Blackberries Seedlings

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Planting, Growing, and Harvesting Blackberries

Blackberries, like raspberries, are a very easy berry to grow. Once this native berry is ripe, get ready for an abundant harvest, picking every couple of days! Here’s how to grow and harvest blackberries in your backyard.

Basically, there are three types of blackberries:

1. Erect thorny blackberries
2. Erect thornless blackberries
3. Trailing thornless blackberries

Erect blackberries are bushes that support themselves, while the trailing blackberries have long canes that must be trellised for support.

All blackberries are perennials; the roots survive year after year. However, the top of the plant above the soil is what we call biennial. This means that the canes grow vegetatively for a year, bear fruit the next year, and then die. However, every year the plant sends up new canes to replace those that died! For a great fruit harvest and to avoid a messy plant, pruning is important. (Learn about proper pruning techniques below.)

When to Plant Blackberries

• Plant when the canes are dormant, preferably in early spring.
  • Planting may also be done in late fall, however, it should be delayed until early spring in very cold areas as low temperatures could kill some hybrid varieties.
• Blackberries and their hybrids are all self-fertile, so multiple plants are not needed for fruit production.

Here are some favorite blackberry varieties to investigate, but be sure to ask about varieties that fit your growing zone.

• Erect Thornless: ‘Navaho,’ ‘Arapaho’
• Erect Thorny: ‘Cherokee,’ ‘Brazos,’ ‘Shawnee,’ and ‘Cheyenne’
• Semi-erect Thornless: ‘Black Satin’
• Trailing: Olallie