I saw something that claimed you get 10-20 pounds of blackberries per plant. Do any of you actually get that? How many canes is that for a plant, if you do? I’m thinking you don’t get ten pounds per cane, so how many canes would it be to get ten pounds?
I’ve never seen that many blackberries on a plant before, only wild blackberries in the woods.
This year our plants were massive in growth and production (5 years old) mine do not all ripen well enough but the harvest was impressive, maybe 10+lbs per plant. They definitely would like irrigation and fertigation +long sunny summers if you want to get max production.
How many canes are a plant for this amount? I saw farms with those diagonal trellises rca, shift, etc. And they didn’t look like they would hold that much. Otoh, in person it might look much different.
Also curious how many pints or gallons that is for you.
There are striking differences in plant vigor and production among cultivars.
Plants should have no more than five or so canes. Yes some will produce a lot but you should limit amount by pruning canes and laterals to produce larger berries but less berries. A plant can only produce so much sugar do you want it in 200 berries or spread out to five hundred? Which would be small and tart. Managing the canes is very important. Remove smaller canes, head cut from 4 to six feet and limit laterals to12 to 
24 inches. Read up on these pruning techniques. Look at university guides to growing berries.
Exact pruning length varies to what each plant cultivar can handle well. Also what works in space allotted for plant.
Lee Reich’s book on pruning is a good reference for all edible plants.
Documented yields in various field trials of erect Arkansas varieties in the southeast are in the 15K-20K pounds per acre range. More pounds with semi-erect or trailing varieties like Triple Crown
A typical spacing of 3X12 on erect varieties would require about 1200 plants/acre and put the yield per plant around 16 pounds.
Semi-erect or trailing varieties are often spaced about 4 feet apart so yields per plant could be higher- closer to 20 pounds per plant.
I understand the yields per acre in the PNW are normally higher with the varieties suited to their area.
The import measure is the yield per foot of row, not the yield per cane. Most of our plants have 6 or 7 canes per plant.
How many gallons of berries is that? That sounds like a lot. Does 3x12 mean 3’ apart for plants, 12’ between rows?
yes 3X12 is 3 feet between plants and 12 feet between the rows.
A gallon of blackberries weighs about 5 pounds so 15K pounds would be around 3000 gallons per acre.
Several of the varieties in the publication below produce yields around 20K pounds/acre
About 5 pounds per gallon for blackberries.
For a home gardener, the pounds per row-foot mentioned above is most useful.
For a commercial grower, pounds/tons per acre is the standard.
Forum members often ask about caneberry yields without mentioning how many berries they can use; that is the critical amount for offering the best advice.
I am always curious about that. How many out of 15 pounds berries would actually be sellable or useable?
The yield trials often separate total yield from harvestable yield.
The differences between the two vary among varieties and also vary from year to year.
Picking more frequently can improve the amount of harvestable (useable) fruit.
I would guess about 75% of the total yield is useable.
I would also guess that about 75% of the yield from my Peach trees and Apple trees is useable.
Probably closer to 90% on my Blueberries.
Here is an old publication that shows total and harvestable yield on Blackberries
I would plan on about 10 pounds of useable Blackberries per plant or about 2 gallons.
About 1962, I was picking blackberries, variety unknown to me, for a local farmer.
The method was to place the berries in a ~3-gallon metal bucket that hung from a belt clip.
Two empty buckets were taken from row’s end, and when full, taken back to the end.
A slightly heaped bucket would then fill a 12-hallock wooden crate that held about 12 pounds of berries.
One time, I was able to fill both buckets at one standing place, not moving either foot.
So that was 24 pounds of berries in about 5 feet of row.
One bucket could be filled like that on occasion, but that was the only time for two full buckets.
We were paid 5 cents a pound.
If you want the highest yields you can grow Chester and give it about 10 foot or so spacing and not do much if any pruning. That can get you over 60lbs per plant. I have seen pictures of canes trained up to 10 feet high on wires and draped down for the highest yield and spacing was about 10 feet per plant.
However the USDA has possibly solved the issue with Chester as it is not a very tasty berry.
Celestial will have more vigor and possibly higher yields than Chester… claiming to be even more vigorous than Triple Crown. And of importance will be a much higher quality berry than either. This berry is also heat tolerant which has been an issue with some previous releases.
It should show up in nurseries this year.
Also to note on a ‘per plant’ basis… that Prime Ark Horizon could and should surpass the 20-30lbs per plant due to its ability to fruit on primocane and floricanes and both crops having the highest yield of primocane fruiting plants.
In Oregon trials, 8-year-old Triple Crown plants yielded an impressive 30 pounds or more of berries per plant.
https://www.ars.usda.gov/research/publications/publication/?seqNo115=89162
Authored by John Clark, Chad Finn etc.
I’ve got a few different varieties, but none produce as many blooms as my Snowbank white blackberry. Easily twice the fruit as my other varieties, BUT quite small and after getting poked a dozen times per branch it is hardly worth it.
But total from my 15 other thornless blackberries (3-4 canes each) I definitely don’t walk away with 150lbs. I’m only guessing but probably closer to 100lbs. However, I have a mostly hands-off approach of only fertilizing them once in the winter and foliar spray them once or twice in the early summer (as well as neem oil treatments), and never water them unless there was no rain for several weeks. So I am sure with more TLC there is an opportunity for more production.
Those are some big numbers! Record breaking fruit yields from the PNW seem to be common.
Wish I could get yields like that!
Over 50K pounds of Apples or over 20K pounds of Blueberries per acre too.
I also saw a yield trial where York Elderberries produced over 12 pounds per plant which was about 3X the average for most parts of the country.
I limit down to 3 canes for better flavor. Around 7 pounds is normal here. Of course critters get their cut first.