damethod
Senior Member
Posts: 183
Joined: Mon May 05, 2008 12:15 pm
Location: Miami, FL

Blackberry plant growing out of control as well!

I purchased a blackberry plant online, planted it in 6-6-6 soil, and it has not stopped growing since. One of the canes is growing sideways. The second cane didn't grow at all, but a blackberry plant somehow sprung out from the ground next to it. I believe I have two more starting to sprout from around the area. Is this normal?

I've clipped off some of the "branches" that grow off the side of the leading cane. They were getting very long and I figured that the key was to get a tall thin cane. I'm wrong aren't I?

How much space do I need in between the two plants? How long until I see Blackberries? How long will the plant last? How do I care for it?

Here some pics of the plants. The first is just the tall one, the second is both the tall and the stubby one next to it. :D

[img]https://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b158/damethod/Gardenpics019.jpg[/img]
[img]https://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b158/damethod/Gardenpics020.jpg[/img]

opabinia51
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Joined: Thu Oct 21, 2004 5:58 pm
Location: Victoria, BC

Oh gosh! Blackberries can grow like mad, You should give it at least several feet.

aqh88
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Location: Iowa
Contact: AOL

There are blackberry plants everywhere around this yard. They probably started growing around 10+ years ago and have lined the edge of the yard and around all the buildings. There are solid walls of thorny blackberry and raspberry plants. Give it lots of room (1 plant can cover a 9' area), keep it trimmed so it doesn't take over everything, watch it in the spring and if a plant starts to pop up where you don't want it trim all the new growth off repeatedly until it stops growing there, and they should last forever. I would think they'd produce berries the first year but maybe not a whole lot. Sometime around late summer to fall you should have some berries.

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Roger
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Joined: Mon Mar 19, 2007 6:52 am
Location: North Georgia

I think you will have a much larger and better crop of berries next summer. Most blackberry varieties flower and fruit on one year old canes. After a cane flowers and sets fruit, it will die. You can prune it once it begins dying to keep the area cleaned and thinned. Or you can leave it and let it serve as a natural support for newer canes.
I've clipped off some of the "branches" that grow off the side of the leading cane. They were getting very long and I figured that the key was to get a tall thin cane. I'm wrong aren't I?
You're not wrong to trim lateral branches getting too heavy or unwieldy. I would leave about 20 inches or so of the branches ,with a shorter branch they will not tend to droop and lay on the ground when the fruit begins weighing down the plant.
On the other hand, I notice you have a nice sturdy fence behind the plants. You could take the longer lateral branches and using a small tack and some twine affix a temporary support for the longer branches onto the fence, sort of like a temporary espalier. If they grew exceptionally long, you could then trim them as you desire.

Buckshot
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Joined: Tue Jun 10, 2008 4:49 pm
Location: Dallas

The first thing you need to know is what type of Blackberry plant it is . There are three types, Erect, Simi- Erect and Trailing. I hope you bought one of the new Arkensas strains of Thornless Erect. if so then the first years growth will be very erratic and mostly close to the ground. Training them is the only way to have an easy time picking the BB. The second year they will send up new canes for the next years BB and these will be much thicker and should grow straight up and need little or no support. If you have the Trailing type then you need to support them on a trellis. you could use the fence and run wire about one foot apart horizontally up to about 6ft off the ground and loop the canes around two wires. One cane at 1ft going left and another going right, another at 2ft going left and so on. you don't want to much vegatation the first year so I would let the canes grow about 6ft and top them that will encourage lateral growth and thicker canes and easer harvest top the laterals at 12-18in. when you harvested the BB you need to cut the canes back to the ground and either burn them or have them hauled off incase there are any diseases or pests present. Be carefull that you don't cut any new growth as that will be next years canes.



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