Blackberry Plants

Info

The blackberry is an edible berry in the Rubus genus and the Rosaceae family. The fruit, in botanical terminology, is not a berry, but an aggregate fruit of numerous drupelets ripening to a black or dark purple fruit. The soft fruit is popular for use in desserts, jams, seedless jellies and sometimes wine. Since the many species form hybrids easily, there are numerous cultivars with more than one species in their ancestory.

In its first year, a new stem, the primocane, grows vigorously to its full length of 3-6 m, trailing along the ground and bearing large, compound leaves with five or seven leaflets; it does not produce any flowers. In its second year, the cane becomes a floricane and the flower buds break to produce flowering laterals. First and second year shoots are usually spiny with very sharp thorns; however, thornless cultivars have now been developed.

The flowers are produced in late spring and early summer on tips of the flowering laterals. Each flower is about 2-3 cm in diameter with five white or pale pink petals. The newly developed primocane fruiting produces flowers and fruits on the new growth.

Blackberries rank highly among fruits for antioxidant strength.

Varieties

  • Apache

    Vigorous variety that produces higher yields and larger fruit than other thornless cultivars. Thornless, erect canes. Large, firm fruit. Good quality and flavor. Shows good cold hardiness and excellent disease resistance. Ripens in mid-season.

  • Arapaho

    Large, short-conic, firm glossy black fruit. Small seed size. Erect, self-supporting, thornless canes. Good flavor. Moderately vigorous and heat tolerant. Very winter hardy. Earliest ripening thornless blackberry.

  • Chester

    Thornless variety. Large, very sweet, high quality fruit. Good flavor, even when firm. Hardiest and most productive thornless blackberry. Performs well in the Deep South. Ripens in mid-season.

  • Navaho

    Thornless variety. Large clusters produce glossy, very small berries with possibly the best flavor of any blackberry. Small seed size. Ripens late season.

  • Ouachita

    Thornless variety. Very erect, free-standing. Extremely productive, small to medium size fruit with very high yields. Sweet, firm berries. Good disease resistance. Ripens mid-late season.

  • Triple Crown

    Named for its three crowning attributes-flavor, productivity, and vigor. High yielding, semi-trailing, thornless vines. Large, firm, flavorful berries. Winter hardy. Ripens mid-late season.

Care and Maintenance

  1. Selecting Varieties

    Raspberries and Blackberries are two of the most popular small fruits. Growing berries in your yard is very easy and you will be rewarded with fresh juicy berries year after year. Everbearing red raspberries with medium to large size berries will produce berries most of the summer. Blackberry plants produce one full crop per season.

  2. Site Selection and Planting

    Select a location with partial to full sun in slightly acidic soil which you can adjust very easily. Do not plant raspberries or blackberries where tomatoes, potatoes, or eggplants have been grown previously. Spacing should be no closer than 3 feet between plants. A fail safe way to grow raspberries and blackberries in almost any soil is to incorporate peat moss into top soil. Dig a hole at least 2 times the width and the same depth of the plant container. Mix 50% peat moss to 50% top soil and set aside. Remove plant from container and lightly roughen up the outside surface of the root ball. Place plant in hole and fill with peat moss and top soil mixture and pack firmly. Water thoroughly and surround your plants with 2-3 inches of mulch to conserve moisture, prevent weeds and add organic matter. Pine needles and pine bark work very well. Repeat mulching every other year.

  3. Watering and Fertilizing

    To keep your plants healthy and productive, make sure they don't dry out in the summer. Remember: damp in summer - 1-2 inches per week, dry in winter. Spread mulch around the roots to help keep in an adequate supply of moisture. It is very important that your berry plants receive adequate moisture during fruit production, it is essential to producing plump, juicy berries.

    Plants need to be fertilized twice a year. In early spring, before growth begins apply an acidity boosting fertilizer or an organic soil supplement to keep soil pH between 5.5-6.5 and again in two months.

  4. Harvesting

    The fruit on berry plants are ready for harvesting when they begin to fall off of the stems on their own or when gently pulled. When the berries begin to ripen they will need to be picked every couple of days to make sure they do not rot on the vine or fall off onto the ground. Freezing berries is easy. Simply spread clean, firm berries on a cookie sheet and pop it in the freezer. When frozen, the berries roll nicely into ziplock bags.

  5. Pruning

    In the fall, after all fruit has been picked off of your raspberry plants, cut down all the fruited canes right to soil level. New canes in the spring will replace the cut canes. If there are more than five or six new canes, select the best of even size, removing any odd extra-vigorous canes and any growing up between the rows at a distance from the main rootstocks. For blackberry plants only cut away dead stems - do not cut down as is instructed for raspberry plants.