Management of pruning and evaluation in blackberry cultivars in relation to productive characteristics and bioactive compounds

Abstract

The goal of this work was to evaluate blackberry cultivars in terms of productivity and bioactive compounds. Two experiments were conducted: in the first experiment four cultivars were evaluated (Cherokee, Guarani, BRS-Tupy and Xavante). In the second experiment, the effects of pruning management in the BRS-Tupy cultivar were evaluated with the following treatments: drastic winter pruning (zero primocane), and maintenance of two, three or four primocanes in the winter pruning. Vegetative, productive and fruit quality characteristics were determined, including measurement of bioactive compounds. Among the cultivars, the cultivar BRS-Tupy was superior in terms of productive characteristics, but for content of anthocyanins and flavonoids, the cultivar Xavante stood out (191.97 and 68.44 mg 100 g-1, respectively). Drastic winter pruning produced lower fruit quality. The number of primocanes has a directly proportional influence on the soluble solids content and productivity component. For farmers who want fruits with greater levels of bioactive compounds, the use of cultivar Xavante is recommended; however, for those who aim for productive aspects, we suggest the use of cultivar BRS-Tupy with four primocanes per plant.