Wild blackberries can be a real pain to control and the most effective way to get rid of them is goats. They will eat the entire plant and then the subsequent new growth which will weaken and kill it. As for growing your own blackberries I would personally never have the thorned variety as they are just too difficult to handle and harvest. I would dig it out and plant a thornless variety. The best way to control it would be winter selection of canes so you have max 5 canes per plant that you can stake up with bamboo rods. You should then also remove any suckers, which are new sprouts coming up away from the primary plant. You can use a spade and chop all around the base (leave a 50cm radius) to remove any under ground shoots. You then just need to be vigilant in spring when new canes come up to quickly remove them so it doesn't grow out of control. I completely get jow all of this can be quite tricky with a thorned baroety because blackberry thorns really aren't a joke 🌻
Oh nooooooo, I'm so sorry and it makes me so mad when nurseries give out such bad advice 😭 at least you know what to do now in the coming years to get the best out of your blackberry plant. P.S. Also just make sure it's not a primocane fruiting variety so see what this summer holds for you and fruit production 🌻
It is only a pleasure and thank you for leaving me a comment. Yes, I have to agree with you and my favourite by far are raspberries...they are simply delicious 🌻
Good timing. We’re going into winter here so I can start some berries in a few months. When I was a child you could go out to any fence row or old cemetery and pick a gallon. Everyone mows and sprays with herbicide now. So those days are gone. Thanks for a great video.
Yay, glad I got you at the right time! I totally agree with you. I remember as a kid picking Loquats off the trees in the road but now it's impossible to find a public fruit tree anywhere, but you having had endless berries sounds amazing 🌻
Yaaaay, so glad you found this video in time too! It is an all too common thing people do not knowing they lose and entire growing season and often never get fruit. Here's to hoping you get awesome harvests 🤞🌻
Excellent. Exactly the video I needed to understand. I have 3 Osage thornless blackberries in zone 9B Florida. You made Trying to understand the “How” and “Why” much easier on my brain.
Aw, what a beautiful comment 💚 thank you so much for taking the time for leave me your thoughts and I'm so glad to hear you got value out of watching this video 🌻
It is only a pleasure and I am thrilled to hear you found this video helpful! I have not managed to get around to making the raspberry video as yet, but I will doing getting that video done in the next couple of weeks, so keep your eyes peeled 🌻
Love your videos, thank you. How do Booysen berries compare to growing and pruning blackberries? I imagine along the same lines as you've explained in this video.
Wow, thank you so much and I'm so glad to hear you find value in watching my videos 💚 I have honestly never hear of Boysenberries but considering they are a hybrid with raspberry and blackberry in it they would have very similar traits. I would suggest watching them closely to see if they fruit on new canes that come up or not. If not then you can follow the advice in this video of primo canes and floricanes but if they do then they are closer to raspberries ans you would want to remove 2nd year, or silvering branches, to keep the plant healthy and thriving 🌻
Any advice on feeding blackberries? I do have good home made compost which I assume will be suitable, but was wondering about timing in particular. Thank you!
Good question and sorry for not covering that! Yes, home made compost will be just fine and if you add a good 5-10cm layer in the spring as the buds start to swell and break then that will be just fine. If you want to feed it a fertiliser then just make sure you choose a balanced fertiliser that is not high in Nitrogen (N) 🌻
I am in the situation of February and did not size my primocanes at the end of last summer. Currently they are possibly 5 feet long brambling. I assume I would still need to tip then at a manageable height and they will still side shoot this spring.
That's great that they are so big and yes, depending on the variety you have they will either be upright or bramble. For your bambling one you might need to make a trellis to keep them up (which I assume you are doing) and then yes, tip them at the height you want so they can create those side shoots in the spring 🌻
Do I understand correct….. Once the PrimaCane is stablished it will stay for many seasons. Each year after harvest, in winter the FloriCane of that year are removed/pruned. This sounds similar to what is dine with grapevines.
Good question and thanks for clarifying. It's not quite accurate what you have mentioned. You will never keep a cane for more than 2 year. The 1yr old canes (primo canes) become floricanes in the 2nd year that bear the fruit. The winter of the 2nd year you cut out all the floricanes so your current primo canes can become floricanes the following summer. Does this help?
@@MySustainabilityJourney Thank you. After re-thinking and watching some other I realized my interpretation was incorrect. Your above explanation confirms how I figured it. I will be looking to source Blackberry plants in Gauteng (Pretoria).
That's awesome Cecil and I am glad to hear you figured it out and I hope you manage to find some. FCT Growers and Just Berries are in Gauteng and have really great ranges of berry plants for you to consider 🌻
So I have a Thornless Blackberry and it was on the side of my shed. I had to move it cause the canes grow about 15 feet high. Yes, no one pruned it for about 4 years. I cut it back to about 3 feet (all the canes) dug it up and moved it to a 2x6 foot raised bed. The root system was about 6 inches thick and ran 6 feet each way 5 ways. I folded all of the roots into that bed and filled it with dirt. (maybe I should've cut the root back) cause now it has created about 35ish shouts all over the bed since the spring. The canes I cut when I moved it, some have berries, the ones that don't have side shoots about 3 feet long. There are 5 of the new canes that are monsters climbing just past 10 feet now. obviously I have a mess and the roots just grew more shoots, but now I am confused. How many should I cut to the base? Leave only those 5 big ones? What about the new ones that are near the corner of the bed. they are 3-5 feet tall and still growing. should I count 5 shoots per what is coming out of each ground base? Will it still produce with such a large root system?
Wow, it sounds like you have quite the beast of a blackberry plant there 😱 it sounds like it is on a rampage to take over! What I would suggest is to look at allowing a cluster to form every foot or so and then thin down to 5 canes per cluster. You would then ultimately end up with 5 fruiting canes as well as a bunch of new canes that you would then thin out in winter. For the first while you might need to be more on top of cutting out new canes that appear, otherwise it will just keep getting bigger and bigger. If the whole plant is just too aggressive with the rootmass you moved over then worst case you might need to remove it all and plant a single cane every foot and start again. They grow really quickly but at least you won't be fighting against what sounds like a menace bramble 🌻
Thank you for sharing this valuable information. I’ve saved your video to watch again in autumn 🍇 I know so little about growing food. The successes I’ve had thus far are more due to plants doing what they do best and little about my input. I’m happy to learn 🍓🫐🍎🥬🧅🧄🥔🙂🌳
Yaaaay, thanks for leaving me a wonderful comment with your thoughts and yes, it's a good idea to revisit this video in autumn, but I will do another recap video around that time focusing specifically on the pruning of blackberries 😊 happy growing for the rest of the summer growing season 🌻
