Abstract
Chilling requirement, (the number of hours below 7 °C necessary to break dormancy) has been shown to vary with genotype in blackberry (Rubus subgenus Rubus). Previous work has demonstrated that the chilling requirement of field-grown plants could be accurately determined from stem cuttings of lateral shoots taken at 100-hour intervals of chilling up to 1000 hours, by placing them in a mist chamber maintained at 26 °C with a daylength of 16 hours, and observing budbreak over a period of 5 weeks. This technique has previously demonstrated clear differences in the chilling requirements of thorny and thornless floricane-fruiting cultivars. In the current study, a comparison of floricane-fruiting and primocane-fruiting blackberries using the stem-cutting technique illustrated a lower chilling requirement associated with the primocane-fruiting trait. The use of the stem-cutting technique can be a simple and effective tool for assessing blackberry adaptation to different hardiness zones.
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