High Tunnel Performance of Seven Primocane Red Raspberry Cultivars in Western NY

Abstract

Seven primocane fruiting red raspberry ( Rubus idaeusL.) cultivars (‘Autumn Britten’, ‘Caroline’, ‘Heritage’, ‘Himbo Top’, ‘Jaclyn’, ‘Joan J’ and ‘Polka’) were cultivated under high tunnels to assess their relative performance in a protected agriculture system in western New York. ‘Joan J’ had the highest yield over three seasons averaging over 14 t·ha-1 per year while ‘Autumn Britten’ and ‘Jaclyn’ were the lowest yielding with mean annual yields of less than 7.5 t·ha-1 per year. ‘Caroline’, ‘Himbo Top’, ‘Polka’ and ‘Heritage’ produced intermediate yields similar to each other. ‘Autumn Britten’ had the greatest mean annual berry weight but was very similar to ‘Jaclyn’, ‘Himbo Top’, ‘Joan J’, and ‘Polka’. ‘Heritage’ consistently had the lowest mean berry weight in all years. The beginning of harvest varied widely from season to season. It started as early as 23 July and as late as 11 Aug. in the earliest cultivar, ‘Autumn Britten’, with a similar range among the remaining cultivars. Harvest lasted for 6 to 9 weeks for individual cultivars depending on cultivar and approximately 10 weeks across all cultivars in a given season. The cultivars ‘Joan J’, ‘Himbo Top’, ‘Polka’ and ‘Heritage’ showed the best potential to produce high quality fruit over extended period using high tunnels in New York and regions of similar climate.