Well-bred blackberries

My wife and I love blackberries. Among the things we left behind earlier this summer when we moved from our home and extensive gardens in northwest Arkansas were large plantings of domesticated thornless blackberries, the vines laden with huge red fruits not yet ready for harvesting. These blackberries were developed by the University of Arkansas System’s Division of Agriculture, which has the largest blackberry breeding program in the nation. A look back documents that the UA has produced a veritable cornucopia of fruits, vegetables, cotton, rice, and soybean varieties.

Established in 1871 under the provisions of the national Morrill Land-Grant Act of 1862, the University of Arkansas has always had a statewide emphasis on agriculture. The university established an agricultural experiment station in 1888, and in 1914 the Cooperative Extension Service was created.

Much of the early work done in breeding new plant varieties concentrated on major agricultural crops such as cotton and rice. As the late historian Steve Strausberg has written, “A goal of breeders was to develop a cotton with sufficient earliness to avoid severe boll weevil infestations.” About 1925, Professor J.O. Ware created a new strain of Rowden cotton, Arkansas Rowden 40, the first of many varieties and strains developed by the Experiment Station.

The first soybean variety developed in Arkansas was Arksoy, introduced in 1928. Recently two new varieties of soybeans were released, both of which have not been genetically modified and are aimed at a growing specialty market.

Six rice varieties or strains were released in the 1940s, including the popular Rexark. Since then, dozens of other rice varieties and strains have been developed in an attempt to improve disease resistance, increase yield, and meet the distinctive growing conditions of Arkansas rice fields.

While much of the plant breeding work is aimed at assisting commercial growers, backyard gardeners also come into contact with many Arkansas-developed varieties, especially in fruits and vegetables.

My favorite cucumber, the Arkansas Little Leaf, was registered by the University in 1989. Here’s how the venerable R.H. Shumway Seed Co. describes this cuke: “Developed by the University of Arkansas, this may be the highest yielding pickling cucumber on the market today . . .” It might be designed as a commercial pickling variety, but it is great tasting eaten raw or in salads.

The late Prof. Teddy Morelock was known internationally as the King of Spinach for his extensive efforts on that vegetable. His spinach work earned Morelock the American Society of Horticultural Sciences Distinguished Researcher Award. He also bred 13 varieties of southern peas. Morelock’s recent successor, Dr. Ainong Shi, brings molecular breeding expertise to southern pea development.

Many Arkansas gardeners have grown tomato varieties developed at the UA. The best known are the Bradley and the Traveler, introduced in 1961 and 1970, respectively. While the Traveler has a mixed reputation, the Bradley is still well regarded.

Almost every year the mere anticipation of the pink Bradley tomato sets Democrat-Gazette journalist Paul Greenberg to salivating like Pavlov’s dogs. A couple of years ago, Greenberg wrote: “I trust I’m not revealing any state secret when I note that a diet of Arkansas tomatoes— like the Bradley County Pink—explains the beauty of our women, the virility of our men, and the remarkable appeal of our children.”

Fruit breeding at the UA took a leap in 1964 when Dr. James N. Moore joined the Horticulture Department. This brings us back to those blackberries we left behind. Like many Arkansans, I grew up picking wild blackberries, and suffering the scratches left by their unforgiving thorns. Dr. Moore and his colleague Dr. John R. Clark have transformed the blackberry, including creating thornless varieties. The UA breeding program is probably the largest in the world.

If you have not grown domesticated blackberries, I urge you to try at least a few plants. Look for thornless varieties such as Navaho (1988, the oldest) or Osage, which was released last year. The newly created and quite revolutionary Primocane fruiting varieties actually produce fruit on new growth, enabling twice-yearly berry production. Though perhaps lacking some of the tangy flavor of the wild blackberry, the new varieties are tasty.

The Moore-Clark team is also well known for its work with table grapes. Since 1964 they have produced over 300,000 grape seedlings in an effort to develop seedless table grapes that are suited to the heat and humidity of Arkansas and the southeast.

I can still recall the first time I ate the seedless Arkansas variety named Mars (1985). Unlike the tasteless green table grapes from California, Mars has that distinctive Concord flavor found in the native Fox grape, Vitis labrusca. Earlier this year four new seedless table grapes were announced by Moore and Clark: Faith, Gratitude, Hope, and Joy.

A large front-page article in the Los Angeles Times recently reported that a California breeder had just released a grape variety named Cotton Candy, which was developed from a University of Arkansas seedling that reportedly transported the consumer “to a carnival or county fair.”