Kim’s Blackberry Patch
I don’t know what it is I like about Blackberries, but I sure do enjoy them! Truth be told I enjoy a lot of berries (minus the Strawberry) and probably because they are antioxidants which means they are good for you! Like Strawberries and Raspberries, Blackberries are considered a soft fruit. They are members of the Rosaceae family along with raspberries, roses, and apple trees! Like raspberries, Blackberries are brambles and are thorny and usually grow thick and tangly but can also be upright or sprawling depending on which type of Blackberry you purchase. The Blackberry fruits are not true berries, but rather aggregate fruits made up of small round drupelets. Unlike Raspberries, Blackberries keep their core intact when picked.
The terminology for Blackberries is the same as the Raspberry in that they both have canes, floricanes and primocanes (see the previous Raspberry blog post for further explanation on the terminology). Blackberries are perennial plants that bear fruit on biennial canes. They grow new green stems, known as primocanes, every year, and these typically bear leaves but not flowers on what are known as “floricane fruiting” plants. In the second year, these primocanes become floricanes. They turn woody, sprout leaves and new stems from lateral buds branching off the main stem and produce flowers on those stems. The flowers then become those irresistibly juicy, sweet-tart berries; after fter this, the floricanes die.
Blackberries are self-fertile, which means pollen from one plant can fertilize the same plant – there’s no need to plant another variety nearby for cross-pollination purposes. That said, Blackberries are not self-pollinating, they need bees and butterflies to help transfer pollen from one flower to another. Blackberries can be grown in zones 4-9 and some varieties are prickly while others are thornless.
Blackberry Varieties
The three varieties I will be focusing my research on are the Arapahoe, Darrow and the Prime-Ark Freedom. When it comes to Blackberries, there are three different plant structures, the Erect, Semi-erect and Trailing:
Erect: upright bushes that don’t need support, are more winter hardy than their semi-erect and trailing counterparts, and produce sweet, large berries
Semi-erect: bushes that require some support, are either thorny or thornless, and produce a greater amount of berries than erect cultivars; berries are sweet and tart
Trailing: vines require support, usually with a trellis; these tend to be the least winter hardy of all but produce loads of juicy, sweet berries
Arapaho
If you are looking for a thornless, erect cultivar that gives you a robust crop of sweet, one- to two-inch-long berries then the Arapaho is the Blackberry for you! The Arapaho is hardy in zones 5-7 and reaches a mature height of four to six feet, spreading three to four feet. It blooms with pink and white flowers in mid spring and produces fruit that ripens in mid-June. It is one of the earliest maturing Blackberry varieties. It should be noted that this could be problematic for growing in Colorado given our unpredictable spring freezes! The Arapaho is available for purchase at Nature Hill Nursery.
Darrow
This Blackberry is a trailing variety. It is disease-resistant, grows up to three or four feet in height and width and climbs a trellis beautifully. If you are into trellis’ this berry is for you! It is hardy in zones 5 through eight. The floricanes bloom with white flowers in April and early May and produce tart, lightly sweet berries. The flavor of this particular berry has been compared to those that grow in the wild in June, July and August. Despite its’ thorny disposition (meaning this one has thorns), you will appreciate its long picking season! The Darrow berries are about three quarters in an inch to one inch in length. The Darrow is also available at Nature Hill Nursery.
Prime-Ark Freedom
For the gardeners and or Boutique farmers (like me) that are sometimes impatient for the fruits of their labor, the Prime-Ark Freedom blackberry might be the perfect soft fruit plant for you (or me). Prime-Ark Freedom is an erect, thornless variety that produces fruit in the first year! Hardy in zones six through eight, it is pest and disease resistant. The Prime-Ark Freedom grows up to five or six feet in height and spreads. It blooms with pink and white flowers in early to mid-Spring. They heavy, one- to two-inch-long berries ripen in July or August for primocane-borne fruits, and June for floricane-borne fruit. This means… in the second year, you’ll get two crops of berries! The first crop should come in around early summer and the other one in late summer. I think I know which variety I’m going to plant! The Prime-Ark Freedom can be purchased at Burpees.
Planting and Growing Tips
Now that I’ve an idea of which kind of Blackberry I want to have on the farm, the next thing I need to figure out is how to plant and grow them. Blackberries prefer loamy, well-draining soil with a pH of 5.5 to 7.0 and thrive in a full sun location with six to eight hours of direct sunshine. As noted above their average height and spread varies depending on the variety. A general rule of thumb is to place each plan about three to five feet apart if you plan to grow more than one. The quantity that we decide upon will depend on the size of our raised bed.
The easiest way to start your berry patch is to buy and plant a bare root or young plant from your local nursery or online. You will want to plant it as soon as possible after you purchase it. Most dormant bare roots are solid in late winter or early spring which is also the best time to plant them. The first thing you will want to do after you purchase your root is to place the entire root ball inside a bucket of room-temperature water which helps restore its moisture. Let it soak for up to two hours.
While you wait for your Blackberry root to rejuvenate, start prepping your planting sight. Dig a trench that is about two to three inches deep and eight inches wide. This will give the roots plenty of space to spread out and stretch. Cane berries, like the Blackberry, have shallow root systems so you won’t need to dig a deep trench.
Add a couple handfuls of well-rotted manure or compost to the planting site to help make the soil richer. Place your dormant bare root inside the shallow trench and fan out the roots. This will help keep them from getting too knotted together and will promote airflow within the root system. Once this is complete, backfill the hole with soil and water it thoroughly.
While it’s still dormant, only water the plant once or twice a week, or when the soil is dry two inches down. You should start seeing new, green lateral stems and leaves within four weeks. At that point, increase watering to whenever the top inch of soil feels dry.
Once your Blackberry is established you will want to fertilize it every spring. The berry will need water one or two times a week in the absence of rain or whenever the top inch of the soil is dried out. Also, once the fruit begins to form the plant will take up a lot more water than usual, with this in mind you will need to pay attention and increase watering accordingly.
If your Blackberry is one that requires support, you will need to secure the vines against a trellis. If done right, this can look very beautiful!
For those of us who live in colder areas mulching with a dark colored material will help preserve warmth and moisture. In the winter cover the entire plant with straw. Note: if you live in an area where is snows, the snow will cover the straw and make a fantastic insulation that will help fight off the cold.
Pruning and Maintenance
As I noted in my Raspberry post, pruning has always been a challenge for me as I’m never sure when or how I’m to prune. The good news is, Blackberries only require a limited amount of trimming to keep them happy and healthy!
Each spring you will need to prune the central primocane of each plant to three or four feet in height. The pruning helps the plant focus its energies on growing laterals. You still need to prune these as well, back to about 12 inches in length. Also remember that as the plant goes dormant in late fall or early winter when the temperatures start to go down you will need to prune it again. Cut the spent floricanes down to the ground, yes you heard me right! Then trim the central primocanes to three to four feet again, and the laterals back to about 12 to 15 inches. This kind of trimming always freaks me out but one thing I’ve learned from watching Monty Don over the years is that the aggressive pruning will produce better results in the future – so be fearless when you cut!
Harvesting
Harvesting the Blackberries is the joyful part of the growing season and its pretty easy to do! Wait until the berries turn from red to a deep purplish black, grab your gloves (if you have the prickly kind) and a bucket and head to your berry patch. Although you can pick them any time during the day, early morning is ideal. The later in the day the heat will soften the berry and stress the plant – soft berry means messy picking! If you aren’t going to eat your berries right away, refrain from washing them and store them in a shallow container in the fridge. Cover them with plastic wrap with two or three holes punctured in the wrap. The berries should be okay in the fridge for up to six days.
For a longer storage time, you can also freeze Blackberries. Gently wash them in cool water, pat dry with paper towels and spread them on a baking sheet in a single layer. Put the baking sheet with the berries in the freezer for several hours. This will ensure you won’t have a block of frozen berries when you take them out. Once they are frozen, transfer the berries into a Ziplock bag and put them back in the freezer. Frozen berries will last up to a year!
Pests and Disease
Luckily the Blackberry doesn’t seem to be too impacted by pests. They can sometimes suffer from an aphid infestation; in which case you can purchase ladybugs which are the aphid’s nemesis or treat them with insecticidal soap or neem oil spray.
Redberry mites are another potential pest, The only way to know that they’ve infested a plant is that some drupelets never mature to a black color like they should, though other drupelets do. If you have these little (and I mean little as they are microscopic) beasties, remove the affected fruits and spray the rest of the plant with a horticultural miticide oil.
Other notable pests include the spotted wing drosophila. It looks like a pale orange-yellow fruit fly. And let’s not forget the dreaded Japanese beetle! Neither cause lasting damage if caught and managed early. The spotted wing drosophila infests individual berries, depositing white larvae inside, supper gross! To test for these critters, drop a berry in warm saltwater… after half an hour, check the surface of the water, if you see small white maggots floating on the top you have yourself an infestation – just when I thought it couldn’t get any more gross! If you find an infested berry during your saltwater test, you will then need to check a berry from each of the lateral branches to see if they are infected, if so then remove and destroy the affected branch.
If you’ve ever grown roses and Japanese beetles have found their way to your flower you know that they will skeletonize the leaves and the flowers as well as the ripe fruit (in the case of the Blackberry). These beetles were the bane of my garden in our last house. Luckily Palisade as a community (actually I think it was all of the Grand Valley) worked together to eradicate the Japanese beetle from the valley. I have to admit, the Japanese beetle is actually really pretty, with its copper wings and green bodies, however their destructive nature overshadows that beauty! At the first sign of Japanese beetle damage, remove the affected foliage and spray the entire plant with a botanical pesticide made with pyrethrum which is extracted from daisies and is said to do a wonderful job getting rid of the beetles. Neem oil also works but I find not as well.
In the world of Blackberry diseases, a common one is the anthracnose. This is caused by the fungus Elsinoe veneta and results in whitish-gray lesions that develop on young, actively growing canes and leaves. An infection can also cause cane death, leaf drop, and low yields. Avoiding overhead watering goes a long way toward preventing this moisture-loving fungal disease. If you notice symptoms of anthracnose on your plants, remove affected canes and spray the plant with a copper fungicide.
Another plague that may affect your plants is orange rust, caused by the fungus Gymnoconia peckiana. In new growth, orange rust manifests as weak shoots with pale green or yellow leaves.
Within a few weeks, orange pustules form on the stems and leaves.
Orange rust affects a plant from the root system on up, and while it won’t kill a plant, it’ll prevent fruit from forming. There’s no point in keeping rust-infected cane berries around. If you’ve identified this disease in your plant, the best course of action is to burn the whole plant, preferably before the pustules burst and take to the air! The air born spores will then infect other plants. Other diseases that affect these cane berries are crown gall, witches’-broom fungus, and algal spot.
I realize this is a lot of information to process… my head is even about to explode! With this in mind, I think I will take a break from the soft fruit research posts and write about something different for the next blog! Stay tune….
