USDA Blackberry 'Columbia Sunrise'

Technology Description
‘Columbia Sunrise’ is the earliest ripening thornless blackberry currently on the market. It has very good yields of medium sized well-formed fruit that taste good. ‘Columbia Sunrise’ can be machine harvested for the processed market. The early ripening characteristic gives fresh market growers an extended season and processed growers a cultivar option that, due to its early ripening, will need fewer insecticide applications for spotted winged drosophila.

Features & Benefits

• Thornless cultivar that ripens 10-14 d before current earliest ripening thornless blackberry. Ripens with late ripening strawberries!Uniformly sized, conical shaped, firm fruit
• Uniformly sized, firm fruit

Applications

• Fresh Fruit Market
• Processed Fruit Market
• Machine harvestable with very good yields

Background of Invention
Oregon State University is seeking to commercialize ‘Columbia Sunrise’ thornless trailing blackberry. The USDA-Agricultural Research Service in collaboration with the Oregon Agricultural Experiment Station Centers developed ‘Columbia Sunrise’ blackberry that in addition to being thornless has extremely early ripening fruit that are machine harvestable with outstanding fruit quality that is expected to be useful for fresh and processing markets.

Status
Plant Patent PP29,367 issued and available for non-exclusive licensing