Has anyone seen my blackberry?

With the recent rainfall and warming trend here in Baltimore, my blackberry cane has awakened from its winter dormancy. Actually it has been growing new shoots since early April, however the rate of growth has really took off recently. I have even noticed a new primocane shoot poking through the ground; hopefully more shoots will start coming out of the ground too.

This year, I was given two additional plants (roots purchased via mail order) which I will transplant in a few weeks once they grow a little more. I’ll be sure to report on their progress throughout the summer.

For those of you unfamiliar with cane fruits (blackberries and raspberries), the plants grow canes on a two year or biennial cycle. New canes, called primocanes emerge from the ground in spring and grow to about 8 feet in length, producing lots of leaves and shoots, but no berries. The following season, the old primocanes become known as floricanes, and produce blooms and berries. At the end of the season, the floricanes will die and can be cut back to the ground, leaving the new primocanes that have emerged in the current year. An established plant will continue this phase for decades.

I have been told that blackberries are very easy to grow, and once established, will produce loads of canes and fruit. I personally began my blackberry experiment last year by buying a plant from my local big box store and planting it along the perimeter of my back yard near a fence. I planted the bush and waited for it to start producing fruit. My mistake was that I allowed the plant to produce blooms followed by approximately 2 dozen berries. If I would have pinched the blooms instead, the plant’s energy would have instead been directed to the roots, thus producing more primocanes for this year. Instead, my plant only produced a single primocane (this year’s floricane) which will produce fruit this year. It was a good learning experience to say the least. Another fact I learned, is that birds love to eat blackberries! This year, I will purchase netting to drape over my plant so that hopefully I will be able to reap some of the rewards for myself.

Some additional quick facts on blackberries (and to a lesser extent, raspberries):

• Plants can be purchased as erect plants (strong canes needing little or no support), semi-errect (somewhere in the middle between erect and trailing), or trailing (prolific canes that need to be trellised).
• Plants can be purchased with or without thorns; the varieties with thorns are probably more productive.
• When ripe, the berry will be completely black and pull easily from the vine (requires very little force). In my experience, berries with even a small amount of red will taste a little bitter.
• Picked blackberries will retain their stem, whereas, raspberry stems will stay on the vine when picked.
• Blackberries will grow in various conditions including poor soil and limited sunlight, but like most plants they will grow best in well drained fertile soil with adequate levels of sun.
• Blackberries are high in fiber and contain significant amounts of essential vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants.