Whats the average life span of triple crown blackberry plant before they need be dug up and replaced?
I haven’t had one age out yet, but if you were to dig an old one out you wouldn’t need to replace it because it’ll regrow from thick pieces of severed roots.
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Given so many readily thicket. It should not be a worry. I want to place some Rubus procerus among my Allegheny and Southern Hignbush Blackberry.
I keep my wilds well away from my domesticated though.
When we moved here the place came with a hideous ugly rose trellis structure. I might accidentally-on purpose plant black berries on that thing.
I believe the lifespan of any individual cane is 2 years before it dies off but as others have mentioned the new growth will root and sucker so readily that they will form dense thickets if you leave them to their own devices
Over the past 27 years, I have had Triple Crown continuously from the original plantings without buying new plants. One of the current clumps is easily 10 years old. These readily tip-root in October anytime the main cane or its laterals meet an obstruction on the ground that has adjacent bare soil. This is for zone 8b, they may not be so weedy or long-lived in zone 6b.
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Not TC… but I planted 7 crowns of illini blackberry in 2002.
Still have 6 of those original crowns producing nice canes and berries each year.
The one that died… I replaced it with a Ouachita… and it is by far the weakest cane in the patch.
Our Quachita is not much larger then our dwarf Babycakes Blackberry. A real disappointment. Even in delivering berries; Babycakes beats it.
All in all our Navaho is our best domestic blackberry. Arapaho is good too.
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The clump that is 10 yrs old, is it still like it was young or has it slowed down? Not as many canes as when young? Canes smaller?
…it does not put out as many canes per year as when young, but the recent canes are vigorous and productive. Fine for the home gardener. Perhaps too much of a reduced cane count for commercial.
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Try giving it some good fertile compost. It might just be running out of nutrients in the soil
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Like Larry said, Triple Crown just keeps going like the energizer bunny. They tip root so easily, the bigger problem is keeping them contained, not worrying if they will fizzle out.
Our issue with Triple Crown is orange rust. We’ve found them pretty susc. to orange rust. If you don’t have an issue with orange rust, I can’t imagine them ever reaching an end of life span. They renew themselves continuously. Even more than a wild thorny blackberry patch.
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