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JayPoc
- Greener Thumb
- Posts: 769
- Joined: Wed Nov 28, 2012 12:00 pm
- Location: Virginia, The mountains Zone 6a/6b
blackberry management
Hello all. Last year I let some volunteer (wild?) blackberries grow in a couple places around the yard. I currently have lots of tall canes in those places, and I think I'm on course to have a banner crop of berries. In places, they're getting a little out of control. I want to train them to grow in the direction I want them to. Can I bend the canes in the direction I want them and hold them in place with a brick or something? Also, should I trim back anything but the central canes? They're starting to bud, if that matters. Thanks for any advice.
Hi JayPoc.
Blackberry canes can be trained to go anywhere you want them to...but...they also like to do their own thing as much as you will allow them to.
Try to keep the canes as near to the centre of the main root as possible and remove all the smaller stuff out of the way.
I would not advise holding the canes down with bricks or weights. Anywhere that the plant comes in contact with the soil it will root. So you will finish up with one big tangle of plants.
Try putting a couple of stakes in the ground either side of the plant. Run a wire a foot or so above the ground between the stakes and tie the newly growing canes to this as they grow. Another wire can be placed at waist height and the cropping canes tie to this.
Then after cropping these old canes can be removed ...the new canes lifted up from the bottom wire to the top one and the whole plant is kept under control.
This is the main sort of method used by commercial growers.
Blackberry canes can be trained to go anywhere you want them to...but...they also like to do their own thing as much as you will allow them to.
Try to keep the canes as near to the centre of the main root as possible and remove all the smaller stuff out of the way.
I would not advise holding the canes down with bricks or weights. Anywhere that the plant comes in contact with the soil it will root. So you will finish up with one big tangle of plants.
Try putting a couple of stakes in the ground either side of the plant. Run a wire a foot or so above the ground between the stakes and tie the newly growing canes to this as they grow. Another wire can be placed at waist height and the cropping canes tie to this.
Then after cropping these old canes can be removed ...the new canes lifted up from the bottom wire to the top one and the whole plant is kept under control.
This is the main sort of method used by commercial growers.
Not unlike a grape wire fence, rasberry--blackberry can be tied upright to a two-wire fence or a chain-link fence. They won't need more than a single twine tie to the top wire. Some may actually grow long enough to reach over and touch the ground. I'd prune those as high up as you can reach. Or that tip will air-layer.
If you weight canes down (on the ground) it will be harder to keep things orderly with a chaotic plant what has an armor-class and fights back.
If you weight canes down (on the ground) it will be harder to keep things orderly with a chaotic plant what has an armor-class and fights back.
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applestar
- Mod
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- Joined: Thu May 01, 2008 7:21 pm
- Location: Zone 6, NJ (3/M)4/E ~ 10/M(11/B)
What I do is once the cane tip roots enough that tugging firmly won't pull it up, I cut the arched cane approximately where leaves from both side are facing up.
The rooted tip can also then be dug up to plant elsewhere. I've been creating new patches on either side of my property with these extras in hopes of distracting the greedy birds' attention away from the main patch.
The rooted tip can also then be dug up to plant elsewhere. I've been creating new patches on either side of my property with these extras in hopes of distracting the greedy birds' attention away from the main patch.
Why all over the property? Wouldn't it be better, work wise, and care to have them together? It might be the way I am reading this but you are going to have a bramble mess and will not be able to prune them properly come cutting out the second year growth. Canes die off after their second year, which will have fruit.JayPoc wrote:Hello all. Last year I let some volunteer (wild?) blackberries grow in a couple places around the yard. I currently have lots of tall canes in those places, and I think I'm on course to have a banner crop of berries. In places, they're getting a little out of control. I want to train them to grow in the direction I want them to. Can I bend the canes in the direction I want them and hold them in place with a brick or something? Also, should I trim back anything but the central canes? They're starting to bud, if that matters. Thanks for any advice.
I have blackberries growing on a wired fence somewhat like grapes..that being, I know which cane produced and their needs to be pruned out come spring. The young ones I tie to the wire, this way keeps me knowing which cane will set fruit and the younger ones of that season becomes the new cane that will give fruit the following year.
If you do want a bushier type just give a clip, anywhere to the cane with grouped leaves, just a few inches before. This will give the cane a V spreading and more fruit. Your one cane will become twice productive.
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NatureHillsNursery
- Cool Member
- Posts: 63
- Joined: Thu Mar 20, 2014 9:33 pm
I can relate to what you’re saying JayPoc. I have a sizable Blackberry bush in my garden, but there are several that have popped up in less-convenient spots. I simply cut off all the dead or unsightly canes and hooking some chicken wire between a couple posts, tie the canes to the wire (in the direction I want them to grow). I’ve found that without some type of fencing, Blackberries can become a brambly mess.