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Gary350
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Blackberry Vines & Raspberry Vines Question

I bought thorn less Blackberry plants and Raspberry plants at Lowe's both are making vines all over the yard like melon plants do. Has anyone ever seen Blackberry or Raspberry plants that make vine?

I have seen blackberries in several different States mostly East Coast and ID and they all grow canes. I have never seen vines before.

How do I take care for this type of plant?

billw
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When they get long, they'll sprawl, although raspberries aren't usually as bad about it as blackberries are. The standard solution is to contain them between two runs of wire.

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applestar
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My Triple Crown thornless blackberries grow very long and if I'm not careful to keep them tied up above ground on the trellis/fence, arches over and touch the ground then grow roots. :roll:

I just brought in a potted rosemary that I had left near the blackberries for the winter, and a tip of a cane had rooted in the pot. :shock: I yanked it out (ony had 4-6" roots) cut the cane off at about 18" and potted it up for a new plant.

The blackberries are steadily arching out to expand territory. :?

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rainbowgardener
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I haven't grown blackberries, but I assume they are at least similar to the raspberries I grow. They really aren't vines, they are canes, and in their second season the canes get woody. But at least initially the canes are thin and flexible. For me they don't sprawl flat, but they do arch over and they do root anywhere they touch. I am about to work on getting rid of all the raspberry - it is taking over my yard and the birds get the berries anyway.

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Gary350
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This is my TN blackberry plants. You can see they grow as tall as the 6 foot fence. The tops get heavy and curve over and down toward the ground. The canes are soft and flexable the first year and it makes no fruit the first year. Second year canes are hard like wood and it makes plenty of berries. Third year the canes die. New canes come up every year so the crop always has 1st, 2nd, 3rd, year canes. All the dead cane might be 3 to 12 years old. I can pick 5 gallons of berries from this 6 foot wide 20 foot long patch during the month of July and August. If I make sure to pick every ripe berry it keeps making more berries right up until frost about November. It is a lot of work to search and find every berry. If I can not reach a berry I knock it off with a shovel so the canes will not stop making new berries.

Image

This is my AZ blackberry plant. It is making vines like Grapes. There is a vine behind the flower pots that is about 17 feet long. If I had known these were going to grow like grapes I would never have planted them here. I probably would not have planted them at all. I just don't have time to deal with more vines. It gets full sun all day 5 am to 8:30 pm in the summer, 6 hours less sun in the winter.

Image

This is the raspberry plant. It seems to be growing slow maybe because it is in computation with a flower. It get morning sun and afternoon shade after 2 pm. During the summer 115 degrees temperatures is gets 9 hours of sun 5am to 2 pm and shade from 2 pm to 8:30 pm.

Image
Last edited by Gary350 on Fri Oct 25, 2013 12:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.

DoubleDogFarm
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it is taking over my yard and the birds get the berries anyway.
You have stated this several times now. Would you please elaborate more on this take over.

I'm growing, have grown Heritage and Red Summit raspberries. Both send runners out from the main plant but not far. Neither spread by seed, bird that I have noticed.

Eric

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I bought thorn less Blackberry plants and Raspberry plants at Lowe's both are making vines all over the yard like melon plants do. Has anyone ever seen Blackberry or Raspberry plants that make vine?
Only the native wild ones. We call them razor wire when tangled around our feet.

Eric

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applestar
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Do they look like blackberry and raspberry plants aside from the growth habit? Maybe they were mislabeled or some weed had take over the containers. I wouldn't expect the regular workers (are they called "associates"?) there to know the difference, to be blunt. I don't know how often they have actual garden experts inspecting their merchandise.

I can't see clearly but they sort of remind me of Japanese hop vines.

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rainbowgardener
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The raspberries continually send up new canes a little bit away from where the original ones were, so the clump gets bigger and bigger, pretty quickly. AND the canes arch over and root themselves and then send up new canes from that spot. AND apparently birds drop the seeds and they sprout, so that I have a raspberry thicket in a completely different part of the yard, probably 30' or so away from where the ones I planted are, so probably not runners. The new thicket is in pretty much shade, but nonetheless is growing rampantly and spreading in to my herb garden. The ones in shade grow rampantly but don't fruit very much.

So I'm getting tired of it all and thinking there's more productive things I could do with those spaces and thinking the longer I wait to get rid of it, the harder it will be. It will already be challenging since the stuff is so thorny.

I agree with Applestar that Gary's vines don't look like raspberries or blackberries.

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Gary350
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The AZ plants don't look like the TN plants. But I have never seen thorn less so I do not know what they are suppose to look like. The blackberry appears to be thorn less but not the raspberry.

The thorn less raspberry leaves look like blackberry leaves.

The thorn less blackberry leaves looks like a cross between Virginia Creeper vine and blackberry.

billw
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Is it possible that you bought trailing blackberry?

If you can give a closeup of the leaves of each, it would be easier to make an ID.



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