Enjoy Fresh Blackberries

Article Tools

Image Gallery

Print

E-mail

Comments

RSS

The best reason to work with cultivated varieties is that you want bigger, better-tasting blackberries than the wild ones in your area, without the aggravation of thorns. Many newer cultivated varieties are resistant to common diseases, but because wild blackberries can host viruses (though they exhibit no symptoms), it is wise to separate cultivated and wild blackberries. Blackberries are self-fertile, so you only need a few plants (three is a good number to start with). Characteristics of the latest and greatest blackberry varieties are summarized in “What’s New in Blackberries” below.

New Cold-hardy Blackberries

In 1949, a gardener in Ashland, Va., noticed something strange going on in a wild blackberry patch — berries ripening in late summer on new canes. L.G. Hillquist sent a sample to the fruit breeding station in Geneva, N.Y., and in the 1960s breeders began using ‘Hillquist’ in their quest for newer and better blackberries. In 1994, Jose Lopez-Medina at the University of Arkansas completed a new set of crosses, and within three years the new ‘Prime Jan’ and ‘Prime Jim’ had proven themselves capable of producing dependable crops on both new and old canes. While most blackberries are done bearing fruit in late August, these new primocane (first-year bearing) varieties begin blooming in mid to late summer, and fruit production continues well into fall. These new varieties can add two months to the blackberry season in Zones 6 to 9, or they can make blackberries possible in climates where varieties that bear on older canes are often damaged by cold winter weather.

Running a Peaceful Patch

If you know how to work with their natural growth habits, blackberries can be well-behaved landscape residents.

Invasive inclinations can be deterred by snipping out unwanted new growth, or by pruning the tips of extra long canes. Periodically pruning dead canes will deter disease by allowing airflow to eliminate excess moisture.

In a home garden, it’s easy and rewarding to train an erect variety up a pillar or arbor, like a climbing rose. A vigorous variety such as thornless ‘Triple Crown’ can produce 20 pounds of berries in its third year, and even more in subsequent seasons.

Trailing thornless varieties such as ‘Doyle’ have great landscaping potential too, especially if you want a dense barrier planting to deter two- and four-legged intruders. Either can be grown on a fence, or you can use a wire trellis attached to posts. 

Of course, thousands of backyard blackberry patches never see a trellis, yet produce bountiful crops year after year. Whether you do no more than clear away nice picking spots around a wild thicket — or install high-yielding varieties in manicured rows — blackberries are hard to beat for dependable fruit production, year after year.

RSS | Comments | E-mail | Print