Blackberry's

[hsm5grls]

I want to try and grow some blackberry's. I'm not sure they will grow in my zone but I thought it was worth a try. Anyone have any suggestions or tips as far as what kind to grow, location, anything like that. I really would like to have some berry plants and strawberry's just aren't enough LOL I want to make jams and pies with them.

 

[Reinbeau]

You are fortunate to live in a warmer area than Maine, but this webpagewill give you all sorts of information I'm sure you can use in your area.

I saw the author of this page, David T. Hanley, at the Common Ground Fair this past September (we go to it every year). It was a really neat lecture/slide show, and everything he said made so much sense about trellising them, just the whole method in general. I'd like to have a raspberry patch here myself, it's on my list!

 

[silkiechicken]

How bout this, you can come over and take the few thousand square feet of blackberries from me. Take them ALL! I don't want that invasive weed anymore.

They grow like crazy here. Chop them up, and they start rooting in the ground. Dig up the main root, and a shoot you accidentally left will turn into a 10 foot tower in a year. Darn noxious weed grows almost 10 feet a year when it's spring time. They grow up into trees and drape down to the ground!!! You can't get rid of them!

The berries taste good though

 

[hsm5grls]

silkiechicken My mom said the same thing when I told her I actually wanted to plant them. LOL I don't thimk they will grow that fast here. I miss the pie's and jams. She thinks I'm nuts.

reinbeau thanks for the link I am going to check it out right now.

 

[sgtsheart]

I am in zone 7B and before this farm was a chicken farm and before it was a cattle ranch, it was a blackberry farm. I learned this my first spring here when there were blackberries popping up literally everywhere and the SO said, oh yeah! didn't i tell you?? There are hundreds of blackberry bushes all over the 80 acres and they haven't been harvested for at least 20 years, if that gives you some idea of the hardiness of em.
I do recall reading somewhere, probably in a gardening catalog, that the "tame" or cultivated type of blackberry is not as ferocious as the wild kind. So maybe that'll help you. I plan to do SOMETHING with ours during the next harvest, right after I get the hang of chicken keeping and taming the harvests of the pecans and black walnuts.

 

[KayRI]

I strongly recommend that you get thornless blackberries. They are not invasive, but will spread at a reasonable rate, they taste good and they are THORNLESS! I'm zone 7 and they are fine here.

I got mine from miller nurseries and Fedco trees might have them, but I'm not sure.

 

[897tgigvib]

Silkiechicken! row

You don't know how lucky you are to have so many Blackberries!

I know they can turn into a total all out confounded jungle. Whatcha do is get some volunteers who want some for pies, (heck, even have some pie recipes printed up for them. Officianados like to brag about ultra flaky crust using real lard, stuff like that...) and offer them to pick all they want. Even have coffee cans with strings attached to carry for them. But tell them they have to use the machetes to clear the paths, and tell them part of the bargain is they have to clear the whole mess.

What you will have is the whole area cleared out to start all new. Then, next spring when the plants start popping back up, dig the small ones up, pot them, and sell them at a garage sale!

 

[jomoncon]

Although I'm a Little further south than you are, I also want some blackberries! I have the perfect spot picked out for them & am gathering up all the info I can find. I plan on getting an erect thornless type, but haven't decided which one yet.

I so miss the blackberry pies & cobbles from my grandmother's farm from when I was a child.

 

[sparkles2307]

I want to plant Himalayan Blackberries here, but I dont want to get in trouble for introducing an invasive species to MN... *sigh*

 

[897tgigvib]

I'll have to look himalayan blackberry up