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How to Grow Blackberries: The Complete Guide

Image Credit:
Pixabay
Botanical Name
Rubus fruticosus
Grown as
Perennial
USDA Zones
5a
5b
6a
6b
7a
7b
8a
8b
9a
9b
Toxicity
Non-toxic
Sun Exposure
Full Sun
Water Needs
Moderate
Height
6-10 feet
Spread
3-6 feet
Soil pH
Acidic
Bloom Time
Summer
Flower Color
White
Special Features
Erosion Control
Attracts Butterflies
Attracts Pollinators
Attracts Songbirds
Resilience
Clay Soil Tolerant
Heat-Tolerant
Plant Type
Fruit
Written By: Catherine Boeckmann Executive Digital Editor and Master Gardener

Blackberries, like raspberries, are very easy to grow. Once this native berry is ripe, get ready for an abundant harvest, picking every couple of days! Here’s how to grow and harvest blackberries in your backyard.

All blackberries are perennials; the roots survive year after year. However, the top of the plant above the soil is what we call biennial. This means that the canes grow vegetatively for a year, bear fruit the next year, and then die. However, every year the plant sends up new canes to replace those that died! For a great fruit harvest and to avoid a messy plant, pruning is important. (Learn about proper pruning techniques below.)

Planting

When to Plant Blackberries

  • Plant when the canes are dormant, preferably in early spring.
    • Planting may also be done in late fall; however, it should be delayed until early spring in very cold areas, as low temperatures could kill some hybrid varieties.
  • Blackberries and their hybrids are all self-fertile, so multiple plants are not needed for fruit production.

Choosing and Preparing a Planting Site

  • Select a site that receives full sun for the best berry yields.
  • Soil needs to be fertile with good drainage. Add organic content to enrich your soil. (Learn more about soil amendments and preparing soil for planting.)
  • Make sure you plant your blackberries far away from wild blackberries, which may carry (plant) diseases that could weaken your own plants.

How to Plant Blackberries

  • For semi-erect cultivars, space plants 5 to 6 feet apart. Space erect cultivars 3 feet apart. Space trailing varieties 5 to 8 feet apart. Space rows about 8 feet apart.
  • Plant shallowly: about 1 inch deeper than they were grown in the nursery.

Growing

How to Care for Blackberries

  • Mulching is important throughout the season to conserve moisture and suffocate weeds. Keep a thick layer of mulch surrounding plants at all times.
  • Blackberries require plenty of moisture, especially when growing and ripening. Ensure plants receive 1 inch of water per week and more in hot temperatures.
  • Blackberries benefit from fertilizing in early spring with an all-purpose fertilizer such as 10-10-10, or a 16-16-8. 

Trellis Trailing Blackberries

As mentioned above, trailing blackberries need a trellis or support. Explore a two-wire system, running a top wire at 5 to 6 feet with a second line 18 inches below the top wire. After the first year, there will be fruiting floricanes along the wires. Train the new primocanes into a narrow row below the fruiting canes. Directing all canes in one direction may make it simpler.

Pruning

We have provided detailed pruning information below, but do not be scared. The main idea is to simply remove the old canes that already bore fruit and let new ones take their place. 

  • Trailing blackberries: After the fruit harvest period, the old fruiting (floricanes) are removed to the ground. However, unless there is a lot of disease, it’s best to delay removing the old fruiting canes until they have died back considerably. This allows the dying canes to move nutrients back into the crown and roots. After you remove the old fruiting canes, you may train the primocanes up on the wires. Work with one or two canes at a time in a spiral around the trellis wires. Canes from adjacent plants may overlap a little. No pruning of primocanes is necessary.

In areas with low winter temperatures, it’s fine to leave the primocanes on the ground for the winter, where they could be mulched for winter protection. In the spring, after the danger of extreme cold has passed, train the old primocanes (now considered floricanes) up on the wires. Avoid working with the canes in cold weather, as they are more prone to breaking.

  • Erect blackberries produce stiff, shorter canes that come from the crown and from root suckering (often forming a hedgerow).

    Erect blackberries benefit from summer pruning. Remove the top 1 to 2 inches of new primocanes when they are 4 feet tall. This causes the canes to branch, increasing next year’s yields. Plants will require several pruning sessions to tip each cane as it reaches the 4-foot height. Primocanes (suckers) that grow outside the hedgerow should be regularly removed.

    In the winter, remove the dead floricanes (old fruiting canes) from the hedgerow. Also, shorten the lateral branches to about 1½ to 2½ feet.

  • If you have primocane-fruiting erect blackberries, which are harvested in late summer/early autumn, cut all canes to the ground in the late winter (after the fall crop). In the summer, when the primocanes are 3½ feet tall, remove the top 6 inches. The primocanes will branch, thereby producing larger yields in the fall.

  • If you have semi-erect blackberries, they are easier to manage on a Double T Trellis. Install 4-foot cross arms at the top of a 6-foot post. Install a 3-foot cross arm about 2 feet below the top line. String high-tensile wire down the rows, connecting to the cross arms.

    Semi-erect berries need to be pruned in the summer. When the primocanes are 5 feet tall, remove the top 2 inches to encourage branching. Several pruning sessions will be required as canes reach the appropriate height. In the winter, remove the dead floricanes (old fruiting canes). Spread the primocanes (new floricanes) out along the trellis. Canes do not need to be shortened. However, they can be if they are difficult to train.

Harvesting

How to Harvest Blackberries

  • Pick only berries that are fully black. Mature berries are plump yet firm, a deep black color, and pull freely from the plant without a yank. Berries do not ripen after being picked.
  • Once blackberries start to ripen, they must be picked often—every couple of days. 
  • When picking, keep the central plug within the fruit (unlike raspberries).
  • Harvest during the cooler parts of the day. Once picked, place berries in the shade and refrigerate as soon as possible.

How to Store Blackberries

  • Blackberries are highly perishable and will only last a few days once harvested, even with refrigeration. 
  • Although fresh fruit is always best, blackberries can be stored by canning, preserving, or freezing. Techniques used for freezing blueberries can also be used on blackberries.

Pests and Problems

  • Raspberry Borers
  • Fruit Worms
  • Gray Mold
  • Viruses
    • If your plant is suffering from the blackberry disease known as Raspberry Bushy Dwarf virus, the leaves will have some bright yellow on them, and the leaves of the fruiting vines may have a bleached look in the summer. The disease known as Blackberry Calico will cause faint yellow blotches on the leaves of the plant.

Types

Basically, there are three types of blackberries:

  1. Erect thorny blackberries
  2. Erect thornless blackberries
  3. Trailing thornless blackberries

Erect blackberries are bushes that support themselves, while the trailing blackberries have long canes that must be trellised for support.

Wit and Wisdom

Blackberries, raspberries, and strawberries are very high in ellagic acid, which is an antioxidant that acts as a scavenger, helping to make potential cancer-causing chemicals inactive. Ellagic acid reduces the genetic damage caused by carcinogens like tobacco smoke and air pollution. Blackberries also contain other antioxidants that can help lower cholesterol and ward off cardiovascular disease.

Fruit

About The Author

Catherine Boeckmann

Catherine Boeckmann

Executive Digital Editor and Master Gardener

Catherine Boeckmann loves nature, stargazing, and gardening, so it’s not surprising that she and The Old Farmer’s Almanac found each other. She leads digital content for the Almanac website and is also a certified master gardener in the state of Indiana.

Read more from Catherine Boeckmann

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Comments

<span>Andrew R</span> Thu, 05/15/2014 - 09:22
I bought a 1-2 year blackberry plant (ebony king) from walmart and potted it in a 16" pot in early April. I mixed my own soil based on several articles/instructions. I kept the plant indoors in front of a large sunny window for most of April until the temp warmed (live in SE Wisconsin). Plant has been outside now for a few weeks but haven't seen ANY sign of new growth. The plant had only one primocane when I got it. Is the plant just dormant? Are the roots just taking hold before new above-ground growth occurs? Help!
<a title="View user profile." href="/author/editors">The Editors</a> Mon, 05/19/2014 - 10:08
As long as your blackberry plant looks healthy, there is no need to worry. Adding some compost to the soil will improve the health of your plant. Blackberries will not produce fruit until the second growing season.
<span>Andrew R</span> Tue, 05/27/2014 - 21:43
When I bought it 2 months ago it had no leaves and it still does not, and I don't see any buds either. Does it have a chance of surviving or should I just very a new plant?
<span>Tim Kelley</span> Thu, 05/08/2014 - 19:51
Should I pick the flowers off of an immature plant to encourage growth, or let it be?
<span>R Hays</span> Sat, 11/15/2014 - 17:06
Let it be. I plant hundreds of new blackberry plants every year have well over 8,000 plants now and in process of planting another 4,000 this winter and early spring. some of the plants will have a few flowers and berries the first year but most will not. most varieties of blackberries will have fruit on the second year canes/vines called floricanes However, there are several varieties that will also produce on first year canes called the primocanes.
<span>Catherine Howes</span> Fri, 05/02/2014 - 20:02
moved to a home that has blackberry vines with thorns, first year amazing yield. Every year since less and less and the last few years tons of new shoots tons of flowers but not one fruit formed... so disappointed, we had plenty of rain. The year we moved here 2001 we were in a draught. The area has excellent drainage...so disappointed, again
<span>Liss Sterling</span> Thu, 05/01/2014 - 13:07
My thornless blackberry (Apache), planted on a sunny corner of my house, is beginning its 5th season. The first year, it produced a more beautiful berries than I expected and the 2nd-4th it has been a phenomenal producer of big, sweet berries. In fact, I still have a lot in the freezer! But this is the problem: this was a unusually cold winter here in Huntsville, Alabama, and all my canes but one died back (and hasn't flowered yet, although hopefully it will). Is this normal for a bad winter? I've never pruned it. Is there anything I can do to encourage new canes to grow this year or the next? Fertilizer? Prune this remaining stalk to the ground? Err, give up and plant a new plant? :) Thanks for any help! I've never pruned it before and I feel like I've just been blindly lucky up to this point.
<a title="View user profile." href="/author/editors">The Editors</a> Fri, 05/02/2014 - 13:45

A cold winter can cause injury to blackberry canes; usually in northern climates, they are protected in some way to insulate them from the cold. We'd suggest pruning out any obviously dead floricanes (canes that are entering their second year). If a cane just looks black at a top section, then prune back to healthy wood. For the one floricane that seems to have survived, perhaps leave it be, since the plant is stressed. Usually, you can prune the laterals on a floricane down to 12 to 18 inches long in winter, when the plant is dormant; but it sounds like it is no longer dormant, so it might be best to leave it alone.

 

As it sounds like you only have 1 floricane, you will not get much fruit this year. However, the plant itself may recover for fruiting next year. Check the health of the crown at the base, and the roots--that is where the new primocanes will form, if that area did not sustain injury. Primocanes of 'Apache' will not flower/fruit the first year--they grow fast the first year, overwinter, and then flower/fruit the next year (at which time they are called floricanes).

 

There is a pruning technique to help with fruiting and overall health of the plant. You might be interested in the following publication from the Alabama Cooperative Extension:

 

http://www.aces.edu/pubs/docs/A/ANR-0896/ANR-0896.pdf

 

For more advice, you might talk to your county's Cooperative Extension. For contact information, see:

 

http://www.aces.edu/main/#

 <span>Philip F</span> Tue, 04/29/2014 - 15:24
I have two blackberry bushes that have leaves that are turning yellow, and then brown. The berries are starting to fall off of them. I have an Apache bush right next to them, but the Apache bush doesn't have this problem. What could cause this?
<a title="View user profile." href="/author/editors">The Editors</a> Wed, 04/30/2014 - 10:44

Both raspberries and blackberries can suffer from virus-like problems that may be caused by cool weather, late spring frost, powdery mildew, mineral deficiencies, or feeding by leafhoppers, aphids, and red spider mites. Identifying which one may require local advice.

Your canes could be suffering from Verticillium wilt, a fungus that will cause leaves to turn yellow, wilt, and fall off. Did you plant the canes where potatoes, tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, squash, melons, strawberries, stone fruit trees were grown in the past? Your problem could stem from the verticillium being in the soil from any of those. Remedies include fumigating the growing area or planting it with a nonhost crop (not one of the vegetables listed) for three or four years.