Problems and opportunities of promoting the industrial culture of blackberries in the conditions of the central part of Russia

The article considers the problem of insufficient winter hardiness of blackberries as the main limiting factor for the industrial cultivation of this crop in the conditions of the center of Russia. Possible ways to overcome this factor are shown using breeding and agrotechnical techniques used by the authors of the article when growing blackberries. The research was carried out in breeding experimental plantations of the All-Russian Research Institute of Fruit Crop Breeding (Oryol region of Russia). Classical research methods adopted in Russia were used. The objects of study were introduced blackberry varieties of foreign breeding, concentrated in the bioresource collection of VNIISPK. As a result, it is shown that the breeding path of increasing winter hardiness is the most effective, but rather long-lasting. It can go in several directions: the creation of highly winter-hardy cultivars of the erect type, primocane-fruiting cultivars with early autumn fruiting, and cultivars with creeping shoots, the most convenient for winter shelter. The resource opportunities for successful breeding are genetic sources of increased winter hardiness created by breeders from around the world. For growing existing modern cultivars in regions with cold winters, a technological way can be chosen to increase the frost and winter hardiness of blackberries, which involves the use of special agrotechnical techniques, including winter shelter of plants with dense synthetic agrofibre and specialized organomineral preparations that increase the winter hardiness of plants and ensure the environmental friendliness of the entire process.