If I’m not feeling better by spring to dig you a few @39thparallel and others like @krismoriah have them. @krismoriah will have extras by then I think but im not sure he will part with them! There are lots of people who grow them. Unlike any other berry you’ve seen they are productive.
3 Likes
@clarkinks as long as you are ok with it i can start a batch here as a backup for them if you like. I have been slowly but surely collecting heirlooms and other hard to find varieties as my own personal repository.
1 Like
They are their own plant nothing I’ve grown did I ever patent. My apples and every thing else can be freely propagated by anyone. I want you to grow them and share them with whoever wants them. One thing slows down progress is greed. Every new plant it seems is trademarked and patented so they van make money. A patent i can understand but tm i dont understand. My grandpa gave the blackberries to me I do the same. Sure you might need to charge someone a few bucks for digging and potting them but that’s labor @krismoriah. I’m sure if you have a couple acres like I do of blackberries you might not mind someone digging some up.
5 Likes
@clarkinks i sure will. Times have changed and most of the thorny varieties are gone from the market. The thornless with the big berries have took over the market of what people want to cultivate. For some reason people are ok with thorny raspberries but when it comes to blackberries people dont like them.
2 Likes
Yes if you lived in a forest of hungry starving mountain lions with those berries as the perimeter between you and them your as safe in there as if you were at home in bed. The taste is better than other berries as a bonus.
2 Likes
On average, blackberries are much better than most other plants at extracting nutrients from poor soil. I’ve got a sample of a blackberry that was growing in shale rock talus at the side of a cliff with literally no soil at all except the crumbled rocks. The blackberry roots were actively digesting the shale. I’ve also seen huge thickets of blackberries growing on old strip mines.
4 Likes
These plants that grow in marginal areas are undervalued. To solve the world’s hunger problems isn’t hard and it’s not gmo’s in my opinion. The problem is they can’t make any money that way. I give away my stuff no patent no problems. People need paid for their labor but we also need to make the world a better place.
3 Likes
I planted 200 apache blackberry root cuttings last week, blackberries are borderline hardy for my zone, 4a, also with our short growing season I need something that ripens early. A friend told he he has apache and they do ok so I figured Id give them a try… I planted some last year but we had a wicked drought and only a few survived, so far this spring has been fairly moist so hopefully that trend continues.
1 Like
It takes time but my grandpa’s berries could adapt to zone 4. First adapt them to zone 5. They were originally from zone 7. They are smart berries they propagate through seed and roots and stay evergreen for much of the winter. I’ve got 5 or 6 strains now. Kansas has some growing challenges and they live fine here. They adapt quickly just like a callery pear. The thing to adapt them would be plant a thousand or so seeds only 3 or 4 would make it. Then do it again and they would thrive there.
1 Like
That medicine taste some blackberries have more than others is a bit like aspirin here is why "Salicylic acid is a substance within foods that is also the basic form of aspirin, or acetylsalicylic acid. Salicylic acid appears to have a role in lowering inflammation and possibly reducing the risk of some cancers. A 2001 study in the “Journal Epidemiology” found a lower risk of colorectal cancer in those using anti-inflammatory drugs including aspirin. " Fruits That Contain Salicylic Acid | Our Everyday Life
1 Like
Here’s some recent pics of my blackberry crop…
I’m not sure what variety this is, but you can see it’s a pretty large fruit…only problem is, they’re not very sweet. I’ll give them one more season and then if they don’t improve I’m pulling them out…life is too short to waste time growing lousy fruit…
These other bushes are the sweetie pie variety…Much smaller fruit, but they pack that nice sweet blackberry flavor I like…Figure I should get 1 to 2 gallons…the strange thing is the birds don’t seem to be as interested in these as they are in the larger fruit from the other bushes…go figure.
5 Likes
Congratulations those look really good to me. We are a month away from any berries. Florida has its advantages!
It does indeed…I made my first blackberry cobbler from them the other day…came out pretty good…
2 Likes
I grew up eating wild blackberries and I don’t care for store bought. I don’t care for the wild blackberries I’ve tasted here in Virginia. Is anyone on the east side of the continent growing Clark’s blackberries?
1 Like
Kiowa blackberries pictured below. I can pick a gallon pail of them in 5-10 minutes at peak production. You have to let them hang until they lose their ‘glossiness’ to get maximum sweetness. Thorny as all get-out, but well worth it, to me, for the productivity.
7 Likes
I am.
Do not try to put them in a row.
I got mine in the ground in April… and they have exploded. I will not be able to contain them.
Im guessing with 5 plants i have 500 feet of canes within 15 feet. They are spreading underground as well. I suspect they will invade my other rows.
I am making plant markers for them.
6 Likes
They will get more aggressive quickly. You will have all the blackberries you want. Put them far away from everything else. Remember they are named “health berries” because they are the healthiest berries in the patch. My goal is to grow plants that dont need me that adapt. That means 100% spray free berries.
3 Likes
Claymores vs blackberries. I dream of using them against squirrels.
4 Likes
If this was Africa and Lions were everywhere, i would sleep like a baby on the other side of the healthberries. In africa, they use thorny bushes planted all around their homes like these to protect cattle and themselves from predators. They make a great fence!
3 Likes