Keep us updated on progress. My Darrow too was slow to establish. I don’t mind the thorns, understand why some would. They cut me 10-15 times a year. My dog scratches me just as much, I’m keeping him too 
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from my experiences seems most cane fruit don’t do much the 1st season but then take off the next.at least up here its like that. blackberries esp. so. maybe warmer zones a different story. even my PAF were slow to get going. if you want some of them also i have plenty of shoots to spare and have to thin them anyway.
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the weather’s getting warmer, so my container PAFs require quite a bit of water to keep the most tender branches from wilting.
tipped a primocane at 20" earlier this year, and the laterals have shot out to about 14-15". will tip those as well, to about 12-13".
once the primocanes reach 40" in height, i’ll tip them again. my PAFs are in containers, which are 1.5 to almost 2 feet in height. if the overall height (container + plant) gets above 7 feet tall, I’ll probably have an accident as i reach for the highest berries.
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for those growing blackberries, at what cane heights and lateral lengths do you tip?
do you make measurements with a ruler or merely eyeball the heights & lengths?
would be great to learn your various practices, preeze & tenkyu.
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Let me preface what I’m going to say with the statement “I am still learning—and sometimes the hard way!” The canes get very tall very quick and they break with berry weight. I’ve been trying to tip mine at about chest/shoulder height and I’m 5-8. That may still be too high. I have found that if you just take the tip then the “laterals” tend to go straight up and you haven’t accomplished anything. So I’ve been letting them get a little taller and “top” them (take 4-6 inches off) rather than “tip” them if that makes sense. Seems like the laterals tend to be more lateral and stronger in that case. Professional advice says to tip the laterals at 18 to 24 inches. If they are going straight up I hit them again pretty quick but I may let one get pretty long if it is really going lateral and finding support on my trellis. This year I’m leaving some of the laterals untipped because they already have blooms on the end. It looks like my primos are going to be early this year. I usually have ripe primo berries around July 4th. Every year I say I’m going to prune them shorter…you have to really stay attentive to enforce that.
Katy
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I’ve read that in warmer zones to tip at 30in and cut back laterals at 5ft. up here if i tip at all, it will delay fruiting and i won’t get a crop at all. i have my PAFs in a high tunnel and will only tip if they top out in the tunnel.
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In my ideal world I would like a large early floricane crop around the first of May and a large primacane crop around mid September. Not there yet.
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I think I still should cut mine lower but there is no way you can let the laterals go to five feet because they go up mostly. Not laterally. These are all laterals after having been tipped
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thanks, k8, moose, and aubz. yup, i’ve noticed the laterals go up to form a Y off the main cane, approximately around the 10 o’clock and 2 o’clock positions.
from what i’ve read, the tipping/topping can multiply fruit yield 3-fold to 5-fold, at which point the blackberries should fall from the sky the way they do for you, k8. 
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This is my first year growing PAFs. I planted them in February, and have been harvesting berries for a few weeks. The Primo canes are growing well, and I have been cutting them back, taking off at least 6 inches. I will also tip the laterals, but my question is this,. When should I stop tipping to allow them time to grow and fruit? I have no idea when the Primo harvest is in my area. Zone 8a, west central Ga. Anyone growing them in my area?
TFN
I’m in 8a in Texas. Usually the PAF primocanes would start producing in early July for me with just my regular tipping. They would continue to produce in scraggly amounts until November or until freeze stopped them. This year my floricanes are just beginning to turn and I have blooms popping out on primocanes so the primos may be a bit earlier. I think it’s probably about 8-10 weeks from bloom to ripe. I have, in the past pinched them continually just to get them to produce later. I guess it’s whatever you want to do. I really don’t have the consistency or stubbornness in my labors to figure out exactly what to do with them. Basically I’m just trying to keep them low enough not to break with the weight of the berries. 
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I’m in zone 8 northeast Texas. How do you get your PAF to bloom on the primocanes? I’ve tipped mine to get laterals but stopped tipping early July so I can hopefully get a fall crop. When should it start creating buds and blooms? I see no signs of it.
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After you tip them they have to grow new laterals to form buds and blooms. It will take a while. It depends on the weather and how vigorous the growth is. They only fruit on the tips. Stop tipping at least a month before you want them to bloom. Those that you’ve tipped will grow more laterals and that will make next springs floricane crop much better.
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Thanks
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Should I give them more fertilizer? I fertilized them in early spring right before they came back from being dormant, before the primocanes began growing. And what fertilizer should I use to promote blossoms and fruit? My nursery said to use bone meal, which I’ve never used before. I used organic fish emulsion in once and spray with Spray and Gro every 2 to 3 weeks.
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additional lessons from experience: i thought pruning PAF tips with developing buds would result in lateral formation, thereby delaying budding and eventual fruiting; the trade-off would be a larger harvest of primocane berries, just later in the season, as well as a greater floricane crop the next year.
but once i removed the budding tops a couple months ago, no laterals grew, and no other buds grew. it’s as though the cane, once committed to reproduction (flowering, fruiting, seed formation), isn’t going to expend further energy on vegetative growth. (anthropomorphic description: “you messed with my sexy time, now i’z gonna sulk.”)
in the future, i will continue to top my primocanes, as long as they haven’t formed buds. once they do form buds, i’ll leave them alone, even if they weren’t ideally topped beforehand.
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Hi,
Good information here! I planted PAF last spring. Wasn’t expecting many berries in the first year but ended up with a decent amount. Not enough to make a pie but a few berries a day for a solid month. I have no idea what to expect now with the floricanes in the Spring. Where will the berries emerge? I’d like to trim back the primocane tips now that they are done. But I don’t want to cut away anything that should produce more berries when they become floricanes. Also, is it okay to trim/prune in the fall or should I wait until spring? Thanks
Those primocanes will become your spring bearing floricanes so only trim back dead areas if you want the full effect of floricane berries. They will not grow any longer than they are now. You will need to cut the floricanes back after they bear next spring and I oven do that in the summer. I only cut back dead stuff in the fall/winter.
Okay thanks! Very helpful.
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