How to Prune Blackberries For Big Yields & Healthy Plants
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- Опубліковано 17 жов 2024
- Pruning blackberries can be daunting, but it’s actually very simple. They are a bramble, so many people treat them like raspberries but they can’t be. In this video I will show you how to prune blackberries for larger yields, bigger healthier plants, and a managable plant that won’t take over your garden.
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Hi Luke. I would like to share a few tips, having learned about growing blackberries for a couple years now. It is recommended to summer prune erect and semi-erect blackberries when the primocane is 36in to 48in tall. This will encourage lateral branches to develop for increased yields next year. If you don't summer prune, you'll have one very long cane. Then in late winter or early spring, when the plant is dormant, cut back the laterals to between 12in and 18in to produce good fruit size and make the fruit easier to pick. You can wait to cut down spent floricanes until you prune the laterals in late winter or early spring because there is evidence to support the spent floricanes return sugar to the roots which supports the new primocane growth next growing season.
I don't think I e ever learned so much in one paragraph!!! Thank you!
This is what I had to learn too. My first year managing mature plants, I had no idea the difference between primocanes and floricanes. I saw that they had a different number of leaves, and had to do research online. You did a great job summarizing the most important steps. Thanks for contributing!
I bought BB last year. I did prune the primacane during summer & got lots of side shoots that are super long. So what you are saying is, 1: i should cut those side shoots down in late march & 2: I should cut the old spent growth when?
@@misscandicern It's recommended to cut back the lateral branches between late winter after the plant has become dormant and early spring before the plant shows any new growth. Although I have seen that people cut the canes that have already fruited to the ground at the end of the season, it's perfectly fine to wait until the following late winter to early spring to remove them when you're also cutting back the laterals.
We have thornless blackberries and we have them trained on a fence, but it we didn't, they would arch up and lay on the ground. Are they considered semi-erect? Thank you for your information here!
10 years ago I tossed out some back of fridge moldy blackberries along the back fence. I now have 25 feet of producing berry bushes. Much to my neighbors chagrin. We all have more berries than we can eat. So I gather up those end of season dried berries...and sow them when I am out hunting and hiking. ;') Berries for the critters. Best
I love this! Great idea!
I used a cattle panel arch to trellis mine in the summer of 2021. This last summer they had gone from one side of the trellis to the other side, set down roots, and started coming back over to the original side I had put 2 plants on. I don't remember exactly how many berries I got this year, but it was somewhere between 6 and 7 gallon size zip lock bags.
I stuck the healthy twigs from pruning when they were dormant in the soil and they rooted! Great way to expand without having to buy more bushes!
Thanks for the information on how to prune raspberry vines! My husband has one and we didn’t know how to prune it before this.
This was Very helpful! I planted 3 blackberries in VERY large tubs.. I live in the desert fullll of sand 😢… and have been wondering about pruning. Thank goodness I saw this cuz I probably would have cut them down low lol. Always inspiring & teach us many things.
Nevada z 5/6 here. 👵🏻👩🌾❣️
Also good to note that the old growth, which will not produce next year, needs to be cut out not only to enhance aeration but to thwart disease. Old growth can and will produce cane blight.
Another good tip is that during the summer month, on new shoots that have grown 3-5 feet, pinch off the tips. This will encourage the stem to bush out and greatly increase the production of fruit the next year.
Yes I been treating my blackberries as I do my raspberries! So helpful, Thank You for this info share.
Thanks for the video! My parents have a blackberry patch along the roadside that’s on a steep slope and measures about 80 feet by 10 feet. It’s mostly a barrier, with fruit production being a nice bonus.
After several years of doing basically nothing to maintain it, they had a company cut it all to the ground as a reset. The patch had added new layers to its top every year, with the old shoots dying underneath, causing it to get taller and taller.
After the reset, the patch grew back like wild and even produced some fruit this past summer. I’ll go through and prune according to your 2:1 method (what I can reach, at least - remember, steep slope) and see how next year turns out. Maybe we’ll end up getting an enormous yield!
Luke, I just want you to know that your video was way more informative and helpful than the Michigan State University $30 online class that they offer frequently. The information in the class was very scientific, but explained very little for the common gardener. Your video here just filled in all the gaps that class was missing, translating a lot of the concepts into actionable steps - and now I can see that it's not that complicated! Thank you so much. It was very very helpful.
Yessss I’ve been waiting for another blackberry upload as this year I finally began to grow boysenberry !!! Thanks!
My friend grows her's on a half section of cattle panel. Makes pruning a little harder but it keeps her plant neat and orderly.
We created a mini Arbor from the metal pergola parts gifted to us by our neighbor. Not sure blackberries were the best vines to put there because it's so confining. It's in a U shape about 1.5 feet deep and 3 feet wide. Also started a grape vine in the corner. Maybe one day it will take over and the blackberries will find a new home. 🤔
Grow lateral way easy, we do the same and trim 3 and then 5 feet high for lateral growth
Just planted blackberries and raspberries this year so this was very helpful for me not to make those mistakes! Your videos are always very helpful and knowledgeable. Thank you
Hope you didn't plant mixed or real close as the raspberries will spread under ground shoots and pop up all over the place and mix with the blackberries.
@@cindys.w.8566 they are in pots right now have not decided where I want to plant them in ground yet
You actually answered a raspberry question I had. My mom has always told me over and over how my grandma would prune raspberries all the way back, but my neighbors keep pruning more like blackberries and I've wondered for a while which method is better. I also appreciate seeing the visual of the new cane vs old cane
From what I have learned it does depend on the type of raspberry and how you want to manage them. As I understand it there are two categories of raspberries. One is summer bearing/floricane, and the other is everbearing/primocane. The summer bearing types ONLY produce on second year (floricane) canes so those types you do NOT prune back to the ground. Everbearing types bear on both first year (primocanes) canes and second year canes (floricanes).
As I understand it with everbearing varieties you can choose to either prune all canes back to ground in fall, or just the spent floricanes. If you prune all canes you get all primocanes the next year and thus a single (but larger) fall harvest. If you only prune that years spent floricanes, then you get two crops the following year; a summer crop off of floricanes, and a fall crop off of primocanes. My understanding is both of these crops will be moderate size.
I have both types with several different varieties and have followed this method for the correct type and have so far had success. But note that this was my second year with my raspberries so I'm certainly not an expert. Also this is specific to raspberries. Hope this makes sense and is helpful to someone anyway!
Good comments from both, thanks. For my everbearing raspberries, I found that my Fall crop is spotty mainly due to the colder climate in our Fall regardless how I prune. So I usually prune the spent floricanes to the ground in October here in the Pacific NW and still have a robust crop starting in June and a meager crop later in September.
@@insidethegardenwall22 Good to know, thanks for sharing your experience. I've heard varieties like Heritage can sometimes not have time to ripen in some zones with early frost. I'd be curious what varieties you have and if an earlier everbearing variety would produce a better second crop in time or not in your area. For most home gardeners I would think two separate decent harvests would be better than one big one. Especially if you have a few varieties that differ a bit in the ripening time. In my area so far I haven't had problems with late crops not ripening in time. My goal is to have a mix of summer and everbearing varieties to produce several staggered harvests from early summer to fall.
@@jarodmohling2969 Triple Crown Everbearing raspberries
@@insidethegardenwall22 I live in a pretty cold climate too. 5a. I didn't grow up here, but my mom grew up pretty close, about 40 minutes away where my grandma also pruned to the ground. I moved into this house with established thornless raspberries nearly 2 years ago. I know my neighbors all got their raspberries not long after we moved here, so I've been debating whether they just didn't know how to care for them or if I had been taught wrong. This whole conversation is very helpful for my understanding and for next year's garden
Thank you! I bought my bare roots blackberry plants from you and it's growing beautifully, I needed to know if it needed support bc it's starting to lean as it gets bigger, and also how to prune it and I appreciate this very well done in depth video!!
Very good to know! I haven’t been able to grow either yet but plan to do both in the future! This probably saved me a ton from my future blackberry harvests!
I çhopped all the branches off so just the main stalk remained then it grew through the trellis so I trained the branches to go left and right and I tied them against the fence to support them then branches grew from them and supported them with rows of string vertically then trained to go horizontal too and had masses of berries.
So you basically just leave the biggest stalk coming out of the ground? I have so many little ones right now.
We do the same its so easy to pick when they are manageable and less cuts from the thorns
Thanks Luke! I hope to grow berries soon, and I know nothing about it. Great tips! Especially that you maintain raspberries and blackberries differently. I'd like to see you compare the two to blueberries also. Have a great weekend!
Intresting. The way I manage the plant is that almost all that has given fruit gets cut. The new growth I cut the "head" so it will favor more growth
That is basically what I did here.
@@MIgardener yes and no. I end up cutting half of the plant (all that has given the year before) cause else the plants gets not manageable. Even with the trelises
We've had unsupported 12 feet straight up growth from on blackberries. We've learned to cut them, the new growth about 3 feet to 4 feet early on and then the lateral growth takes over. Like growing grape vines on horizontal wires. Several stakes and wires at different heights make for WAY EASY picking as those thorns love bare skin!
I did this by accident last year as the blackberry started escaping the berry netting and was so tangled I trimmed it back.😊
Thank you! Helped a lot!
Thanks for the video! I just planted blackberries this year. Great timing for me!
Thank you for this information! I like the idea of tying it up to a trellis.
Do you have a video about pruning severely neglected apple trees?
Just what I was hoping to learn. Thanks! Do you prune in the Fall or Sprimg?
Love any tips on how to tend and grow blackberries, fertilizer mulch, and any tips.
I trellis mine on a half cattle panel right next to the house (similar location as yours), and weave them exactly the way you've mentioned. I noticed yours look like thornless, maybe Chester? I only planted last spring so they haven't fruited yet but this was a very helpful tip.
Thank you, needed this
Excellent! I know what to do now. Thank you:)
Is now the best time to prune? I always thought pruning encourages growth so with winter coming here in Wisconsin, should I do this now or wait until closer to spring?
It's best to do it in February.
Can I transplant my blackberry that I planted this past spring, from the ground into a container right now? I live in zone 5b Illinois. When is a good time?
I trellised blackberries on a cattle panel and pruned in late winter. Tied canes to wire in espalier method. Had great results. Just remember to set panel in north-south orientation for maximum sun exposure on branches.
Thanks! I needed that information!
So this is the time of year to trim them? The end of November? For the first time, this summer I got a raspberry bush and a blackberry bush and I'm just trying to figure them both out. Is this the time that you should trim the raspberry bush as well?
8:10 Also to note, when your air conditioner condenser is crowded like that, it's less efficient. Meaning your AC isn't as cold and costs more in the summer (and vise versa in the winter if it's a heat pump.) I had a camellia overgrowing my condenser, I trimmed the space a few feet all around and opened up the space above it for the heat to rise and got almost 5°F better cooling.
Luke am glad you shared this with us !!! I started a blackberry bush from seeds from the store and I got a lot of berries a few after they had been planted !!! Grew it first in the house with plenty of sunshine and warmth for it !!! Am thinking of starting another one for myself as I had let it in the pot for the winter months !!! Knowing it was the blue for black berries for myself then !!!
I was wondering If that would work - buy a basket of berries and plant them.
Very useful video.
Thanks for the video. I have prime ark freedom blackberries and they are supposed to grow black berries on the first AND 2nd-year canes (more than the first). I let them grow way too tall though, I have to prune them regardless--with the weight of the snow they will definitely tip over.
Thank you ~ now I know the difference between old canes and new and I can prune more effectively. Did you take the cuttings and root them to grow new plants??!!
Next year we will root them. Not this year.
My blackberry has nasty thorns and has taken over. It showed up in my raised bed a few feet away. They are tasty, but invasive. Thanks for the tutorial!
Aha, I was wondering when I should prune my blackberry. Since your doing it now, guess I ought to get out there. lol I'm growing mine in a raised bed next to my grapevine with a lattice over both. The two year old blackberry bush and the 14 year old grapevine ended up intermingling with each other, but it didn't make any difference, I had a very abundant year with them both! 😊
Well that answers my question. While pruning back our blackberries this fall I couldn't figure out what was going on. One vine seemed to be growing out of the ground at both ends 🤔 now I know why. Thanks for that explanation. At the end of last year we dug up a strong plant that had a lot of stems cut back from previous years. But this year only wispy looking stems grew out of it. I've trimmed the long stems back to six feet and the side shoots to about half a foot. They still look fairly crowded. How many main branches should there be coming out of one "crown" for lack of a better word? If anyone can answer that please do l. Much appreciated☺️
Raspberries will do that grow underground and for many feet from the mother plant. Give them space and yes cut back each fall. Some people just mow them down.
My blackberry plant was growing over my fence. I pruned it too much but hopefully it will come back.
Blackberries come in 3 cane types: erect, trailing, and semi-erect. Growth and pruning is therefore varied.🌞
How do you know which ones you have?
@01ants The erect type have thicker canes and hold themselves up vs the trailing will flop to the ground
I have a 2.5 yr old plant that produced great this year. In the spring, a large growth shot up from the root ball during flowering, it was like the arm of god. It was easily getting over 10ft tall and had appendages left and right that were at least 10 ft long. It's good to know I should cut this back. It's hard to believe how big it got in one season.
I’m growing thornless blackberries on a cattle panel arch. The growth has gone over the arch on down the other side. How do I prune when I’m trying to cover an arch and still get good production. This is first year growth. I had some berries but a lot of vine growth.
cool i was gifted some and hope i can keep them alive and thrive
Can I ask what kind of blackberry plant that is and do you sell it?.
I did notice it is thornless
Thank you Luke for all you do. Happy holidays. From N.C.
Very helpful. Thanks so much. 🥰
Living in the PNW, I found this topic hilarious because blackberries are highly invasive here and I would never purposefully plant and grow one. They will literally grow anywhere and everywhere on their own: parking lots, railway tracks, in ditches, alongside swamps/bogs, seawalls, at the beach, etc. You can just go pick the blackberries for free. It is impossible to get rid of the plants, they have dedicated teams trying to remove them from the local parks. Lol.
Soon people will be leaning on them for survival. Don't disparage nature's free grocery store, yo.
What variety of blackberry do you grow? I'm in central Massachusetts and am growing a primocane fruiting prime ark variety, but it fruits pretty late in the season and I imagine there will be a lot of green fruit remaining by the first frost. Last year's primocanes didn't live through the winter, so there was no chance of a spring/early summer harvest.
HI!! My Blackberries will be one year old next April, they are pretty big, I have them on a trellis. Should I prune them this winter? Do the berries grow on the canes that grew this year, or will they grow on the new canes next year?
Depends on variety. The relatively new Prime Ark hybrid plants: Prime Ark 45 (thorned), Prime Ark Freedom (thornless) will grow canes that fruit big, beautiful tasty berries the first year they’re planted! I’ve gone with these exclusively and learned to prune their tips back after fruiting to throw additional laterals which may likely fruit again same season here in CA. The 1 year old second season canes will fruit that second season but eventually die off late summer for pruning.
@@jhansen55j Thanks for answering. I been researching about it but I'm not sure if I should Not prune this winter then prune them after they flower(if they do). Then I start pruning every winter from there on, I just don't want to get rid of canes if they will produce next spring, I have thornless Sweetie Pie
Apologize for this long response but I’m a big believer in sharing learned experience and knowledge. A fellow down in TX has several excellent videos on UA-cam about pruning blackberries but specific to the Prime Ark erected variety although it could very well apply to other erect varieties as well. Should be easy to find his videos using “pruning Prime Ark blackberries” in your search terms. Essentially, he learned and advises to prune back the ends of previously fruited canes to a personally manageable length above ground, say five or six feet or so, just about 1/2” beyond a leaf spur, which will then cause side growth to emerge and more fruit to develop. It works as I’ve tried it on my thorned and thornless Prime Arks. Some of my canes have grown to well over 12’ and I need to cut them back now. I’m going to try rooting cuttings assuming they’re not too old and still viable. As shown in the video, if the cane wood has become brown it’s likely last year’s growth that’s now in need of pruning and removal, even to the ground. These canes will survive winters up north so I wouldn’t be too concerned about harming them by pruning. They’re vigorous and hardy and new growth typically emerges from the roots once the plant becomes established so you’ll ultimately have those new canes to contend with as well. The erect varieties seem to behave themselves and stay relatively more confined than the trailing varieties which will take over an area if left uncontrolled. I also have some Triple Crown and Chester berries in pots that need to go into the ground but they haven’t flown out of the pots and ground like the Prime Arks do. I also have two end posts on each row with three poly cord double wraps (one length on each side of the plants) to confine the canes to near vertical growth. Hose water well once or twice a week, sparingly fertilize every three months with 10-10-10. I can fit three berries in the palm of my hand!
@@jhansen55j Thank you so much for the info, I really appreciate it. I will be searching for the videos. I don't fertilize my blackberries that often , but I will do so stating next spring.
Question: What about old unmanaged blackberries? We bought a property that has them about 5 feet tall in a thick mass. How low should I cut them back? I'd rather save them than kill them.
I would chop everything back by 50% regardless. Then see what the next year brings.
@MIGardener What is your experience with trellising blackberries? If I have a large enough arch is it okay to not prune at all and still get an abundant harvest? Or should pruning be done regardless to spur even more growth?
Any sort of fertilizer? I inherited an enormous blackberry patch in an orchard on a property we just bought this fall. We pruned as you described. The former owner mentioned lime I think. I should’ve written it down.
The deer took care of the pruning for me😅 I had netting around them, anything that was long and stuck out of the net, the deer ate. So, they may have helped me out because it started growing new shoots all along the stems. I just need a bigger fence next year to keep them back.
well this gives me hope, i plants a velvet black berry thornless bush 3yrs ago and its gotten bigger and bigger but never made a single flower. hopefully next year is the year lol
I have corner posts with lateral wires around mine. Use those tomato clips to hold up the canes to the wires
Does this work for potted blackberries?
Sooo, we only cut primacane by half? And remove last year’s (now dead) fruiting cane? This was to be my first year with a decent harvest and pruning and I was going to bring it way down. Also, how much should I cut back if I’m going to move a plant? I have one that was an offshoot and established itself well enough to have some fruit. I want to move it befor it get really ungainly and starts competing with my central air unit.
Lovely
Roughly how many years til the blackberry cane is done? Mine look like what you said to cut when done with 2nd year. I've been doing like the raspberries also. Didn't prune this year cuz I didn't have time but will cut back instead of off this time
Can you cut the blackberry plant in March?
Hello!
What about Logan berries, do yoi have any tips for those? They are a raspberry and blackberry mix. I've had mine 2 seasons with basically no yield and it seems to grow more like ground vine vs a bush.
In Oregon, they grow so fast and wild.
Please do an update on the pond
can you root those cuttings for new plants? I would think it would be very cost effective to use cuttings for expanding your fruit growth.
Before the end of the summer we put pots of dirt along the edge of our berry area and burried the tips of the canes that were getting really long. They rooted in the pots and we cut them back off the main plant now that its cold and they are dormant. Next year we will transplant them to another section of yard to start a new patch.
A berry exciting
Do you net them to keep the birds from eating all of them?
Our blackberry bush is just now, after five years, starting to have leaves. Deer may have been getting it. We put a chicken wire over it and it now has leaves! Yay!
Awesome
I read not to prune them till March. So we can prune now? Before I knew I had to prune, my BlackBerry bushes got about 12 fet!
you can prune now with no illl effects.
Can I root some of those cuttings to make new plants??
I took cuttings off of my boysenberry plants and just stuck them in a jars of water near my kitchen sink. The jar is full of roots.
How do you prune over groan bl Kerry bush?.
Luke, where can we get blackberry and raspberry plants?
Stark Bros.
I think my raspberry died. Can you do a video on concord grapes?
Very informative.
EXCEPT, raspberry canes come up this summer, then flower and fruit next summer.
After they fruit, cut that cane out. And, the canes that came up this summer, fruit next summer.
My blackberries the last couple years have huge fruit but they just don't sweeten up. They are very sour. My chickens and turkeys won't even eat them.
Have you considered raising bees?
I wish mine wouldn't have died.... not giving up though. I will buy more as soon as I can....
Just in time
I thought blackberries fruited on second-year growth and the thing to do was remove the canes that already fruited.
Is this not the case?
It would be far easier to prune to shape than keep track of fruited canes.
I keep getting little white worms in my raspberries and blackberries. How do you deal with them?
I think my grandma would put her picked berries in a pot of water and let the worms swim out.
What about black raspberries?
Do blueberry plants next, particularly baby ones.
Are boysenberries the same as blackberries?
they are a cross actually between blackberries and a bunch of other berries.
@@MIgardener Thank you for making the point early that there's different pruning techniques for different berries -- I, too, have boysenberries, so I'll look up those pruning tips. Also thank you for the trellis suggestion -- I hadn't thought of that.
@@creativefunwithLiAnne5 thanks...that was actually my question, but I'm so tired today that my brain is not working.
I bought a plant and grew it in a container. It grew okay, but I hacked it up the other day before a frost, not knowing what I was doing.
Have you seen the ‘Back to Eden’ documentary? The guy that grows his garden Gods way.
Good info! However, why are you not bleeding? My blackberries have big thorns, and the plants like to reach out to me and grab and slash as I walk by. 😁
It looks like a thornless blackberry variety
I had to take my blackberries out completely. They got came blight, some kind of fungus on the leaves, misshapen berries and areas of swelling in the canes. They were no longer producing well. I didn't know what else to try. 😭
I got a bare root and planted in n spring it hardly grew 2 vine like stems
I planted one in June, it was tiny with one flower on it. It didn't grow much until the end of the summer. Had no more flowers or fruit.
It is true you need 2 blueberry plants to have fruit?
I only have the one.
You can weave it up a cattle panel.
Bush? Have a whole mess on the ground spreading along fence. It 6 feet tall.
👍
This pruning method is not quite the same if you’re pruning primeocane blackberry plants
Plant those Cuttings.
That is the plan for next year!
@@MIgardener You know about Compost Tea?
All that wishy washy difference from raspberries you seem to not completely understand is primocanes v floricanes, and you didn't tell when to prune what in spring summer or fall. Chop everything by half and remove the dead floricanes in fall is simple enough to work, yes. But I'd remove 2nd year floricanes in spring, after they return all their energy to the roots, to allow more light and airflow into the new growth. It looks like you're only pruning in fall after those spent dead canes have been in the way all season.