Brook
What do you do with all those Blackberries?
We grew Black Satin a long time ago. If I remember correctly they were very tart, but made good jelly. They also produced a huge amount of fruit, much more than the Arkansas blackberry variety.
The semi erect variety like Black Satin work well on a simple two wire trellis without the trouble of the “T” .
Brook, I’m curious (nosy!) and would love to know what you do with 800 feet of blackberries? Do you have a “pick your own” operation or do you harvest yourself. If the latter, do you sell them at a fruit stand, farmers market, or wholesale? Sorry if I’m being too nosy, just curious about what others do. One of these days I’m likely to have a lot more fruit than I can use so I’m curious what others do with their bounty. thanks
No u pick. We market farm. Most of what we pick sells at the farmers market, but we also sell to restaurants, etc. We have 50 assorted fruit trees, currants, blueberries, grapes,elderberries, aronia, and gooseberries. Surprisingly, gooseberries are our best sellers. We also have around 3 acres of veggies. It’s just the wife and I, and we both have full time jobs. I do hope to retire tho in a couple years.
Black Satin was a gift from a friend and the first tame berry we planted. They are the easiest berry to take care of and one of the most reliable. They are tart, but if you use them in pies or jelly, I really don’t think that matters much.
I’m in the suburbs and don’t require a heavy duty system. I like having two wires on either side. I didn’t do a T-trellis, I used 2 poles for each line. I used 10 foot conduit steel poles sunk in 4 feet. 1/2 inch diamter. They make a super heavy duty pole that would hold tanks up in the air! I use the cheaper one and they run about 7 bucks a pole. I use regular grape trellis wire and heavy duty wire tighteners. The trellis runs 20 feet with no other support. The poles bend, but so what. Works great for me!
Brook
A few folks here sell what they grow, including myself. We no longer sell at farmer’s markets or wholesale, just off the farm 2 days a week, 5 hours each day. We try to serve as many people as possible in a short period of time and still maintain a relaxed atmosphere on the farm.
I understand the difficulty of balancing a full time job with the work involved growing and selling fruit and vegetables. I did it a long time until I got burned out and completely stopped growing anything for about 15 years.
Retirement and growing/selling fruit and vegetables is more enjoyable combination. Good luck with both!
Thanks to blueberrythrill for the link on trellis dedign and redsun for posting the topic. I just installed some V trellis using the design in the link
Trellis looks great! Just like the one I saw at the research station.
Just need to find a home for all those berries and make a big bank deposit!
39thparallel, this looks great. Much easier than the crossbars. Did you pour concrete around the end posts? Even the end post anchors are cheaper than the typical earth anchors.
Do you use the typical T-post (metal) for the mid posts? How long are the rows?
I used 8’ CCA and 8’ T post without concrete anchored by 5’ T Post. Brace wire is nine gage. The rest of the wire is high tensile 12 ½ gage. The rows are about 125’ long.
I just added some trailing thronless blackberries to my garden (Sweetie Pie) that are in addition to the 23 other erect growing blackberries I have planted (Osage, Ouchita, and Prime Ark Traveler). For the Sweetie Pies since they are a trailing variety I decided I needed a sturdier trellis than the T post and wire I had been using, so I have constructed it out of T-posts bridged by handy panels from Tractor Supply, which are 50 inch tall by 8 ft long welded wire panels with mostly 8x6 4GA wire square mesh. The T Posts are spaced about 7 feet apart and a slightly zig-zag line and the panels are wire clipped to the T posts making a repeating bowed S pattern with about 6 inches of overlap at each T-Post. This creates a surprising strong structure that does not tend to fall to the side like a staright line of panel would. The panels are also attached about 10-12 inches off the ground so I can mow or weed eat betweent the blackberries. This structure is strong enough that I can climb on it like a ladder with no need for additional tensioning or anchors. I have 5 panels and 4 trailing blackberry plants, one planted at each T post. My plan is th alternate the canes left one year, right the next weaving into the mesh squares. The panels only cost $12.50 each, and I think a bag of 50 t post wire clips is about $3. The T-Post I used were recycled, but new 6 ft T-Post only cost about $3.50 each. So I was able to build about 35 -37 feet of trellis for around $75. Best of all construction time was maybe an hour with one helper to hold the panels up while I twisted down the metal clip wires. Of course it will be a couple of years before I know how it really works.
Pictures please 
Where were you when I asked about growing blackberries on a cattle panel trellis?
Will do, I was out at it today I was going to take a photo when I realized my phone was in the truck.
Here are the photos
As you can see I got a bit ahead of myself on trellis building, but at least this keeps the teenager with the lawn mower away from the black berries
I just wonder if your cattle panel trellis is strong enough to support the trailing or semi trailing blackberry plants. Even the round metal posts are stronger than the typical T-posts.
Time will tell, I had my doubts about it, but it is solid enough that I can climb on it
Nice, simple system. Not sure how much climbing is required or how high Isaac went, the higher the rung climbed would add to instability that totally depends on post depth and soil type. Best stability here would be with each t-post placed two feet or more out of line, alternating, like accordian, and bend the wires to fit. That would increase the cross-row stability. I like the no-sag factor and the handy panels keep the posts vertical without guying.
There is no wood to rot so it should last a long time.
That’s similar to what I had in mind.
I bet you’ll be fine. I’m looking forward to updated pictures, especially in the coming years as you reach full load.
You can always add a few more T-posts if necessary. They are inexpensive and easily installed.
I envy what appears to be flat land. My Trellis is running down a hillside.
It is not particularly flat, just slow rolling hills, there is probably 60 -70 feet of elevation variation within 1/3 mile, the photo going down the row is looking uphill, the truck in the background is probably 6 or 7 feet higher than where I was standing when I took the photo. So enough slope for water to run off, but not so much that it causes much of a problem
Even though I didn’t plan on it, somehow I ended up with at least 6 raspberry plants this year… Thanks for sharing this document. I have a stash of 6’ t posts I plan on using for a V trellis system. We’ll see how it goes up against the west wall of the garage!
