We have any Blackberry experts here (the plant and berry, not the phone-doohickey)?

[FTG-05]

My wife and I want to plant a bunch of blackberry bushes on one side of my hill along the border with my neighbor.

Any experts here the best time to plant, how to plant, where to buy and what varieties are good for my area? I'm in SC TN near the AL border.

We have some wild blackberry bushes on the property but they produce small berries, as do the various versions we find along the road in the area. We hope we can do better with planted bushes. I love my wife's blackberry cobbler! :licking:

Thanks,

 

[smstonypoint]

It looks like UT Cooperative Extension has the relevant recommendations in a pdf file. Google Blackberries and Raspberries in Home Gardens Tennessee.

Steve

 

[Pilot]

Best thing for blackberries around here is Roundup or Crossbow. They grow everywhere. No one here is crazy enough to actually grow them--they are like the Pacific northwest's version of kudzu. Good luck to you.

 

[bcp]

Best thing for blackberries around here is Roundup or Crossbow. They grow everywhere. No one here is crazy enough to actually grow them--they are like the Pacific northwest's version of kudzu. Good luck to you.

Several unoccupied houses around here now have only the roof visible. I'm constantly fighting them.

Found photos:










Bruce

 

[FTG-05]

It looks like UT Cooperative Extension has the relevant recommendations in a pdf file. Google Blackberries and Raspberries in Home Gardens Tennessee.

Steve

Good stuff, thanks!

 

[Gunny]

I bush hog and spray wild blackberries all summer long, but I also raise thorn-less blackberries, 36 plants.

Mine are planted along a two wire fence I erected to keep them supported. I've tried a couple of varieties that claim they don't need the fence, but they never worked out for me, so I just tied them up along with the others.
The biggest thing you have to watch out for is the first year canes that touch the ground. They'll develop roots and a new plant starts. If it starts roots, then you don't get any fruit from that cane. I check on mine about once a week to make sure that all the new canes are still away from the ground. My plants are all planted in a straight row, so it's very easy to just drive the UTV up one side and down the other, even stopping to weave a cane or two onto the fence, usually takes less than ten minutes a week. The straight row also makes it easy to keep everything mowed right up next to the row. A little RoundUp and a weedeater takes care of the areas between plants.

A good established plant (3 or 4 years old) will produce about a gallon of fruit. Plan on more plants than you think you'll need since family and friends will be wanting them once they know you've got them. - That's another reason I keep mine mowed down like a lawn, I don't mind giving them the berries, but darned if I'm going to pick them just to give away, so they feel comfortable picking their own.

After you've picked all the berries and the canes have dried up, cut them off at ground level, drag them off to the side where you can run the bush hog over them, make sure your new canes are fully supported for next year.

All told, I guess I spend about 20 hours a year working mine and picking the berries, so they aren't very labor intensive. I also test the soil every other year, but it never takes much lime or fertilizer to support them.

 

[DFB]

Thornless varieties should grow well where you are They don't survive our cold temperatures very well at all. I planted some years ago. I didn't find the flavor as sweet as the naturalized ones here.

They're just a pain to pick!

 

[Oaktree]

They grow everywhere. No one here is crazy enough to actually grow them--they are like the Pacific northwest's version of kudzu.

Yeah. I lived in the Seattle area for a couple years back in the 70s and every vacant lot was thick with them. I could fill a 2 gallon pail without even moving. Wish I could get 'em to grow like that around here.

Of course, that was then...I looked at my old neighborhood with Google maps a while ago and those vacant lots are nothing but houses now.

 

[Tractor Seabee]

Amen to my fellow NW TBNers. We fight the cane berries gone wild constantly. My BIL used to farm 5 ac of thornless berries for years. They spread from seeds, new canes from above the graft and new canes from the roots. The cultivated thornless plants are grafted on to wild root stock so the sprouts from below the graft are thorny as do the plants from seeds. Berries are a big cultivated farm product in the western valleys so they been spread wildly by birds and animals.

Once you get the wild canes cut or herbicided out just keep mowing between the rows to keep them from spreading. My BIL planted pasture grass between the rows and kept it mowed short.

Lots of luck, if possible get the varieties that have large berries and you will be happy with the result. Nothing tastes better than blackberry jam or syrup over pancakes, waffles, and ice cream.

Ron

 

[dave1949]

Yeah. I lived in the Seattle area for a couple years back in the 70s and every vacant lot was thick with them. I could fill a 2 gallon pail without even moving. Wish I could get 'em to grow like that around here.

Of course, that was then...I looked at my old neighborhood with Google maps a while ago and those vacant lots are nothing but houses now.

Blackberries are common here after a forestry harvest that allows lots of light and provides some soil disturbance. You might have some luck getting a stand of wild blackberries growing if you duplicate that by cutting a clearing and roughing up the ground in an area with reasonable soil. As the trees close back in reducing sunlight they die out and don't produce much fruit.

The seeds pass through birds, coyotes, bears, etc. unharmed and remain viable in the soil for many years waiting for the 'right' conditions.