My PAF blackberries just start to produce a primocane crop of huge, tasty berries when frost catches them. I cover them well in winter, so some of the canes survive; at least they have for the past two mild winters. Does cutting all the canes at ground level in the fall versus just shortening them to about 4’ tall and bending them to the ground affect when the primocane berries get ripe, or does that only determine whether there will be a floricane crop? The primocane crop seems like a much better crop than the floricane one, so I would like to find a way to speed it up a bit. Maybe a small hoop affair over them?
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I don’t have PAF although noticed once established many blackberries fruited earlier, maybe you’ll catch a break? They should be fairly mature now.
Two years ago my raspberry primocanes came out poorly, so I decided to cut them all down and forgo a summer crop. I noticed that they seemed to fruit later this fall, and size was not great either. So keeping floricanes previous years if anything stimulated primocane growth. Maybe because energy from the floricane leaves was transferred to the primocanes? The plant in general could use photosynthesis early in the year. i don’t see how liming the plant’s ability to make sugar would help with growth? Just the opposite I would think, and concur with my observations. I will limit canes I overwinter, but will not eliminate them again.
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Drew, that’s very interesting. If the canes were already doing poorly, do you suppose there were other factors?
Yes very possible. It was super dry, and we had another dry year too. I think they needed more water, but could be wrong. I didn’t see any difference at least. I was trying to renew them, I feel it didn’t work.
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i have a patch of PAF i planted 3 yrs ago and I’m in the same zone as you and I’ve yet to get 1 ripe berry from them. was going to rip them out but they are so vigorous so I’m going to try the high tunnel over them to keep them growing into oct. hopefully then they will have time to ripen. usually i let them freeze off at the snowline but this fall i layed them down and covered w straw and burlap. hopefully get a florocane crop next summer. let me know how yours turns out.
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I have done this and it works, good luck! I think in your location it might be work trying the eastern blackberries that are hardy like Nelson, and Darrow. I will get berries from Darrow this year, let you know. Looking for Nelson. Not to buy to trade, I don’t need three of them. I know where I can buy them, just don’t feel like dishing out the bucks for something I may discard in the future.
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i have a couple darrow i planted last spring too. were slow to establish. i saw the nelsons at fedco but i too don’t want to spend the money. from what I’ve heard the berry size is similar to the canadian (smooth) blackberries i gave you but the nelsons are very thorny. I’m just going to grow a bed of the canadiain blackberries . less thorns my zone hardy and the color of the canes makes them almost ornamental. flavor and production is very good also. my 5 baby cakes dwarf blackberries should produce 2 crops for me next year also. if i get some shoots , ill send you a few to try. supposedly only get 4ft. tall so won’t take much space.
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i also got some rooted blackberry cuttings from a lady in z 4 vermont. she said the berries are decent size, taste good but are thorny as hell! going to plant these on a buddies back 40 where no one will come in contact with them and i can pick anytime i want.
Keep us updated on progress. My Darrow too was slow to establish. I don’t mind the thorns, understand why some would. They cut me 10-15 times a year. My dog scratches me just as much, I’m keeping him too 
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from my experiences seems most cane fruit don’t do much the 1st season but then take off the next.at least up here its like that. blackberries esp. so. maybe warmer zones a different story. even my PAF were slow to get going. if you want some of them also i have plenty of shoots to spare and have to thin them anyway.
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the weather’s getting warmer, so my container PAFs require quite a bit of water to keep the most tender branches from wilting.
tipped a primocane at 20" earlier this year, and the laterals have shot out to about 14-15". will tip those as well, to about 12-13".
once the primocanes reach 40" in height, i’ll tip them again. my PAFs are in containers, which are 1.5 to almost 2 feet in height. if the overall height (container + plant) gets above 7 feet tall, I’ll probably have an accident as i reach for the highest berries.
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for those growing blackberries, at what cane heights and lateral lengths do you tip?
do you make measurements with a ruler or merely eyeball the heights & lengths?
would be great to learn your various practices, preeze & tenkyu.
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Let me preface what I’m going to say with the statement “I am still learning—and sometimes the hard way!” The canes get very tall very quick and they break with berry weight. I’ve been trying to tip mine at about chest/shoulder height and I’m 5-8. That may still be too high. I have found that if you just take the tip then the “laterals” tend to go straight up and you haven’t accomplished anything. So I’ve been letting them get a little taller and “top” them (take 4-6 inches off) rather than “tip” them if that makes sense. Seems like the laterals tend to be more lateral and stronger in that case. Professional advice says to tip the laterals at 18 to 24 inches. If they are going straight up I hit them again pretty quick but I may let one get pretty long if it is really going lateral and finding support on my trellis. This year I’m leaving some of the laterals untipped because they already have blooms on the end. It looks like my primos are going to be early this year. I usually have ripe primo berries around July 4th. Every year I say I’m going to prune them shorter…you have to really stay attentive to enforce that.
Katy
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I’ve read that in warmer zones to tip at 30in and cut back laterals at 5ft. up here if i tip at all, it will delay fruiting and i won’t get a crop at all. i have my PAFs in a high tunnel and will only tip if they top out in the tunnel.
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In my ideal world I would like a large early floricane crop around the first of May and a large primacane crop around mid September. Not there yet.
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I think I still should cut mine lower but there is no way you can let the laterals go to five feet because they go up mostly. Not laterally. These are all laterals after having been tipped
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thanks, k8, moose, and aubz. yup, i’ve noticed the laterals go up to form a Y off the main cane, approximately around the 10 o’clock and 2 o’clock positions.
from what i’ve read, the tipping/topping can multiply fruit yield 3-fold to 5-fold, at which point the blackberries should fall from the sky the way they do for you, k8. 
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This is my first year growing PAFs. I planted them in February, and have been harvesting berries for a few weeks. The Primo canes are growing well, and I have been cutting them back, taking off at least 6 inches. I will also tip the laterals, but my question is this,. When should I stop tipping to allow them time to grow and fruit? I have no idea when the Primo harvest is in my area. Zone 8a, west central Ga. Anyone growing them in my area?
TFN
I’m in 8a in Texas. Usually the PAF primocanes would start producing in early July for me with just my regular tipping. They would continue to produce in scraggly amounts until November or until freeze stopped them. This year my floricanes are just beginning to turn and I have blooms popping out on primocanes so the primos may be a bit earlier. I think it’s probably about 8-10 weeks from bloom to ripe. I have, in the past pinched them continually just to get them to produce later. I guess it’s whatever you want to do. I really don’t have the consistency or stubbornness in my labors to figure out exactly what to do with them. Basically I’m just trying to keep them low enough not to break with the weight of the berries. 
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