Blackberries in containers

KathyGardner · Wed Apr 29, 2009 4:30 pm

Has anyone had luck with growing blackberries in container? I would like to try to grow this spring but I have a 100LB puppy who thinks it's fun to pull plants up- so far most of my garden is individual plants "protected" by tomato cages.

rainbowgardener · Tue May 12, 2009 2:28 am

A 100 lb "puppy"? What it is it going to grow up to be, a dinosaur? I don't know about the blackberries in containers. Realize they are going to get very big and they need to be trellised.

IndorBonsai · Tue May 12, 2009 2:54 am

LOL I need a puppy that pulls blackberries out. I got about a half acre of land full of blackberries I am slowly and painfully trying to get rid of.

And by all means I would recommend keeping them in pots these things are taking over where I live, I wouldent wish the pain of trying to remove/kill these bushes on my worst enemy.

Kisal · Tue May 12, 2009 1:04 pm

If I were to grow blackberries, I would definitely keep them in containers ... and I'm not sure I'd trust them even then! I, too, struggled to get them out of my yard. I do regular 'blackberry patrol' now, uprooting every little start I find!

I adore giant breed doggies! I used to have Newfies and Komondorok. What breed is your 'baby'?

KathyGardner · Tue May 12, 2009 1:51 pm

Thank you all for help! Lol- puppy's name is Murphy but his nicname is T-Rex!! He is lab+shepherd+pit(?)+something big and wrinkley. He is amazing and sweet just doesn't know he's BIG!! Might plant berries in front side yard so he can't get to them or get hurt on thorns! Thank you all!!

cynthia_h · Tue May 12, 2009 2:11 pm

OTOH, Mr. Murphy might learn very quickly that plants can *fight back* if he tries uprooting blackberries. Even when I wear heavy-duty gloves, the thorns poke me through the threads in the glove seams!

So I still get scratched up.

It will probably take only ONE time with a blackberry for Mr. Dog to learn the lesson.

Labs are very trainable. Shepherds, too. Pitties, too, if you get 'em young enough, plus they're smart. The only not-really-smart dog here is the "big and wrinkly" one which is most likely Shar Pei. They were originally bred as fighting dogs, but in the last 40 or so years have been bred more for a pet temperament. Their intelligence is more toward "average" than "high." I have no idea how trainable Shar Pei are, having never encountered one at an obedience competition or in a doggie class. (I have Bernese Mountain Dogs, and my now 5-year-old male was 90+ pounds at 2 years old and still very much a puppy.)

So all this trainability and intelligence, plus the well-known defense mechanisms of blackberries (while Vergil *may* have investigated them once, he's never done so when I was outside with him) should give the plants a definite advantage.

Too bad you're so far south of me: I could give you some pretty thorny vines for rooting!

Hint: Once you get blackberries established, prune TO THE GROUND every winter those canes which bore fruit. Blackberries are biennials; it takes a new cane a full season of growth before it produces flowers/berries its second spring. Your vines/thicket/containers will look pretty scruffy for a while (February), then they'll fill in rapidly enough...

Cynthia H.
Sunset Zone 17, USDA Zone 9

Kisal · Wed May 13, 2009 1:19 am

Since he has reached 100 lbs in puppyhood, the 'big and wrinkly" part of Mr. Murphy could very well be something like a [url=https://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https://www.canadogs.com/images/NeapolMastiffadult2.jpg&imgrefurl=https://www.canadogs.com/BreedNeapMastiff.htm&usg=__Ag3rD_5s-8NdXbGlISVc0So5l80=&h=278&w=250&sz=26&hl=en&start=19&tbnid=rnvdngqaQno6BM:&tbnh=114&tbnw=103&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dmastiff%2Bbreeds%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Den]mastiff[/url]! Very sweet dogs, and very protective.

cynthia_h · Wed May 13, 2009 2:01 am

A good possibility! (They have wrinkled faces but not bodies; Shar Pei are wrinkled all over.) English mastiffs have been known to exceed 200 lb as adults. A little big for me personally, but very sweet doggies!

*Also* smart enough to learn from one "bite" of a blackberry thorn...

Cynthia

bryant_farm · Mon Jun 01, 2009 11:49 am

for the ones who don't want there backberry bushes....give them to me...I love blackberry's I can them. I also make jam and sell them. Brings good money. We live on about 11 acers and I've got wild blackberries. I love them....Well good luck with your's.

Kisal · Mon Jun 01, 2009 2:40 pm

I have a gazillion of them! It's a constant, year-round battle digging them up. Otherwise, they would happily and rapidly take over my entire property! Bleah!

Gary350 · Mon Jun 01, 2009 10:50 pm

I have a blackberry patch that I planted. I dug up some plants 18 years ago and moved them to my yard. I'm not sure blackberries will like growing in pots. Blackberries don't care how bad the soil is, they don't car how hot and dry it gets, if the soil dries out and gets as hard as my cement driveway the plants do fine. Water and fertilizer makes no difference to the plants. They actually do better if you don't water and fertilize the plants. I wish beans, corn, potatoes, tomatoes, squash were all as hardy as blackberries, WOW that every be something for sure. If you could cross pollenate tomatoes with blackberries you would have tomatoes plants that would be almost impossible to kill and they would come back every year.

You will have a problem with blackberries in a pot.

First year growth makes no blackberries.

Second year growth produces berries.

Third year the canes die.

The plants grow new canes every spring and 3rd year canes die.