Final report for FNC24-1415
Project Information
Jeffery Goss: Several years of secondary education with emphasis on botany. I have worked with small fruits for a number of years. Was editor of the "Cambium" for Southwest Missouri Fruit and Nut Growers Association. Have had 3 published articles on dewberries specifically, and about 13 on other fruit and nut crops in other national trade journals. Currently engaged in nursery operations and have been under the advisory help of Andy Thomas and Patrick Byers. My role is project coordinator.
Nursery for small fruits, perennials and other herbs. Also raise annual crops for seed market. For Stone County I have access to 20 acres with 1/2 being used for nursery, and for Ozark County, total farm size is 113 acres, 5 acres being use for the native species that grow here, and have a large contingent of other growers and contacts through the SWMFNG association with whom to select the other 2 project sites.
EXTERNAL SUPPORT: The primary support will be provided by the hosting landowners or groups, as well as by several experienced individuals who already work closely with the present applicant in horticultural ventures and whose references are available upon request.
Problem Addressed:
The Missouri Ozarks has suffered environmental and economic depletion due to overreliance on cattle and beef production. There is a small fruit crop which though native to Missouri and having a long history of small-scale cultivation, is seldom grown commercially today. Dewberries have likely been overlooked commercially due to the higher yield potential of upright blackberries and raspberries in fertile, level ground. The dewberry, closely related to raspberries and blackberries, is a distinct type of fruiting bramble which is suited to many environments other than the "ideal" blackberry or raspberry habitats, and are especially valuable in hilly regions. Dewberries can be grown in upland and lowland soils requiring no expensive machinery to cultivate and harvest and add diversity to the landscape and are interworkable with beekeeping, agroforestry, permaculture, vegetable and livestock production.
Dewberries, in the context of this project refers primarily to the species historically known as Rubus villosus, which is now commonly divided into the three species R. flagellaris, R. invisus and R. trivialis (syn. enslenii); this group also comprises the subspecies roribaccus (e.g. 'Lucretia'), geophilus (e.g. 'Austin'), and almus (e.g. 'Foster Thornless'), whose attachments to the various newly divided species are still a matter of debate.
Project's Research Approach and Educational Approach:
Four cultivar trials will be conducted for plot replication. There will be 4 plots and 100 plants. Initial size of each plot will be about 1/8th acre, describing ridge top, plain, and bottomland habitats. Initially 25 plants each at 5x5 foot spacings. In addition to comparative trials of the ones commonly available, samples will be sought from superior wild germplasm and from as many heritage dewberry cultivars as possible.
Sharing via publications including a research article and bulletin.
Succinct Statement of Conclusions:
Two possibly high-yielding wild types were identified. A number of key characteristics (primocane and floricane leaf number, stem shape, relative number of fruit locules/drupelets, etc.) were taken allowing a better understanding of taxonomic relationships between them and between all the genotypes in the sample. We have concluded that the rambling-on-ground method, even with plastic mulch, is not practical for market production. Instead I am now recommending, and attempting to implement, the traditional method used in the early 20th century by Southern fruit farmers who would cut vines back to 2 feet (after fruiting, in the case of dewberry).
Farmer Adoption Action:
Growing community of dewberry growers talking about production.
Research on existing cultivars as well as selecting new ones is likely to make dewberry cultivation a recognized and practical specialty crop option for southern and central Missouri, and perhaps even to become a signature product of the region. In addition to the fresh-marketed and preserved fruit, the dewberry has also been used as a source of tea (leaves), wine, and vinegar. They are potentially the basis of a wide variety of value-added products.
Dewberries benefit pollinators including honeybees and wildlife including turtles and gamebirds, especially Bob White Quail. Flowers have a lot of nectar and the fruit and shoot tips are eaten by a lot of wildlife. It is easy to exclude wildlife with trellising if growing for fruit, but another market can be growing dewberries for wildlife. Root systems are extensive and help stabilize the soil. Requires very little equipment or physical stamina to cultivate. Can be produced on marginal areas of the farm and in economically depressed portions of the state.
In hilly and "marginal" locations, dewberries may thrive and outperform blackberries. Furthermore, the vine's low and rambling habit may actually be an asset to small and diversified operations where it can be trained upon fences, rock walls, and other existing infrastructural sites rather than requiring dedicated open acreage which could be utilized in other ways. Dewberries can be pollinated by a variety of native pollinators as well as by honeybees, and are an excellent crop to integrate with a beekeeping venture on the farm.
Four cultivar trials will be conducted for plot replication. There will be 4 plots and 100 plants. Initial size of each plot will be about 1/8th acre, describing ridge top, plain, and bottomland habitats. Initially 25 plants each at 5x5 foot spacings. In addition to comparative trials of the ones commonly available, samples will be sought from superior wild germplasm and from as many heritage dewberry cultivars as possible.
Dewberries are especially well suited to the Ozarks, both agronomically and economically. The cultivar 'Lucretia', often said to orginate in North Carolina, was actually (as per some sources) selected from West Virginia during the Civil War era, but in any case it has been grown successfully in sourthern Appalachia for over a century, in climates and soils that closely mirror those of southern Missouri. The Arkansas Ozarks also historically produced dewberries in the early 20th century and are still often found in old home gardens there. Moreover, the wild subspecies or species known as upland dewberry is native to the Ozark uplift, and although it is not noted for high productivity, its tolerance to shade and rocky soils make it a desirable parent stock for any new dewberry crosses, as well as a population from which potentially to select natural cultivars (so-called "nativars") for outstanding traits such as thornlessness or early bearing.
Objectives:
- To evaluate the productivity and winter hardiness of the 3 most widely available dewberries.
- To select the most promising native genotypes to introduce new varieties
- Share findings through a field day, publication of a bulletin, and articles in agricultural publications.
Research
Year 1:
Emphasis has been placed upon germplasm from Missouri and surrounding states, whenever possible.
Approximately a dozen selections of wild and semi-domesticated dewberries have been taxonomically examined and categorized putatively.
Year 2:
A systematic study of apparently thornless selections, all of which were collected in partial to full shade, reveal that most of them developed thors when planted in the sunny field conditions of the study. We now believe that thornless-ness in dewberries is not a monogenic trait, nor a simple mutation, but a state triggered by some set of epigenetic factors.
One of the research plots had to be redesigned to allow more space between the plants. Investigation reveals older data from North Carolina and Arkansas supports such a recommendation.
Unfortunately, possibly due to the government funding holdups of 2025, we were unable to secure germplasm of the cultivars which the USDA-GRIN collection at Corvallis, OR had claimed were available earlier that year.
Year 1: Can answer this better next year. Dewberries have not fruited yet.
Year 2:
Two possibly high-yielding wild types were identified. A number of key characteristics (primocane and floricane leaf number, stem shape, relative number of fruit locules/drupelets, etc.) were taken allowing a better understanding of taxonomic relationships between them and between all the genotypes in the sample.
Dewberries have been generally overlooked in published research, and although this may partly owe to the assumption that they are to be subsumed under blackberries, the majority of such studies have been down on true (upright) species and cultivars. Although this information is helpful to dewberry growers, there are many specifics that differ between the two groups by virtue of their contrasting growth habit, developmental schedule (phenology), and other factors. For example, dewberry canes are typically trained in such a way that their flowering parts are closer to the ground, and therefore it is less likely that a late spring freeze will affect them.
Some sources drawing on experiences with southern trivialis-type cultivars make the assertion that dewberries are not reliably winter hardy in Missouri. This is incorrect with regards to northern types. This can be verified as simply as referring to the county-by-county distribution of wild R. flagellaris in the state.
Dewberries were heavily used for food and medicine by Native Americans and early white settlers. The role of this crop was very significant for the Osage, Cherokee and other tribes, to an extent that is often overlooked today. Dewberries are called okasheka in the Osage language, and were both cultivated and foraged from the wild by many American Indian cultures in Missouri and elsewhere, for millennia. In some areas their use by humans seems to have even exceeded that of blackberry and raspberry.
The ancient economic importance of dewberries is underscored by the discovery of the fruit and plant residues in large numbers at sites of archaeological significance in Missouri (2). It is possible that most of this material is the result of wild collection rather than actual cultivation by Native Americans of the time periods studied, it is nevertheless highly probable that much of the northern and western extent of R. Flagellaris' range in the state is the result of human introduction. Current trends in climate change may eventually lead to conditions in Missouri that more closely mirror those of the warmer medieval (i.e. Mississippian) period; therefore a thorough assessment and understanding of the key domesticated and wild plants that allowed human societies to survive and thrive at that time and place may be important to the agriculture of a hotter, more unpredictable future.
(2.) The Raytown excavations in particular, dated AD 800-1000, reveal heavy dewberry use and possible cultivation by the Siouan inhavitants of the area.
Educational & Outreach Activities
Participation summary:
Year 1: Flyer describing dewberries and soliciting hardy selections. Showing plot of dewberries to attendees at local university field day. Incorporating dewberries into a local home-school group's gardening education. Also used correspondence and newspapers, including a press release, a Farm Show Magazine feature, Ozarks Agrarian News, and the Crane Chronicle. Since a specific dewberry field day has not yet been held, the "attendees" were already present to see and learn other things. Copies of news clippings, etc will be sent at a later date.
Year 2:
- Compilation of a scientific article, to be published in POMONA detailing the findings concerning the abiilty of various dewberries to interbreed, and their other important characteristics.
- Organizing a dewberry workshop to be held during the fruiting season at Hurley, MO in June 2026.
- Reaching out to representatives of community gardens, and of the Osage and Cherokee nations in OK, which have historically made much use of dewberries and may benefit from them as a tribal business in the future.
- A standalone booklet entitled "The Low-Down on Dewberries" is in the works, pending the review and publication of a research article in Pomona. A bulletin form of it is intended to be published later this year and shared with Extension Offices and fruit-grower associations; a copy can also be sent to SARE for records.
- Copies of published articles and bulletin will be sent later this year.
Learning Outcomes
Year 1: Too soon to say. One "barrier," the thorns, turned out to be more genetically complicated that thought, but this has not detered my confidence in them as a valuable crop.
Year 2: We have concluded that the rambling-on-ground method, even with plastic mulch, is not practical for market production. Instead I am now recommending, and attempting to implement, the traditional method used in the early 20th century by Southern fruit farmers who would cut vines back to 2 feet (after fruiting, in the case of dewberry).
I have also concluded that probably no dewberry is primocane-fruiting. If one was, its winter hardiness would suffer severely from the soft stems required for rapid growth, however.
Project Outcomes
A dewberry grower in North Carolina learned of our solicitations of strains for the trial. It turned out he believes he is now the only commercial producer of them in his county, which once claimed to be the dewberry capital of the United States. He had done a great deal of research himself, and shared 36 pages of old bulletins and articles on dewberries, which were extremely valuable to our knowledge of how production was historically done. This farmer is currently producing only 'Austin' but wishes to add other cultivars to his selection.
I believe that a great deal of practical data will be gained additionally in the 2026 fruiting season, after the official end of the grant. One major setback was the unexplained death of most if not all of the "Lucrettia" variety, possibly due to a virus.