I’m on third year with a Triple Crown Blackberry plant. I’ve got a big harvest approaching that I’m super excited for. But, no new primocanes have appeared yet. Seems like last year I was in battle with the super fast growing primocanes by this point. Not sure if it will be late or none at all. I was thinking about throwing down some fertilizer to see if that would stimulate growth. Thoughts on this? In the spring I used Espoma Berry-tone and compost. Last year I used high a balanced chemical fertilizer. Is the organic stuff not enough?
Note: last year I accidentally let the tip of one of the canes root in the same exact location as its base. It just got out of hand and I didn’t see it until too late. I cut it off from the main cane and now it’s an independent plant in the exact same spot. Now two baby canes are coming up but they are so small that I doubt they will produce much next year. Maybe this little plant is somehow blocking the older plant?
Patience maybe? Not sure where you are but here in the deep south my new canes didn’t start cranking until about half way through my harvest. Except for one single day at 3.46" of rain, I had gone 34 days without rain and I only watered the berries once.
What I mean to say is I’ve been neglecting mine and they still are sending up new canes.
It’s really, really hard to kill a blackberry bush.
Thanks @Shibumi. I’m in zone 7a so not harvesting yet. You have a good point about rain. We had no rain for a while May / June. Although I did water, it may have not been enough and so delayed the primocanes. Fingers crossed
You should have had primocanes appearing in March. If you have none by July you wont have a crop next year.
Post some pics in the Blackberry Raspberry and Hybrids thread and lets see whats going on.
Lets see pics of the base and how you manage the row etc if possible.
Could be Crown Gall.
Plants dont need fertilizer to stimulate primocane growth… a bare root cane will form primocanes in zero medium just from the stored energy from the roots.
