Blackberries

[mskrieger]

I ended up ordering from Pense Nursery in Georgia, because they had a couple thorny varieties I wanted to try (Kiowa and Chickasaw) and their website indicates that they patrol hard for disease.

Then my dentist dug up some suckers he was otherwise going to mow down, Triple Crown I believe. Thornless, but I'll intermingle them with the thorny ones because he swears they produce enormous, delicious berries.

Add in some roses and raspberries, and hopefully I'll have a barrier to deter thoughtless folks and their dogs from my vegetables.

[swamper]

You'll do well with Triple Crown. Be well protected when you remove the old canes at pruning time! and the kids will love the berries.

[mskrieger]

Fun fact: The blackberries from my dentist began to grow immediately, while the blackberries sent through the mail by the nursery only broke bud a week or two ago. They had been shipped bare root and I was starting to think the whole batch might've died. Two of them never did wake up*...do nurseries have a way of putting brambles into hard dormancy?

(*A neighbor happened to have an extra black raspberry, so I stuck it in that spot as a replacement. I'm okay mixing up the bramble a bit ).

[reed]

Our blackberries are blooming massively right now, wild and tame ones both. Heavy set of developing fruit on all the raspberries. Looks like a good year for both.

[mskrieger]

Raspberries around here haven't bloomed yet--blackberries aren't even showing buds. Your hot weather has really sped up your season!

[philagardener]

My Black Raspberries have a good bud set! They were really hard to get established from bare root nursery plants - probably replaced at least once before they got going.

My Blackberries have never taken off. Raspberries seem fickle - again, hard to get established, then did great for a few years, then started declining.

A few years ago, catbirds expanded into my area. Now I fight for every berry!

[mskrieger]

So philagardener, how was your black raspberry harvest? 

I am pleased to report that the blackberries thought my southern-facing front yard, plus the heat and Biblical rains, was just the sweetest place to be. They grew canes 9 or 10 feet long and are even now setting fruit. It's amazing. In fact, it's a little scary. I could see how these things could really take over in a couple years unless I'm vigilant about staking, pruning and mowing.

Also, the long black raspberry I planted felt just as positively about the weather and location as the blackberries. It is enormous. And oddly lovely, those silvery leaves and canes are quite unexpected and beautiful.

[philagardener]

Sept 4, 2018 14:07:58 GMT -5 mskrieger said:

So philagardener , how was your black raspberry harvest?

The fruit set was good, but it was a pitched battle with the catbirds and chipmunks.  The chipmunks would get under the netting, eat their fill, and then pull down the netting so the catbirds would get the blame! 

Glad your harvest sounds like a good one!

[mskrieger]

Naughty chipmunks. That's harsh. I know people who build a fully-enclosed cage around their blackberries. So far, we have not had to do that (hoping it stays that way!

[raymondo]

We’ve recently planted out long rows of boysenberries, raspberries and sylvanberries. It being more or less spring here I walked the rows to see what was budding up and made an unwanted discovery. Damn hares have been chewing the bases of the plant stems. Not so bad for the raspberries as they are a primo cane type but it does not augur well for the two brambles. It’s a large area and it looks like we’ll have to fence. It’s very hard to be charitable towards the beasties.

[mskrieger]

That's no so great! Do the thorns not bother the hares? Actually, thinking of the story of Brer Rabbit, I guess they probably don't.

We have lots of bunnies and chipmunks around here but we also have the cat who lives in the front yard. She doesn't suffer the bunnies to live once they hop onto the property. Good cat.

[steev]

It may be only talking rabbits that aren't bothered by thorns; regardless, I think thorns were the least bad option for Brer Rabbit. at the time.

[mskrieger]

I just had to dig out three of the blackberry crowns I planted last year: orange rust. One of them was puny and had never taken off, I suspect that was the source of it. I was sorry to have to do the purge: we had a wonderful harvest this year. But everything I've read says the plants will never recover, and you must remove them or they will infect the rest of your patch. I really hope the other bramble crowns are OK.

Killing plants that performed so well for me hurts somehow.

[steev]

Seems ungrateful, at best, but we may owe it to them, as they may be suffering.

[mskrieger]

True, they may be suffering. I also sometimes wonder about plant consciouness -- it must be so different than ours, for plants are sessile and form vast rhizome root networks through which they talk to each other. Perhaps these blackberry plants were warning the others about the fungus.

Or perhaps they appreciate attempts to preserve their brethren even at the expense of themselves. Luther Burbank once said that domesticated plants had made a contract with us, that part of the contract was that we propagate them and their seed and species, and in return we could breed and cultivate them and they would become what we wanted. Part of that deal is protecting them from disease. And when it comes to orange rust, that means culling.