ARS | Publication request: 'EARLYSWEET' BLACK RASPBERRY

Submitted to: Fruit Varieties Journal
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: February 16, 1998
Publication Date: N/A

Interpretive Summary: Improved black raspberry varieties are produced by breeders to meet the demands of growers who wish to maintain an economic advantage in the marketplace. We have introduced the variety Earlysweet to fill a niche in the Mid-Atlantic and adjoining regions and to the Pacific Northwest for a high quality, early- ripening, local market variety. Earlysweet is a vigorous, flavorful, early maturing black raspberry released by the Agricultural Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture. Earlysweet is the first commercial hybrid to contain germplasm from both the eastern and western United States black raspberry species. Earlysweet has proven to be hardy, regular bearing, vigorous, attractive, condensed in ripening season, productive and flavorful. Earlysweet is semi-erect and crown forming in habit and canes are thorny. The fruiting canes bear 10 to 12 firm and sweet fruit in compact clusters along the apical two to four nodes of lateral branches. Earlysweet is usually the first raspberry to ripen at Beltsville, and has been disease free. It is as productive or more so than standard black raspberry cultivars. Earlysweet will be productive in home gardens and provide an economic advantage for U-pick and roadside markets.

Technical Abstract: Earlysweet is a vigorous, flavorful, early maturing black raspberry released by the Agricultural Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture. Earlysweet is the first commercial hybrid to contain germplasm from both the eastern and western United States black raspberry species Rubus occidentalis L. and R. leucodermis Dougl., respectively. Earlysweet, tested as US 1631 at Beltsville, Maryland, was selected in 1983 from a progeny of Oregon-US 1725 (Haut Rubus leucodermis) open pollinated seed. Earlysweet has proven to be hardy, regular bearing, vigorous, attractive, condensed in ripening season, productive and flavorful. Earlysweet is semi-erect and crown forming in habit and canes are heavily armed. The floricanes bear 10 to 12 firm and sweet fruit in compact clusters along the apical two to four nodes of lateral branches.Earlysweet is usually the first raspberry to ripen at Beltsville, and has been disease free. It is as productive or more so than standard black raspberry cultivars. Earlysweet was released to nurseries in 1996 and it is expected to be well adapted to the Mid-Atlantic and adjoining regions and to the Pacific Northwest.