How To Grow Blackberry Plants Successfully

Blackberry plants may spread like weeds once planted. The finest kinds take some planning and preparation to get started, but dedicated gardeners will find that the work is well worth it when harvest time arrives. Nothing quite matches the sweet, juicy taste of fresh blackberries. Here is the detailed answer to how to grow blackberry plants successfully at home.

Blackberries are best grown in areas with cool or cold winters. Planting them from seed is possible, but for a quicker harvest, most people plant bare-root plants. In the coldest regions, upright, stiff-caned varieties can be grown. In areas with warmer winters, trailing types do best.

Like raspberries, blackberries are a simple fruit to cultivate. Prepare for a plentiful harvest as this natural fruit ripens, harvesting every couple of days! Here’s how to cultivate blackberries in your own garden and harvest them.

Blackberries are divided into three categories:

• Erect thorny blackberries
• Trailing thornless blackberries
• Erect thornless blackberries

Erect blackberries are self-supporting plants, while trailing blackberries have long canes that trellises must support.

How To Grow Blackberry Plants Successfully

The roots of all blackberries are perennial, meaning they live year after year. The top of the plant above the surface, however, is referred to as a biennial. This implies the canes will grow vegetatively for a year, then produce fruit the following year before dying.

Every year, the plant, however, puts up new canes to replace those that have perished! Pruning is necessary for a good fruit harvest and to prevent a wild plant.

Follow these simple tips to grow blackberries successfully.

Blackberry Soil Preparation

All blackberries require deep, well-drained soil, full sun, and ample water throughout the growing season. Avoid sites where the soil remains wet late into the fall. Compost should be worked intensely into the soil before planting, as the plants grow best in soil rich with organic matter. Several days before planting, a balanced fertilizer should be worked into the soil as well.

• Blackberries prefer neutral or slightly acidic soil, with a pH of 7.0 or below. A soil’s pH can be easily determined with an inexpensive test kit available at most garden centers.
• If the soil is alkaline, above 7.0 on the pH scale, common sulfur, ferrous sulfate, or aluminum sulfate can be used to raise the acidity.

However, regularly applied organic soil amendments, such as manure and compost, will lower the pH over time. If the soil is too acidic, ground limestone will raise the pH.

The easiest way to cultivate trailing varieties is to use a trellis. Upright varieties benefit from support as well. Set plants 3-6.5 Feet (1 to 2 meters) apart with a 1,5-2 feet / 1½- meter trellis or post next to each plant.

For upright varieties, run a wire along the top of the posts and train the branches along the wire. Bare-root plants will take 2 to 4 weeks for the roots to become established.

Pruning Blackberries

While the roots of blackberries are perennial, the canes are biennial, appearing and growing one year, flowering and bearing fruit the next. Only 1-year-old canes should be trained on the trellis or wire. All the canes that fruited the previous season should be pruned back to the crown of the plant.

Prune canes of the current season growing on the trellis to 1 to 2½ meters. Thin out all but 12 to 16 sturdy canes. These canes will produce side branches, called laterals, during the remainder of the growing season. Cut the side branches back to 12 inches (30 centimeters), or about 12 buds, in the early spring. With new spring growth, small branches will grow from the side branches. These will be the branches that bear fruit.

Deadwooding

The canes that produced fruit this year will all die once the fruiting season is finished. By that time, the hedge has filled up with new canes, and your row has been completely regenerated. Then comes the “dead wooding” part of the pruning process. We cut the old wood that has just stopped producing fruit at the ground using pruners, remove it out of the row, and carry it to the fire pile. For disease management, it is suggested that this deadwood be burned.

Care of Blackberry Plants

Covering the soil around the crown of the plants with a rich, organic mulch will help keep the plants free of diseases and pests and help control weeds. Blackberries can quickly become invasive if left unattended. Remove suckers whenever they appear.

Plants should be fertilized with a commercial fertilizer several times each year. In the coldest areas, plants should be fed when the plant blossoms. In warmer regions, the plants will do better with periodic feeding. Feed once when new growth begins, again in mid-spring and a third time in the middle of the summer.

Common Blackberry Pests and Diseases

Red-berry mites, spider mites, and whitefly are sometimes a problem with blackberry plants. To control mites, apply a dormant spray containing lime sulfur in winter and again as buds are about to bloom.

Plants started from the bare root can be expected to produce fruit the third year after planting. While the canes bloom biennially, by properly pruning older canes each season, plants will produce a bountiful harvest each year.

Image credit: piedmontmastergardeners.org