Training Blackberries

A lot of us have blackberries around our yards, or see them around town and are either annoyed that they wont leave our yards alone or we have them delicious and fight with everyone else to pick them. Well we have a small patch planted, and we train them up to get the most out of the plants.

Blackberries are part of the rose family, and we all know how thorny they can be! Without any kind of training the blackberry plant can grow to be anywhere between 10 and 12 feet in height. The varieties we grow are less thorny or no thorns so when we have to handle the plants or harvest our employees dont have to worry about getting pricked.

The process of training the blackberries is rather a simple process, here is a short over view of what goes into us setting up the field:

 We start off by planting the blackberry plants in straight rows, then install wooden posts along the row of blackberries. We then take wires and run them from post to post all the way down the row, once the blackberry's vines are long enough we tie them in a circular motion. This saves room and allows for maximum fruit to bloom and develop, and we get a delicious large crop.  After the harvest the canes, or vines, that produced fruit will die, and new growth will take its place, so every year we have to train the canes and get them ready for the next year.

In our field we have divided it into two different sections, and are rotating the crop. This way the blackberry plants will have a year to grow, and we can still have a good harvest.

This training processes is used for more than just blackberries, it can also be applied to raspberries, marrionvberries  or any other vine, and cane berry.