I was unfortunately out of town during the heat wave I was expecting to come back to over ripe or no berries but instead came back to berries on the verge that will not turn. It happened to me last year a well. Heat wave rolled in and my in mature blackberries just stop developing. The berries did not die for a month or so later the just perpetually stayed in the I am going to start ripening soon stage.
Anyone else experiencing that? Im sure its heat wave related. I was thinking about over watering them to see if they are doubt stressed but we had a few big downpoors and next year growth is looking lush.
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I have a blueberry bush that will go dormant in fall before the berries turn blue.
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I’d think for blackberries it wouldn’t be the heat but lack of water? Did it rain while you were gone?
If I let my bushes go dry while they are trying to size and ripen fruit, the fruit size suffers and everything allows down. It’s obvious on my bushes.
Blackberry plants are as close to weeds in the gulf south at least…they are hard to kill. They just are a very tasty weed.
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Hard to know if the predicted rain happened but nothing looks to stressed when I got back. Then when we got back we got a lot of rain before the next round of oven temps.
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Blackberries are native to hot and humid areas of the US…I can see the berries themselves suffering from lack of water but I don’t think hot temps would be an issue.
Unless there are non-heat tolerant varieties…
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These are native blackberries in their native region. These short intense heatwaves are nothing they were ever exposed to. Also there in full sun unlike there wild populations that would likely be in dappled shade of the edge of the forrest.
@lordkiwi
You can look at a personal weather station near you and see how much rainfall they received whe you were gone. At least if you find there was little or no rain it might indicate that was an issue.
Look on Wunderground.
Move and zoom to your location and select a station near you. When the station data gets pulled up you can scroll down and find a place to change the dates of the data displayed in either graphical or tabular format.
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.58" one week 1.16" the next.
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Got to be something other than heat wave. I’m originally from west Tn where your heat waves would be a cool spell! The native blackberries there only get sweeter as the summer drought comes. Are you close to a neighbor that uses herbicides? Or maybe a soil test could tell more.
Here where I live in Kent, Wa we have not had rain for over 45 days and I never water my thornless berries but they are super sweet!
Hope you can figure it out! Maybe check other members in your region to see if theirs are ok.
Dennis
Kent, wa
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The berries burn here in our heat and low humidity. The only nice big berries are down in almost full shade. They’d do better here with shade cloth of at least 50%. When I look at berries from humid locations the upper ones look like my shaded ones.
So I’d say it’s not heat per say, rather a dry heat and intense sun. It cooks the upper side of the berries. And that’s well watered.
Mine seem to suffer on size when it’s dry, but my location and soil is not the same as elsewhere.
I still, however, have a really hard time waiting until they are fully plump and ripe to pick them. They are good before then, but when I wait they are huge sweet explosions…the birds have it figured out better than I do.
