DCgarden
Newly Registered
Posts: 4
Joined: Thu May 03, 2012 11:06 am
Location: Washington DC

Will my Blackberries Fruit?

I bought two suppossedly mature thornless blackberry bushes three years ago from an on-line company. I've nursed the two little twigs back to health over the last few seasons and they finally flowered for the first time this year. I have no idea whether they can fertilize themselves so I tried some plant husbandry and took a toothpick and ran it over the stamens of each of the plants and tried to mix it up across the two different plants. There didnt seem to be much of any pollen on either plants so I have no idea if what I did worked or if it was necessary.

-What signs will show a fertilized blackberry
-How can I determine if I have a self fertilizing variety or not( the bushes are very thorny despite the "thornless" claim and I have lost track of the company I bought them from. I believe at least one of them is "Navaho"
-If I need to cross fertilize myself, am I doing it the right way. Do you have to mix plants or can multiple flowers on same plant work.

Thanks

cynthia_h
Super Green Thumb
Posts: 7500
Joined: Tue May 06, 2008 7:02 pm
Location: El Cerrito, CA

Blackberries are fertilized by bees and other flying pollinators. My blackberries are usually humming with bees when in full flower, but I have mature vines.

Do you have other plants that attract bees, butterflies, and the like? If so, the flowers will most likely be pollinated for you. If you don't see any pollinators, it's possible to "help" fertilize the flowers by using a Q-tip or similar cotton swab (details elsewhere on the forum). This is what I recall from reading here on the forum: touch the Q-tip to the stamens of one flower and then touch another flower's ovaries. Repeat, repeat, repeat.

Blackberries are a biennial plant. This means they need to be 2 years old before they produce. Since all of yours are the same age, you may experience alternate years of berries and no berries unless you plant some vines in the "off" year to fill in that alternate timing. Mine were growing wild; we just moved them to one "approved" location b/c homegrown blackberries are simply amazingly tasty.

But once they get going, you *must* prune them properly, without fail, every year. I've given details of this elsewhere here; the Search function will find it for you. Use "pruning blackberries" and my name, all lower-case and with an underscore, as the search criteria.

Cynthia H.
Sunset Zone 17, USDA Zone 9

DCgarden
Newly Registered
Posts: 4
Joined: Thu May 03, 2012 11:06 am
Location: Washington DC

Thanks--we are in an urban neighborhood and the bees have been in short supply the last two years so we have had to help with other plants.



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