodity. If you want to learn details, there is a budget available in Estimated Costs of Producing, Harvesting and Marketing Blackberries in the Southeastern United States (Safley, Boldea and Fernandez) at In general, a grower can produce 12,500 lbs per acre at $2.50 per pound. Production costs can be high too; first year investment can run as high depending upon equipment needed.

4. Blackberry (Rubus) Perennial root; biennial shoots
Primocane is vegetative; 1st year growth (no flowers or fruit)
Floricane is reproductive; 2nd year growth flowers, fruits then dies and is pruned out
Erect, semi-erect, trailing, semi-trailing
Canes are biennial; roots are perennial

5. New Cultivars
Erect and semi-erect
Thornless
Different harvest times
Navaho, Ouachita (others include Apache, Chester, Hull, Triple Crown, Arapaho, Chickasaw, Kiowa & Choctaw)
Cultivars suited to NC are currently being developed.
NC historically has grown trailing, low yielding BB with thorns. New CVS have been developed that offer several advantages.

6. Cultivar Characteristics
Navaho
Erect
Univ. Arkansas
Thornless
Mid-late season
Med-high yield
Great postharvest shelf life (PHSL)
Ouachita
Erect
Univ. Arkansas
Thornless
High yields
Big berries, great flavor
Good PHSL
Of the CVS, we focused on N and O. There are several others that are being grown in NC with excellent yield and taste. Both of these cultivars have a 5-6 week harvest period.
Even though they are erect, cultural practices recommend using trellis to ease pruning and for better air flow (v trellis)

7. NC State University, AG 697-W, 2008
V trellis
NC State University, AG 697-W, 2008

8. New Fertilization Practices
Currently, growers are more likely to spoon-feed soluble fertilizer through drip tape in addition to broadcasting or banding fertilizer.

9. New Fertilizer Recommendations
For mature blackberries: 60–80 lb N
Spring: drip a total of 50 lb N
15 lb N March 1
10 lb N March 15, April 1, and April 15
5 lb N early May
Post harvest: apply remainder of N
Fall: no nitrogen; lime and non-nitrogenous fertilizers as needed

10. NCDA&CS Recommendations
Developed primarily for trailing blackberry
Provided micronutrient recommendations
NCDA recommendations currently in place were developed for different type of blackberry, trailing and lower yielding. The soil report also made recommendations for micro-nutrient additions although no deficiencies had been characterized on plantings

11. Current Lime & Fertilizer
Lime to pH 6.0
March: Apply 40 lb N, 40 lb P2O5, 80 lb K20
July: Apply 60–80 lb N
Just a quick look at historical recommendations. On the soil report you would get lime recommendations for a 6.0 pH. Concurs with present industry recommendations of Plus recommendations to apply 40 lb N in March and lbs. in July. WOW! vs Can we get by with less?

12. Current NCDA&CS Sufficiency Ranges for Blackberry (for trailing blackberry, primocane, mid season)
Nitrogen
3.0–4.0%
Phosphorus
0.2–0.6%
Potassium
2.5–3.5%
Calcium
0.5–1.0%
Magnesium
0.2–0.4%
Sulfur
I Believe that these were based upon collecting leaf samples from the primocanes mid season. The NCDA&CS sufficiency ranges may have been interpolated from raspberry sufficiency ranges and were only to provide guidelines and not to be taken as absolute values.
The new information (new cultivars, different type, new fert. Practices) we decided to revisit our current recommendations and make sure that our guidelines for fertilization and plant sufficiency ranges would optimize yield and quality

13. Sufficiency Ranges from Clark NABGA (1997)
Nitrogen
2.4–2.9%
Phosphorus
>0.15%
Potassium
1.0–2.0%
Calcium
>0.5%
Magnesium
>0.3%
Sulfur
>0.13%
Iron
>50 ppm
Manganese
Zinc
>20 ppm
Copper
>7 ppm
Boron
30–50 ppm
Developed for newer cultivars
Collected from the primocane in August (or 2 weeks post harvest)
30–60 most recently mature leaves
In comparison, these are Clark’s sufficiency range recommendations. Clark is the U of Ark professor who developed several of the cultivars NC is currently growing. You can see the K range is significantly lower ( vs ) N is also lower ( vs 3-4).
I have included his micro nutrient ranges also. We are also going to determine micronutrient sufficiency ranges but I am not going to talk about them in this presentation.

14. 2006 July, Bramble Production Workshop with SunnyRidge Farm, Inc.
November, Bramble Discussion with Gina Fernandez, David Hardy and Brenda Cleveland
Update recommendations for new cultivars and production practices
In 2006 two workshops to discuss SR Cultural practices and other pertinent grower information.
It was at one of these meetings that I heard sunny ridge wanted to expand blackberry/raspberry acreage by This expansion would include different cv than those traditionaly grown in NC produced under different cultural practices
So we wondered -- are the NCDA recommendations well suited for the new blackberry industry?
In Nov, we met with Gina Fernandez, an NCSU extension specialist in Horticultural Science dept. She is a breeder and is developing new cultivars of small fruit. Although Kent Messick didn’t meet with us at this time, he was a big drive behind this project

15. We want big, sweet, berries with great shelf life
Our goal in this review would be to develop soil recommendations and plant tissue sufficiency ranges that were suited to the new industry. Recommendations that would result in big, sweet,berries, with great shelf life.

16. How Should We Start? Develop a baseline of plant sufficiency ranges
Focus on primocane, post harvest
Stabilized, stored N (Bernadine & Strik, 2008)
Follow with fertilization tests
We decided to start by developing a baseline of plant tissue sufficiency ranges for the new cultivars. We will focus on nutrient concentrations in the primocane late season sample. That is consistent with many monitoring programs at other labs and universities. The post harvest period is recommended because that is when nutrient concentrations especially N and K have stabilized. Nutrient concentrations during early growth, bloom and fruit can vary. The primocane is the fruit producer for the next year. It is important to optimize nutrient concentrations in this cane because next year it is the reproductive cane. Optimum reproduction, that is fruit yield and quality depends upon the stored N while vegetative growth (primocane [leaf and cane] and root) is more dependent upon exogenous N. The nitrogen used for the floricane (leaves and cane) are from the reserves that are stored in the roots, crown and over-wintering cane.

17. Plant Tissue Analysis—2007 & 2008
Canes (2)
Growth stage (4)
Cultivars (2)
Locations (from eastern to western NC)
Most recently mature leaves (MRML)
2007 Easter Freeze
GO THRU QUICKLY
In order to develop a good baseline for new sufficiency ranges. We also had soil samples from all of the areas.

18. Cane Primocane is vegetative; 1st year growth (no flowers or fruits)
Floricane is reproductive; 2nd year growth flowers, fruits then dies and is pruned out
We included samples from both cane types. Again the canes are biennial and the roots are perennial. The late season (or post harvest) primocane is what has traditionally been recommended as the best to predict optimum nutrient management or to improve upon the fertilization program

19. by peterb CSIRO Australia
This is the floricane; Was the primocane the previous summer. Remember it is highly dependent upon stored nutrient reserves for it’s growth and reproduction. During its second year of growth, it flowers and fruits. The nutrients are stored in the crown, roots and in the overwintering cane. After harvest this cane is pruned out. Usually pretty quickly to reduce disease problems.
In contrast, this is the current season’s primocane. Note how green and succulent the primocane stem is. The leaves that we collected were about 3rd to 5th back from the growing point or bud (I consider that top cluster to be in the bud.
by peterb
CSIRO Australia

20. Growth Stages Early (E): pre bloom Bloom (B): full bloom
Fruit (F): ripe or harvesting fruit
Mature (M): 2 weeks post harvest
We collected leaf samples at E, B, F and M. Although we will focus on the average nutrient concentrations detected in the tissue collected from the primocane, post harvest to guide our new fertilizer recommendations and new sufficiency ranges. Did I say that this was the industry standard? To collect leaf samples (tissue sample) from the primocane post harvest. But we also monitored nutritional status through out the season. The additional information will help fine tune nutrient management especially when growers submit diagnostic samples.

21. Sample Type Predictive – monitor nutritional status
Diagnostic – verify if problems are related to poor nutritional status
That brings me to types of samples. Pred samples are those that are collected to MONITOR plant nutritional status; they tell a grower if his current fertilization program meets the needs of his berries grown in his soil under specific environmental conditions (you know do his canes need 60 or 80 lb N??). They also detect hidden hunger and suggest that his fert program needs some adjustment. Diagnostic samples are those collected to verify if problems are related to poor nutritional status. The additional samples that we collected at various growth stages will help us guide a grower who submit samples because of problems at other grower stages.

22. Locations Coastal Plain, east & west Piedmont & Mountain
Cleveland: 2 Commercial Growers
Granville: Oxford Tobacco Research Station
Henderson: 1 Commercial Grower
Lincoln: 4 Commercial Growers
Nash: 1 Commercial Grower
Rowan: Piedmont Research Station
We conducted this baseline study at several locations.

23. Cooperating Growers Soil pH ranged from 6-6.5
Good fertilization practices
Tissue samples collected from healthy canes that were not stressed
All sites had good soil pH and good fertilization practices.

24. Samples Collected Navaho Ouachita Floricane Primocane 49 46 48
We collected almost 50 leaf samples from each cane of both cultivars. It is important to stress that different cultivars should never be included in a single plant tissue sample.

25. Average macronutrients concentrations (N, P, K, Ca, Mg, S)
Tissue Sample Results
Average macronutrients concentrations
(N, P, K, Ca, Mg, S)
Now for the results of the tissue analysis. Specifically I will focus on the Ave macro conc although we did collect micronutrient concentration data, I will not discuss them.

26. 2008 Average Nitrogen N>2.4-2.9% Clark 1997 SETUP THE SLIDE
OK Let’s start with N fluctuation during the production season. On the X axis we have the growth stages (E B F M) and on the Y axis we have % N. Note the scale is % on this slide. We have data for the from the floricane samples for Nav and Oua and from the primocane sample for Nav and Oua. Remember that we collected samples from healthy well fertilized plants. N concentration dropped from early season to post harvest (mature) regardless of variety or can type. N conc tends to be higher in the primocane sample at all growth stages. Results are similar for both cane types regardless of cultivar. I have circle the primocane post harvest data. What the industry uses for monitoring nutritional status.
Point out that the post harvest primocane ranges were similar to Clark’s (recommendation was %)
N> %
Clark 1997

27. 2008 Average Phosphorus P>0.15% Clark 1997
Set up the slide; scale is %
P tends to decline during the season like N. Both cultivars have similar nutrient concentrations. And P conc is similar for the primocane and similar for the floricane. Just wanted to point out the differences. How does this compare to Clark (0.15%) ours ( %)
P>0.15%
Clark 1997

28. 2008 Average Potassium K>1.0-2.0% Clark 1997
Again note the scale on the y-axis ( ); K tends to decline during the season. K tends to be higher in the primocane compared to the floricane. And is very similar in both cvs. Although there is a greater difference in the K conc in the floricane for the two cultivars. The primocane post harvest sample had K of % a little lower than Clark found (1-2%)
K> %
Clark 1997

29. 2008 Average Calcium Ca>0.5% Clark 1997
Ca behaves a bit differently than N, P, and K. Ca concentration is higher the floricane compared to the primocane and the Ca tended to increase during the season in the floricane and remained fairly stable in the primocane. Ca conc. in floricane was similar regardless of cultivar. And was similar for both primocanes regardless of cvs
Ca>0.5%
Clark 1997

30. 2008 Average Magnesium Mg>0.3% Clark 1997
Mg is not as easy to describe as the other elements. No clear distinction between the P and F like the other nutrients. Mg decreased for both the flori and primo canes in the Navaho cv. In both canes of Ouachita, Mg tended to increase from early stage thru fruiting stage but dropped in the post harvest sample. The greatest Mg was found in the ouachita floricane and the lowest in the Navaho primocane The range of concentration averages is very narrow ( %)
Mg>0.3%
Clark 1997

31. 2008 Average Sulfur S>0.13% Clark 1997
S also tended to decrease during the season like N, P, K. Average values at each date did not vary more than 0.05% or 500 ppm. S conc in the floricane was similar for both Both cvs. And S was similar for the floricane for both cvs.
S>0.13%
Clark 1997

32. Summary & Direction
To summarize we found that our fertilzation recommmendations differed from what is currently being practiced. Also we found a big differences in the sufficiency ranges that were developed for trailing BB.

33. % concentration (baseline study)
Range (min/max) of Nutrient Concentrations in the Post Harvest Primocane Samples
Nutrient
% concentration (baseline study)
Nitrogen
Phosphorus
0.13 – 0.26
Potassium
0.5 – 1.3
Calcium
0.3 – 1.0
Magnesium
0.25 – 0.50
Sulfur
0.13 – 0.20
The baseline column is Min and Max values for PH P samples. These findings are not consistent with our current sufficiency ranges for K ( % K). But our min and max values the ranges we detected are similar to Clark’s with the exception of K.

34. Average Nutrient Concentrations in the Post Harvest Primocane Samples
% concentration (baseline study)
% concentration (Clark, U. Ark, 1997)
Nitrogen
2.4 – 2.9
Phosphorus
0.17 – 0.18
>0.15
Potassium
0.77 – 0.84
1.0 – 2.0
Calcium
0.51 – 0.68
>0.5
Magnesium
0.30 – 0.38
>0.3
Sulfur
0.15 – 0.15
>0.13
our average concentrations for each of the elements are similar to Clark’s with the exception of K.
When I compare our. They are right on with Clark’s again except for K. We will look into that.

35. In the Future Fertilization research
Develop soil fertility recommendations to optimize yield of new cultivars
Develop new plant tissue sufficiency ranges
continue baseline study (2009)
cultivars differences
which canes/growth stages predict fertilizer needs
fine-tune nutrient management
What we want to do.
For primocane in late season to help growers fine tune fertilization
A caveat with tissue analysis. It is important to explain that tissue analysis at all times is a guideline and should be used with observations and knowledge of plant growth, yield, environmental conditions (including disease and insect pressure) and fertilization practices
We will have some data that will help us when looking at diagnostic tissue samples at different growth stages and from either cane.