Once you get your blackberry patch started, you’ll likely find it becomes a maintenance free source of berry goodness for years! Let’s get started…
Before you order blackberries, make sure you have the space in your yard. Blackberries grow on tall canes that are happiest with full sun and some type of support – it doesn’t have to be fancy. While a trellis is great, a wall, fence or even the side of your house will do just fine. You can even grow them in a free-standing bed; it just won’t be very tidy.
When you order blackberries, make sure you order a thornless variety – I love these beauties!
Most blackberry varieties originally evolved with giant thorns to keep predators away, but modern day varieties have been cultivated without thorns, making them garden and kid friendly.
Your blackberry canes will arrive in the mail and will look super disappointing. You’ll open the package and think,”I’ve been scammed! They sent me sticks!” Hold up. That is totally normal! Let me explain.
Blackberries (and most raspberries) grow in two phases: primocanes and floricanes. Primocanes are the first growth of a blackberry plant, giant stems that can grow to 8 feet or more depending on the variety and covered in leafy greens – but no fruit. You’ll care for them by either training them on a trellis like I do, or cutting them back to 4-5 feet, a more manageable height if you don’t have a trellis. This primocane will winter over. It will lose its leaves and wait for spring. Once the warm weather arrives again, it will leaf out and become a floricane (a second year stem) and will produce hundreds of little white flowers that the bees will find irresistible. Each flower becomes a blackberry!
When you receive your bare root blackberries in the mail, try and get them in the ground right away.
If you can’t plant them immediately, put them in a vase of water to keep them hydrated until you can get to them. Blackberries can grow almost anywhere which is why many people have childhood memories of picking them growing wild – but this also means they are not super picky about their soil. You don’t need expensive new soil or a great deal of prep. Simply turn over a patch of ground in your yard where you are planning to grow your blackberry patch and work in a bag of composted manure from your local hardware store or garden center and you should be good to go. Plant the canes so that the roots are under the soil and the “stick” part is above ground. Plant the canes about 2-3 feet apart.
After the flowers appear, you’ll see a cluster of berries at the end of each little stem and they will begin to ripen in the heat of the summer, one per day on each cluster, which means you can start your day in the garden picking a pint or two of blackberries for weeks until the harvest expires. Blackberries freeze well, so don’t feel you have to use them daily.
Ready to cook with all that berry goodness?
Start with these Blackberry and Cheesecake Hand Pies with Brown Sugar Crust. Or if you are eating healthy, blend up a nutrient dense Blackberry Ginger Smoothie and enjoy knowing you grew the berries yourself!