The weather forecast for early next week looks like we may be headed into subzero Fahrenheit territory for a morning low. Has anyone had success with burlap or frost blankets to prevent floricanes from dying back to the ground when it gets this cold? I have Arapaho, Navaho, Sweetie Pie, Osage, Ouachita, Caddo (grew from root cutting, 3in tall “canes”) and Triple Crown varieties planted in the ground. I figure Triple Crown should be okay since it is more cold hardy than the other varieties and I may simply be able to cover Caddo with some additional mulch to protect it.
trailing blacks can be protected with a tarp covered with a heavy fleece blanket, but erect/ semi erect can’t be layed down easily. maybe you could sandwich them between 2 bales of hay tied together? might take alot of hay depending on how many black berries you have.
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Hmm…so I would need to tie all the canes and laterals together and within the width (18in) and max height (3ft) of a hay bale and prune off what won’t fit in-between the hay bales? I was hoping a thick blanket or multiple blanket layers would work. There’s also the option to build a hay fort, I suppose. Ha.
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My thornless boysens and logans shocked me last winter. Their canes were fine unprotected in -10F and gave me lots of fruit the following summer.
Consider leaving 1 or 2 canes unprotected to determine if covering them is even necessary for you location.
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I’m going to give this product a try. It’s the heaviest weight material I could find online last night in the size needed.
I am sure the hay bale solution would have worked but I don’t want to cut my canes down to fit and although very cool, a hay bale fort is cost prohibitive.
If this approach is not successful, I like the idea of planting trailing varieties exclusively. Higher potential yields, easier to manage and I already have a few plants on-hand from last year to get started.
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Would you be able to put some wire around them and stuff it with leaves like you can for young trees?
I have plenty of 4ft wide chicken wire but don’t have many leaves left. I suppose loose straw could work too.
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Wyoming has been proven with hay bale sandwiches.
Others have had success with burlap, also some with simple frost blankets.
While some have had success with wilt stop
At my location the longer unpruned canes have the ‘least’ winter damage as its only a foot or two of cane that i would prune anyways in late winter. However shorter already pruned canes also have tip damage which would result in lower yields and more usable loss.
Frost blankets are available at Lowes, Menards, HD…etc usually.
“In general, where the overall
care and health of the plants was not as
high, there was more winter cane damage.
This should be noted since good planting
management has many benefits, including
potentially higher winter hardiness level.”
‘there are no cold hardy thornless cultivars that produce consistently under a New England or Midwest winter condition.’
I expect to have an off year myself on alot of things… will be interesting to see what makes it through.
I think Ebony King and Illini Hardy will both be fine… however those pesky thorns.
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This might work if I wrap it around the bush a couple times, tie the top off and bury the bottom with extra mulch. Would be a cleaner solution. Just need to keep the plants above the danger zone of approx. +5F.
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With some help this past weekend, I tied up the blackberry bushes, wrapped each with a frost blanket, tied the top closed and mounded mulch at the bottom to cover the frost blanket edge near the ground. Hopefully this works. 
Edit: Adding the Gumby family portrait.
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After this winter about 60% of my Triple Crowns died back to ground
Thankfully all my plants survived and are flowering on the floricanes. Without winter protection I may have not been as fortunate. Temperatures came very close to 1F a couple times during the winter.
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I have Triple Crown and Natchez blackberries in Southern Illinois. In winter we see sub zero temps and mine have survived 4 winters now with no protection other than mulch around the base.
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all my colombia stars and giants survived under the snow last winter despite us getting some -27 temps and low snow totals. the heavy fleece blankets did the trick. looking forward to trying the stars for the 1st time. chester and t.c died to the snowline as well as my reliance peach.
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