Olpea,
If I get a patch that’s aggressive and the rows become solid canes I just run the mower down through there and cut new rows. I try to leave the newest growth and take out the oldest growth where I see the most brown old canes in that scenario. In winter as you know you can still tell what’s new growth and what isn’t…
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Boy, Clark I agree! My blackberry flowers are hugeeeeeeeeeee this year.
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Don’t want to derail the topic but my small patch of black raspberries has berries on it but they seem much smaller than last year, what did I do? Maybe need fertilizer?
Update: I just harvested a large bowl of Darrows from two year old plants and they were very good. For growers in the north wondering if they are worth growing, they are definitely bigger and sweeter than the wild blackberries that grow near me. Netting them from the birds and allowing them to fully ripen made all the difference. I’m going to plant more next year.
Use of old TC canes for trellis support would work fine in year+1, by year+2 many old cane bases become brittle, may not support much load, are easy to break off near ground level.
Glad to hear the Darrows are a good variety. I planted some in 2015, but I don’t think I will see any berries yet this year. I have some Nelsons planted at the same time that are forming lots of berries. I’ve not been a big fan of the store-bought blackberries, but am hoping these will change my mind about blackberries. I also have some Prime Ark Freedoms that got a few huge berries the first year, and have some forming this year, too. They were okay, but not as good as raspberries.
My first ever blackberry harvest from my backyard, without the birds eating them before me.
A couple of berries today from my mother’s mystery bramble I transplanted approx five years ago. Some kind of thornless eastern blackberry she probably got from Stark’s. This bush gets only part sun, but this year, it finally has several berries coming on.
One was a little sour. Both were sweet enough to taste good.
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Beautiful aren’t they? Even sour tastes good when they are yours!
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Ztom do you have any more of those Illini Hardy blackberries? I live in AK and can’t find them anywhere. I don’t think anyone carries them anymore, but I’d love to try and grow some up here.
My experience with all plants is they suck the particular nutrient they love from the soil and move on. Thats why weeds are an important part of correcting soil. If there are to many nutrients we get lambsquarter, not enough nutrients we get mullein growing there. Some plants such as blackberries take 10-15 years to remove nutrients and add them to a particular piece of soil. My heirloom blackberries as an.example are best grown in clay. Clay is high in nutrients they can use but they are one of the few plants that can. They leave behind rich dark soil full of organic matter and move a few feet over. I mow off the old dead brown cains at that time shredding the canes into small peices which break down in about 1-3 years. If termites and wood ants are present sometimes in just 4 - 6 months. Pears grow sometimes for over 100 years in one location. We are very fortunate to.have the knowledge we do of cycles like these.