Chester

Chester, also known as Chester Thornless, originates from the USA, where it was developed in Beltsville, Maryland, under the USDA breeding program by Galletta and Scott. It was released into production in 1985. It was created by crossing SIUS 64-21-4 and Thornfree. Due to its legendary resistance to extremely low winter temperatures, exceptional fruit size, and late ripening period, it is considered the most reliable and most widely grown late-season thornless blackberry variety in the world.

It is a fully self-fertile variety. It is characterized by an exceptionally high degree of self-pollination and abundant, extended flowering on two-year-old canes, allowing it to produce maximum yields reliably and consistently in pure single-variety plantations without the need for other pollinator varieties. It flowers medium-late, which helps it successfully avoid spring frosts.

The plant is extremely vigorous, robust, and aggressive in growth. It forms a semi-upright bush that is completely thornless, which greatly facilitates harvesting, pruning, and care. The canes are very strong and thick at the base, while in the upper part they form long arches, which is why a tall, strong support system is essential, such as a trellis with 3–4 levels of wire. It enters full bearing very early and produces regular, stable, and extremely high yields per bush.

It belongs to the group of very late autumn blackberry varieties. In our region and under continental growing conditions, it ripens during August and September, usually beginning to ripen 3–4 weeks after Loch Ness.

Harvesting takes place during August and September and has a distinctly extended fruiting period lasting from 5 to even 7 weeks, until the first autumn frosts. The fruit is harvested exclusively in the early morning hours and immediately placed into cold storage.

It has very good storage ability. In cold storage, it can be successfully kept for 7–14 days thanks to its exceptionally firm skin. Due to its firm flesh, it tolerates picking, handling, and packing very well. However, during transport it has a notable drawback: color reversion, or reddening of the fruit, if it is not placed into the cold chain immediately. It is primarily intended for fresh table consumption in late summer, when other blackberries are no longer available on the market, and it is also excellent for deep freezing, including premium whole-fruit freezing, as well as for home processing, jams, and juices.

The fruit is exceptionally large, with an average weight of 6.5 to over 8 g, uniform, and regularly roundish-conical in shape. The skin is firm, smooth, very glossy, and intense black in color. The flesh is compact, fleshy, firm, and very juicy. The taste is refreshing and slightly acidic at the beginning of the harvest period, while at full maturity it becomes very sweet, pleasant, and pleasantly aromatic. The fruit does not lose firmness even at full maturity.

It is characterized by outstanding and unsurpassed resistance to low winter temperatures, which makes it ideal for areas with a harsh continental climate. It shows excellent resistance to cane diseases, such as Didymella, as well as to blackberry blight and rust, and it also has high resistance to fruit rot, Botrytis.

The root system is strong, well branched, and moderately deep, but it develops mainly in the surface soil layer, which makes this variety highly sensitive to drought. It requires fertile, light, and well-drained soils, with regular irrigation, preferably drip irrigation, during hot summer months in order to prevent sunburn and fruit drying on the bush. It naturally forms strong replacement canes, but does not produce wild root suckers outside the trellis row.

Our blackberry fruit plants are produced exclusively by vegetative propagation from controlled and healthy mother plantations, by rooting cane tips. They are therefore supplied as own-rooted plants, which guarantees complete varietal purity and premium plant health status.