Hey everyone,
I’ve a thornless blackberry plant that I’m trying to train on two metal wires on my fence. It’s around 8 months old and is looking healthy.
I’m not sure if this is the correct way to do this. Should I let it grow and occupy the whole length of the wire or should I trim each branch to a certain length for it to be more productive in future. It’s a new plant and hasn’t had any fruits yet.
Cheers
by jayp0d
14 Comments
I don’t wanna say it….
https://preview.redd.it/8x6oin937nyg1.jpeg?width=715&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b39e466004604ef113a2d766af8b2c2d2c2b31f6
Not sure if you’re actually allowed to grow blackberry because it’s such a terrible weed, but i don’t think this will work, because with raspberries at least, they fruit only on the previous year’s canes, and then those canes die and new ones grow up from the soil. If that’s how this plant also works, then trying to trellis it is a bit pointless.
I’m not sure of the thornless blackberry – does it still have tiny tiny hair thorns? But I mistakenly planted an apparent “non-invasive” thornless boysenberry.
It is still invasive and I’m still fighting new suckers even after removing the main plant 6 months ago. Never again in the ground.
Might try in a pot with a trellis but I’ll also be looking for proven examples of this before trying it.
Good luck.
Every bird in the district is going to spread this noxious weed, well, right across the district, and beyond. Well done. Burn it.
Jesus rip it out of the ground. Birds eat the blackberries and spread them through our Forrest’s and bushland. Little bit of consideration for both the environment and your neighbours goes a long way.
Sorry about all the hate. However blackberries are considered a noxious weed and they spread by 1. Birds eating the fruit and pooping the seeds 2. The long canes bending and touching the ground and rooting.
The only safe way to grow these (and most Berry fruit) is to build a fruit cage of small enough sized wire to keep the birds out – and for you rather than them to get a crop.
Blackberries, raspberries etc flower and fruit on second year canes which then die and get cut out at the base. So once establish the aim is to have first year canes growing but not fruiting, and second year canes fruit then being cut out.
Blackberry is an absolutely terrible weed devastating out native ecosystems.
If that isn’t enough of a reason, watch what will happen to your yard and the area around it.
Many native rubus are easy to grow and absolutely delicious
Holy shit! I’d no idea. I love blackberries and asked my landscaper to get me a manageable thornless variety. I’ll check with my council and I’ll rip it out if it’s not allowed. Wasn’t expecting this. Thanks all for your advice.
I think some people need to get a grip.
Rubus fruticosus aggregate (classic thorned blackberry) are a heinous weed, but the thornless cultivars are often sterile. even if they weren’t, one managed plant in a suburban backyard is going to make no difference to the spread of an already widely dispersed and abundant species. Also thornless cultivars are specifically excluded from controlled plant declarations in most (all?) states
To answer OPs question Ideally you would cut early to encourage branching then train those along the wires. But at this stage ai would just loop the ends around and back down to themselves. Ideally loop them down onto the lowest wire which will encourage side shoots to grow upwards
Source: 20 years in plant biosecurity
Best check your local regulations mate. I am pretty certain it’s illegal to grow and propagate Blackberries in Australia.
‘Training blackberry’ lol yeah?
That fence going to be GONE in 3 months
https://preview.redd.it/5w9f0rmeboyg1.jpeg?width=960&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8c71f68e7dba0e6a5454290905cb12bbb61be341
Thornless blackberries are sterile cultivers, they are not an environmental threat. The seeds will not germinate if dropped by birds. [https://www.abc.net.au/gardening/how-to/pruning-berries/9437524](https://www.abc.net.au/gardening/how-to/pruning-berries/9437524)
OP, I have a sterile blackberry trained along my fence just like this. The plant is about 7 years old now, and I train it along the fence just like this – normal one or two canes straight up the middle, then it’s branches along the fence. In autumn, I pull everything off the fence and cut back all of last years wood and leave 4-6 canes of new wood. The berries grow on 2nd year wood. As it grows through the summer, I just lift them up onto the fence and tie them on. I get kilos and kilos of berries every year.
This is my bush prior to pruning, last week.
https://preview.redd.it/ycc41infcoyg1.jpeg?width=3000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6ea263f8fcd07d1822b50bbfe9acfe99e2aa9474
Prepare for a bird infestation.