It can be much more prickly, though! Blackberry bushes bear best and most abundantly when they’re properly pruned. Rather than allow them to set berries that will end up covered in dirt, attracting rodents, it’s better to remove them and allow the canes to put that energy into growing berries higher up. Include your email address to get a message when this question is answered. To really see what a difference climate makes when it comes to the timing of blackberry care, check out these photos that my friend Chelsea and I took of our blackberries, on the same day! You should be able to see visible fruit stalks on the canes even after the berries have been removed. Sharpen a pair of pruning shears before taking blackberry cuttings to avoid crushing the cuttings. Pruning Blackberries. Unlike thornless blackberries, wild blackberries are covered in thorns that make handling them difficult. I hope these tips for how to prune blackberry bushes come in handy, as you grow your blackberry patch, and work toward a wonderful harvest. Blackberry branch for pruning. They’re perennials, so they grow year after year, growing and spreading a bit each year. Make sure that the pruning tools you use are clean, especially if they have previously come into contact with diseased or dead wood. Unless you’re working with a thornless variety, prickles are a very real issue when pruning blackberry bushes. Required fields are marked *. Scale up your pruning skills with OSU’s online workshop! Blackberries can become unmanageable if not pruned each year (Figure 2). After the harvest has finished, you can go ahead and prune out all of the canes that bore fruit. In early spring, blackberries should be pruned as they’re emerging from dormancy. Remove the top one to two inches of new primocanes when they are four feet tall. Primocanes of vigorous, erect blackberries should be headed down so that they are 48 to 60 inches (122 to 152 cm) above ground. As such, the plant can produce more fruit when it has more lateral branches. l, Your email address will not be published. This is when you’ll start “tipping” first year-canes (primocanes) as they grow tall. During dormancy, shorten too-long canes to about 7 feet, then shorten the side shoots to 1 to 1 1/2 feet. First of all, no thorns, and secondly the berries on the cultivated bushes are bigger and sweeter than those in the wild. Wild Blueberry Fact Sheet Pruning Wild Blueberries: Principles and Practices Growth Habits and Pruning Method of Pruning o Burning o Mowing o Combining Mowing and Burning When to Prune Frequency of Prune Growth Habits and Pruning Once a wild blueberry seed germinates and sprouts into a plant, rhizomes (underground stems) are soon If you really can’t stand to see another ad again, then please consider supporting our work with a contribution to wikiHow. Remove all of the weaker canes of each plant, leaving only the three or four strongest canes standing. If you have a problem with unwanted mammalian traffic, a border of thorny blackberries is a great deterrent. In the spring, you should be doing tip pruning on your blackberries. Only healthy, vigorous canes should remain. One possible exception to this rule is blackberry cane blight, which may be most effectively controlled by waiting until winter to remove the infected canes (read this well-illustrated post to learn more about blackberry cane blight.) Remove any very low side branches, anything lower than about 18″ from the ground. This will encourage more lateral growth. Pruning helps maintain tangle-free blackberry bushes and keeps them confined to their space. Start by removing any dead or damaged canes. In the fall, it’s good practice to remove the current year’s fruiting canes, once they’re completely done bearing for the season. When you are pruning blackberries in winter, cut back long, trailing branches on your erect canes to 12 to 18 inches. Primocane blackberry ‘Reuben’ fruits on new canes produced that season so is pruned in February as for autumn fruiting raspberries. Remove the smallest, thinnest canes, and leave the most vigorous ones. The "crown" of the cutting refers to the portion of the cutting that extends just above ground once the cutting is planted. Tip pruning … Trailing blackberries are usually trained to a trellis. Thin bushes to the best 4-6 canes. That being said, I’ve also seen huge blackberry bushes that were … As the new canes start growing the following spring and summer, they need to be tied into their supports. It’s probably 8′ tall and just as wide but produces very few berries. I’m assuming because it has been left to grow wild without pruning. Prune Fruit-Bearing Canes There are two reasons really. Blackberries are easy to manage. Unfortunately, the thornless upright blackberries currently available aren’t as hardy as some of the thorny ones. Less vigorous erect blackberries should be headed to a height between 36 and 48 inches (91 and 122 cm), and semi-erect blackberries should be headed down until they are roughly 4 to 6 inches (10 to 15 cm) above the top trellis wire. Ron Hill / Flickr / CC BY 2.0 How to Plant Blackberries . This allows for better air flow, and helps the remaining canes to set a prolific amount of good-sized berries. Soon after… When you make your cut, it’s best to do this at a slight angle, above a healthy lateral bud, with the slant angled away from the bud. If you didn’t do a fall pruning, now is the time to remove all canes that bore last year. Floricanes are usually second-year canes and are the canes responsible for producing the majority of the plant's fruit. “Tipping back” canes to 5 to 6 feet improves the productivity of upright blackberries (including wild ones) and keeps the best berries at the perfect picking height. First-year blackberry canes are called primocanes. During active growth, primocanes are considered weak when they exhibit poor foliage growth, appear damaged, or show signs of disease. Learn how to plant, prune and pick the best blackberries while avoiding many common problems. Proper pruning is key Blackberries are best suited to being grown as a hedgerow; I like to site them along a property line. Cutting off most of the stem also removes any potentially damaged or diseased tissue that may have been on the stem. What’s more, home gardeners can pick fruit from early summer all the way to the first frost. I have to admit to allowing my rather rampant blackberry … Pruning for blackberries and hybrid berries is usually carried out after harvesting in summer or autumn. I’ve had some people ask why would you bother growing blackberries when you can pick them wild. Learn more... Blackberries are perennial plants with root systems that last from year to year, but the plant's stems, formally called “canes”, are biennial, only lasting two years before being replaced by fresh growth. Now, cut back the laterals (side branches on each cane) to 12-18″. Plants will require several pruning sessions to tip each cane as it reaches the four foot height. They aren't very practical since they do not develop fruit, and once they grow too long, they start stealing too much crucial energy from the rest of the plant. If you allow the wood to remain by the active plant, it could invite disease and pests as it decays, and those problems could infect your healthy plant. Whether thorny or thornless, it really helps to have the right tools when you’re taming a blackberry bush. Hi. Although most blackberries produce shoots with thorns, many cultivars are thornless. When they’re done bearing a crop of berries, floricanes die back and won’t grow again. It’s very helpfu. Fruited canes are cut right back, the current year’s new growth left to fruit next year. Most berry bushes bear only once on 2-year-old canes. Second-year canes are called floricanes. Spider mites may feed on leaves in summer, giving them a dull grey look. If you are planting a seedling, bush, or vine with well-established erect canes, do not prune them back. Remove all of the weaker canes of each plant, leaving only the three or four strongest canes standing. Despite their different habit, blackberries are treated the same way as summer-fruiting raspberries. Leave the lateral canes a bit longer on vigorous canes and a bit shorter on slower canes. Tipping back is … As a result, the plant spends less energy on growing outward and more energy on its fruit producing branches. Bag and dispose of the pruned material in case it’s harboring pests or disease. Thanks to all authors for creating a page that has been read 25,021 times. To create this article, volunteer authors worked to edit and improve it over time. Swipe the blades of the shears in between each cutting to avoid spreading disease. Light pruning should be done in the summer, but heavy pruning should wait until the dormant season. By mid to late summer, you’ll want to keep your pruning shears handy. 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