I only have a small area for my trellis and would like to know which pruning method would have the best berry results and less winter problems (I really don’t want to have the canes on the ground unless I have to). I have lots of new canes so I was wondering if I should let each cane get to 5’ to the top wire and tip it so it’s now like a erect plant this way I would have a plant ever 1’ along the trellis (Detail A below) or I could let the cane get as long as it can and loop it around the 2 wires (Detail B below) or I could merge the first two method together (Detail C below).
I have already tipped some of the Dorman Reds at 2’ to see what happens and now I have 4 laterals coming off those cane so I believe methods A & C below should work. I’m in Atlanta, GA zone 7b and the plants are on the south of my house.
Have you eaten dorman red and decided you like them? In zone 8 I would guess you won’t have much winter problem but here the vines will die from hot-cold cycles and drying winds if not left on the ground until spring. Before long a plant will put out many spindly vines that like to break when you try to work with them. If you dont allow year one growth to trail on the ground while year two growth is trellised, you will not enjoy the task of removing dead floricanes after harvest. One healthy plant can put out enough vines (not canes) to cover eight foot of trellis when placed in a fan shape. I don’t think you will ever get a dorman to grow in pattern A.If you tip a vine it just takes off from a bud to keep growing long like a trailing blackberry. I had a thornless logan which turned out to be a thorned logan and it too was a trailing type that wanted to grow multiple vines about 15 feet long regardless of tip pruning.Be prepared for a jungle with one foot spacing._
You should keep the 8 strongest canes per plant and head them at 5’ to encourage branching, some cultivars don’t branch till year 2. Remove the canes after they fruit there second year for the floricane Dorman Red’s
I have experience with thornless Logan and find they produce well all along the length of the cane (without forcing laterals), in my case 12 to 15 feet for a cane 3/8" diameter at the ground.
You can’t use a bend radius of less than one foot (this would be equal to a circle 2 feet in diameter) without risking kinking, so if your trellis horizontal wires are 2 feet apart, the Logans would run along one wire, semi-circle to the other wire, until growth stops in the autumn.
Detail B is too compressed, but you could roller-coaster them between wires also.
Thank you for the replies, the biggest problem is the space I have (not much), I think I will try a little of each and see the results next spring. I’ll try to roller-coaster 2 canes of each variety 1 from each end that way they can run towards each other at maybe 10’ each. The canes in the middle I will tip at 5’ and tip any lower laterals at 18" so far the dorman red that I tipped last month did shoot out 4 laterals so I hope the logan will do the same.
I don’t have any room to let them lay on the ground without the risk of bending or breaking the canes so I will leave them on the wires during the winter and try to figure a way to protect them from the wind at least.
I wanted to piggyback on this thread and see what kind of trellis pattern / material people use for trailing cane fruit. I have a few huge 3 year loganberries and am struggling to find something that works.
The canes don’t have any big thorns or notches so I couldn’t figure out a good way to attach the 2nd year canes to a wire so they don’t slide. I tried a mesh with 3" spacing about 2’ above the ground and it worked poorly - difficult to manipulate and bending required damaged the canes. What’s the best solution?
