Growers
Growers who want to evaluate new selections under their own conditions and feed practical commercial insight back into the programme. What you learn on your site shapes what we breed next.
Shekinah Berries Limited · Bay of Plenty, New Zealand
Berry genetics with fifty years of breeding behind them.
Shekinah Berries is the independent breeding programme of Harvey Hall. We develop raspberry, blackberry and hybridberry cultivars, and we are looking for growers and licensees ready to take them into production.
50+years of plant breeding
8patents
36peer reviewed journal articles
2006Shekinah Berries established
The business
A breeding programme built to serve growers.
Harvey Hall established Shekinah Berries in 2006, returning to independent breeding after decades leading berry programmes for DSIR and HortResearch. The company does one thing: it breeds berry cultivars that give growers a real commercial advantage, then works with the right people to bring them into production.
Since 2015 the programme has run in the Bay of Plenty under protected tunnel house conditions, with a strong focus on fresh market raspberries and hybridberries. Every selection is judged on what a grower needs from it: yield, fruit size and quality, firmness, flavour and ease of harvest.
Harvey leads the breeding. His son Caleb leads the commercial side, turning that breeding expertise into clear opportunities for growers, industry partners and licensees.
Expertise
Five decades spent improving berry crops.
Harvey Hall has spent his career improving berry crops, first in public sector research and then in his own programme. The record below is his.
- Training
- Bachelor of Science in Botany and Chemistry and Master of Science in Plant Physiology, University of Canterbury.
- Crops
- Boysenberries, red raspberries, black raspberries, blackberries, hybridberries, blueberries, strawberries and apples.
- Released cultivars
- Raspberries including Wakefield, NR7, Korpiko, Korere, Awaroa, Moutere, Tadmor and Motueka, several protected by United States plant patents. Wakefield was a significant step for machine harvest production, improving yield, firmness, ease of harvest and fruit quality.
- Traits
- Yield, fruit size and quality, firmness, flavour, disease resistance, low chill adaptation, spinelessness, ease of harvest and suitability for machine harvesting.
- Markets
- Genetics for fresh market, processing, IQF, machine harvest and home garden production.
- Reach
- Breeding programmes in New Zealand, Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom, Portugal and Spain, with long standing collaboration among breeders in Scotland, England, North America and Scandinavia.
- Publications
- 36 peer reviewed journal articles, three books, three book chapters and eight patents. His books include the reference works Raspberry Breeding and Genetics and Blackberry Breeding.
- Recognition
- HortResearch Chairman's Outstanding Achievement Award, 2001, for his contribution to Rubus research. Member of the New Zealand, International and American Societies for Horticultural Science.
- 1979Joins the DSIR research station at Lincoln, breeding lucerne before specialising in berries.
- DSIR and HortResearchSenior breeding and programme leadership roles across boysenberries and raspberries.
- 2001Receives the HortResearch Chairman's Outstanding Achievement Award.
- 2006Establishes Shekinah Berries Limited and returns to independent breeding.
- 2015Moves the programme to the Bay of Plenty and into protected tunnel houses.
What we can offer
Proven and emerging genetics, open for evaluation and licence.
One patented black raspberry ready for planting, and five red raspberry selections, three of which outyielded Kwanza in our plot trial.
Black raspberrySpinelessUS Plant Patent
Shekinah Tahi RZ10022
A spineless black raspberry selected in New Zealand, trialled, exported to the United States and protected there by a US Plant Patent. Its closest market comparison, Jewel, is spiny. Shekinah Tahi has a similar shelf life to Jewel, with fruit a slightly redder shade.
- Cropping
- Floricane, mid season. 2,300 g per plant in trial, an estimated 20 t per ha
- Fruit
- 4.5 g, round, glossy, deep red purple to black
- Flavour
- Very good
- Texture
- Moderate firmness, seedy in the way of black raspberries
- Harvest
- Hand harvest
- Shelf life
- Moderate, similar to Jewel
- Plant
- Strong, high arching, 2 to 2.5 m in the field
- Resistance
- Raspberry bud moth
- Suited to
- Fresh fruit, home garden, process and potted plant production
- Supply
- Held in tissue culture and available for planting
Red raspberry selections
Five selections from the current programme, bred for fresh market production and benchmarked against the varieties growers already know.
All three trial selections outyielded Kwanza
Primocane cropFloricane crop
Yield per plant in grams, Ngongotaha plot trial
Selection 6
5,440 g
RZ18017
3,977 g
RZ18011
3,858 g
Kwanza
2,282 g
Revive
1,178 g
Rakau
774 g
02,0004,0006,000
| Variety | Primocane g per plant | Floricane g per plant | Total g per plant | t per ha, 2 m rows | t per ha, 3 m rows |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Selection 6 | 2,555 | 2,885 | 5,440 | 68.0 | 49.0 |
| RZ18017 | 1,858 | 2,119 | 3,977 | 49.7 | 35.8 |
| RZ18011 | 1,959 | 1,899 | 3,858 | 48.2 | 34.7 |
| Kwanza | 1,300 | 982 | 2,282 | 28.5 | 20.5 |
| Revive | 395 | 783 | 1,178 | 14.7 | 10.6 |
| Rakau | 434 | 340 | 774 | 9.7 | 7.0 |
| Shekinah Tahi | n/a | 2,300 | 2,300 | 28.8 | 20.7 |
Trial basis: ten plant plots at Ngongotaha, grown in 7 L pots of coir substrate. Primocane crop harvested in 2022 and floricane crop in 2022 to 2023. Tonnes per hectare scale the per plant yield to commercial planting density of 2.5 plants per metre, which is 12,500 plants per hectare at 2 m row spacing and 9,000 at 3 m. Brix and picking rate have not yet been measured.
-
RZ18011Plot 496Dual cropping
Large, very firm fruit and a shelf life that beat Kwanza in testing.
- Season
- Mid season, a little earlier than Kwanza
- Fruit
- 7.1 g, season average 5.7 g. Conical, light orange red
- Eating
- Good fresh flavour, mild acidity. Very firm and fleshy
- Yield
- 3,858 g per plant, split 51% primocane and 49% floricane
- Harvest
- Significantly easier to remove than Kwanza
- Shelf life
- Very good, better than Kwanza in testing
- Canes
- Similar spininess to Kwanza
-
RZ18017Plot 488Dual cropping, golden
A golden raspberry with red raspberry yields. The colour comes from a recessive gene.
- Season
- Early mid season, significantly earlier than Kwanza
- Fruit
- 6.2 g, season average 5.1 g. Rounded conical, light yellow
- Eating
- Good fresh flavour. Moderately firm and fleshy
- Yield
- 3,977 g per plant, split 47% primocane and 53% floricane
- Harvest
- Significantly easier to remove than Kwanza
- Shelf life
- Very good for a yellow variety, better than Kiwigold in testing
- Canes
- Similar spininess to Kwanza
-
Selection 6Plot 6Dual cropping
The highest yield in the trial, on spineless canes, and significantly earlier than Kwanza.
- Season
- Early mid season, significantly earlier than Kwanza
- Fruit
- 5.1 g, season average 4.8 g. Rounded, light to medium red
- Eating
- Good fresh flavour. Very firm and fleshy
- Yield
- 5,440 g per plant, split 47% primocane and 53% floricane
- Harvest
- Easy to remove, even in cool temperatures
- Shelf life
- Very good, similar to Kwanza. Red colour similar to Kweli
- Canes
- Spineless
-
RZ17039R604Dual cropping
Excellent flavour and glossy, light red fruit across both crops.
- Season
- Mid season, floricane and primocane
- Fruit
- 5.58 g. Conical, glossy, light red
- Eating
- Excellent flavour. Firm and fleshy
- Yield
- About 900 g per cane per year. Ten primocanes yielded 4.5 kg
- Harvest
- Hand harvest
- Shelf life
- Very good, similar to Kwanza and Maravilla. Lighter, brighter red than Kweli
- Canes
- Spiny
-
RZ17091R609Floricane cropping
Extremely large fruit, averaging 12.9 g and reaching 22 g.
- Season
- Late bloom, mid season fruit
- Fruit
- Average 12.9 g, maximum 22 g. Conical, glossy, light bright red
- Eating
- Good flavour. Firm and fleshy
- Yield
- High. Not yet measured
- Harvest
- Easy to harvest by hand
- Shelf life
- Very good, similar to Kwanza and Revive
- Canes
- Quite spiny. Potential for long cane production
Every selection shows some resistance to grey mould, grows to 1.8 to 2 m in substrate under tunnel house conditions and suits potted plant production. All five are in tissue culture, with material being bulked for grower trials and commercial planting.
Who we want to meet
Partners who will put new genetics to the test.
A cultivar proves itself on a commercial site, in the hands of a grower. We are building long term relationships with three kinds of partner.
Licensees
Businesses ready to take a promising cultivar from evaluation into commercial production, starting with Shekinah Tahi and the red raspberry selections.
Industry partners
Organisations that can help establish the pathway from breeding and trial through to market, in New Zealand and internationally.
The people
A father and son partnership.
Berry breeder
Harvey Hall
A New Zealand plant breeder with more than five decades in horticultural genetics and cultivar development. Harvey brings long term genetic selection, detailed observation and a practical understanding of what makes a cultivar commercially useful.
Business development manager
Caleb Hall
Caleb brings more than two decades in leadership, communication and organisational development across youth development, education and professional sport. He builds the grower relationships, coordinates trials and leads every commercial conversation.
Start a conversation
Interested in a trial or a licence? Talk to Caleb.
Tell us what you grow and where. We will come back to you with the selections worth a closer look.
caleb@sbl.co.nz