Thank you for this great video ! This is my second year growing blackberries, so I need to correct some of the mistakes I’ve made in the first year. So far I’m super happy about the support and amount of information I can get just by following your advice ! Thank you from Illinois / Wisconsin state line !
This is my 4th year growing Ponca. It seems to take damage in the winter here in central Missouri, zone 6b. I found I’d lost about a 1/4 of the canes again this spring with one of my plants losing all canes, though it is now growing back from ground level. I am going to take steps to insulate them if it gets below zero next winter.
I’ve been an avid gardener all my life but never tried growing blackberries. I always would pick the wild ones in Southwestern Pa. Then go home and pull briars out for the next couple days. Could you recommend a good thornless variety for zone 6a? I want to make sure I don’t spend money on plants that don’t produce very well or can’t take our winter weather. Thanks for sharing your knowledge and experience.
Do blackberry plants only last two years? I hear of first growth primo cane, then second years growth flouro cane. What happens the third and fourth years? Do the plants die out? Do they start another cycle of primo flouro? Does a new year’s primo begin to grow while the flouro is producing? So many questions! Thanks
Thanks for the comment. A blackberry shoot lives for 2 years; the first year it is called a primocane, and the second year it is called a floricane. The plant, on the other hand, continues to live for many years. As the second year shoots (the floricanes) produce flowers and fruit and die, a new crop of primocanes is growing to continue the life of the plant.
Question: The first year, you say the Blackberry plant grows non-erect, then grows erect in the years after. If this is natural, then could there be a specific set of reasons that the plant does this? I have sage bushes where I’m at and the first year they too grow as ground cover, then grow erect after that ..there are many important reasons that this bush does this. So when i see a fruit plant doing the same thing, I can’t help but think that there are important reasons, that my be unrealized, that Blackberries do this So why do we force the Blackberry plant to skip its groundcover phase? ..and what problems does the plant have, that might just get remedied by simply letting it ground cover on its own the first year? Might there be a huge reason that the plant grows fruitless the first year? Thanks for your help👍🏼
Dear Friend: Thanks for your comment. You are correct, in the first year after planting, tissue culture propagated brambles tend to have a procumbent growth habit, and in later years a more upright growth habit. The plants tend to produce more and more willowing primocanes in year 1, and stronger more upright primocanes in year 2. Farmers find that trellising the primocanes (which become floricanes and produce fruit in the second year) to an upright growth habit helps with efficiency of management and productivity, both of which are important for short term profitability and long term sustainability.
Thank you for this great video !
This is my second year growing blackberries, so I need to correct some of the mistakes I’ve made in the first year.
So far I’m super happy about the support and amount of information I can get just by following your advice !
Thank you from Illinois / Wisconsin state line !
My sweetest blackberry variety so far is sweetie pie, it has a sweet lychee-like flavor. ❤❤
Love the addition of music.
Can you do a video on tripple crown thornless. Lol. I feel they are a great berry. This video was excellent. Im ah blackberry hound lol. God bless.❤
This is my 4th year growing Ponca. It seems to take damage in the winter here in central Missouri, zone 6b. I found I’d lost about a 1/4 of the canes again this spring with one of my plants losing all canes, though it is now growing back from ground level. I am going to take steps to insulate them if it gets below zero next winter.
I’ve been an avid gardener all my life but never tried growing blackberries. I always would pick the wild ones in Southwestern Pa. Then go home and pull briars out for the next couple days. Could you recommend a good thornless variety for zone 6a? I want to make sure I don’t spend money on plants that don’t produce very well or can’t take our winter weather. Thanks for sharing your knowledge and experience.
Erect thornless floricane blackberry: Ouachita, Natchez, Apache, Osage, Navaho, Caddo, Ponca, others
Semi-erect blackberry: ‘Chester’, ‘Triple Crown’
Erect Primocane (everbearing) thornless blackberries: ‘Prime-Ark Freedom’, ‘Prime-Ark Traveler’, ‘Prime-Ark Horizon’
Do blackberry plants only last two years? I hear of first growth primo cane, then second years growth flouro cane. What happens the third and fourth years? Do the plants die out? Do they start another cycle of primo flouro? Does a new year’s primo begin to grow while the flouro is producing? So many questions! Thanks
Thanks for the comment. A blackberry shoot lives for 2 years; the first year it is called a primocane, and the second year it is called a floricane. The plant, on the other hand, continues to live for many years. As the second year shoots (the floricanes) produce flowers and fruit and die, a new crop of primocanes is growing to continue the life of the plant.
Question:
The first year, you say the Blackberry plant grows non-erect, then grows erect in the years after.
If this is natural, then could there be a specific set of reasons that the plant does this?
I have sage bushes where I’m at and the first year they too grow as ground cover, then grow erect after that
..there are many important reasons that this bush does this. So when i see a fruit plant doing the same thing, I can’t help but think that there are important reasons, that my be unrealized, that Blackberries do this
So why do we force the Blackberry plant to skip its groundcover phase?
..and what problems does the plant have, that might just get remedied by simply letting it ground cover on its own the first year?
Might there be a huge reason that the plant grows fruitless the first year?
Thanks for your help👍🏼
Dear Friend:
Thanks for your comment. You are correct, in the first year after planting, tissue culture propagated brambles tend to have a procumbent growth habit, and in later years a more upright growth habit. The plants tend to produce more and more willowing primocanes in year 1, and stronger more upright primocanes in year 2. Farmers find that trellising the primocanes (which become floricanes and produce fruit in the second year) to an upright growth habit helps with efficiency of management and productivity, both of which are important for short term profitability and long term sustainability.