Earliness and fruit yield and quality of annual-fruiting red raspberry (Rubus idaeus L.): Effects of temperature and genotype

Abstract

SummaryEarliness, fruit yield and quality of six annual-fruiting raspberry (Rubus idaeus L.) cultivars were tested under protected cultivation in a cool Nordic environment. After raising plants for 5 weeks in greenhouses with average mean temperatures of 20°C, 22°C, or 26°C, the plants were cropped in an open plastic tunnel at latitude 61°N. The highest yielding cultivars were ‘Autumn Bliss’ and ‘Polka’, with 640 g plant–1. Overall, the most promising cultivar was ‘Polka’ which combined high yield with large fruit of good flavour and firmness. In earliness, ‘Polka’ was surpassed only by ‘Autumn Bliss’, which confirmed its position as the earliest commercial annual-fruiting cultivar. However, ‘Autumn Bliss’ had soft fruits with little flavour and a short shelf-life, which greatly reduced the potential of the cultivar for the fresh fruit market. The later ripening cultivar ‘Erika’ did not complete its crop under these conditions, but its large unrealised yield potential and good fruit quality rendered it extremely promising for environments with a longer growing season. ‘Sugana’ was late, with low yields and poor fruit quality, while ‘Marcela’ did not yield enough fruit to be of interest under the present conditions. High temperatures during the 5-week raising period generally advanced flowering and fruit ripening in all cultivars, with the notable exception of ‘Autumn Treasure’ in which flowering was suppressed and strongly delayed by high temperature. Under the present conditions, there was a highly positive correlation between earliness and fruit yield. Regression analyses identified a low numberof dormant buds as the single most important component of plant architecture associated with high fruit yield, accounting for 47% of the total variation.