Yeah, I know about TyTy’s shady dealings, I made that comment mostly in jest. Maybe some folks have been satisfied with them, but I probably wouldn’t order anything from them.
I’ve got all my blackberries (except Triple Crown) from Indiana Berry, and they’re all doing well. TC is my favorite taste wise over all my UArk varieties, and also pretty productive. Ponca is supposed to the best of the latest UArk berries, but we’ll see. I planted two of them last year, doubtful I’ll get anything from them this year.
I have Kiowa and Rosborough that I planted a year and a half ago. The kiowas are going to be loaded with berries this year. Flowers on a couple of the plants started opening this week. My Rosborough’s took a hit this winter with many of the laterals lost? We had only a few nights that saw upper 20’s. Rosborough is very vigorous but maybe not too cold hardy? Hopefully I can comment on flavor in a few months.
I found an old site that talks about how to plant root cuttings… they were in business for over 45 years.
Enoch’s Berry Farm has propagated and sold blackberry plants since the late 70’s. Cheyenne was our first blackberry for U-Pick in 1978. We have been a licensed propagator of the University of Arkansas Blackberries since the first patented varieties were introduced in 1985.
Site shows pics of root cutting bundles…royalty fees and how to plant them.
@krismoriah - and others that might want to know what it looks like harvesting roots (for cuttings to root) from mature established blackberry plants.
I have a Row of Illini Hardy blackberries… it originally had 8 crowns in it, and I planted those near 20 years ago… 5-6 years ago one of those crowns in the middle died, the rest have continued to thrive.
I started a row of Ouachitaw a few years back and I replaced that one crown in the middle of my Illini Hardy patch with a Ouachitaw plant. It is obvious which is which… the Illini have some SERIOUS thorns, and the Ouachitaw are thorn free.
On those 7 Illini Crowns… each one has 2-3-4 canes up now… and some of those canes are BIG and STOUT, 3/4 inch thick at the base… and what I did this morning is collect one root from each of those larger stout canes.
I took a few pics while doing this, so you can see what that looks like, and the type of roots I ended up with.
I kept a couple roots and partially filled a 2 gal bucket with a mix of garden dirt and compost compost… and used some old sticks to sort of coil them around at that depth.
Looks like a good plan 2-3 inches under soil seems to be the happy place.
If my math is correct… you should probably separate out the babies in around June… then repot each one… and baby them until Fall… then its your choice to plant them in the fall or wait til spring. I have been told that 80 percent of root growth occurs in the Fall…so thats usually when i plant.
Yes its possible. Ive seen 4 on an 8 inch cutting but there is no exact science to what each root does as far as i can tell.
I know some varieties wont hardly root from cuttings… as they tend not to sucker…but i forget which ones. You said yours never sucker… it could be your variety that doesnt root well from root cuttings.
I need to experiment with another variety root and cut into smaller pieces say 2 inch, 3 inch, 4 inch… and see if there is any ‘sweet spot’ as far as what works and what doesnt.
edit- i remember reading someone saying that Illini was ‘invasive’… so not sure where i read that.
Note that in the instructions above I stated to get roots 8 to 12 inches long. With varieties that don’t bud very often, the longer roots are more likely to give viable plants.
What I’ve done with new blackberry plants is after planting, is cut the cane stub down to soil level, even if there are some green shoots on the cane. This, and this is what I’ve read, is that pruning down to the ground induces new cane growth from under the soil.
@hambone I have not done that myself… it may be recommended… but I never noticed those instructions… but admit I don’t always read the instructions.
I started illini 20 years ago… and ouachitaw 3 years ago and I just planted them and let them grow… those little short stubs of canes that came with them… on my Ouachita actually set some blooms and small amount of fruit the first year… and they sent up some very vigorous primocanes that first year too.
If it hurt them any to do that… I sure could not tell.
Its up to you. You will be whacking that off at the end of this year anyways. Its a floricane stem. I like to leave a ‘handle’ on my bare root plantings… so makes no real difference either way.
