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How to Grow Blackberries: The Complete Guide

Photo Credit
Pixabay
Botanical Name
Rubus fruticosus
Plant Type
Fruit
Sun Exposure
Full Sun
Soil pH
Acidic
Bloom Time
Summer
Flower Color
White
Hardiness Zone
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

Planting, Growing, and Harvesting Blackberries

Catherine Boeckmann
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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.

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.

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.)

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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 one 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 one 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 five to six 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 one to two inches of new primocanes when they are four 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 four-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 four-foot cross arms at the top of a six-foot post. Install a three-foot cross arm about two 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 five feet tall, remove the top two 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.

Varieties

Here are some favorite blackberry varieties to investigate, but be sure to ask about varieties that fit your growing zone.

  • Erect Thornless: ‘Navaho,’ ‘Arapaho’  
  • Erect Thorny: ‘Cherokee,’ ‘Brazos,’ ‘Shawnee,’ and ‘Cheyenne’
  • Semi-erect Thornless: ‘Black Satin’
  • Trailing: Olallie

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.
Gardening Products

Pests/Diseases

  • 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.

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.

Recipes

Blackberry Cobbler
Blackberry Soup
Refrigerator or Freezer Blackberry Jam
Fruit
About The Author

Catherine Boeckmann

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

Hi Cassie, 

Unripe blackberries are red, turning black when they are ready to be harvested. Blackberries are ripe at different times, depending on your region, but generally are ready in June (now) in the southern states, and in July in the northern states. Thanks for writing!

Shad Baker (not verified)

7 years 8 months ago

I live in southeastern Indiana when will the wild black berries be ready to harvest I thought late summer or when

Correct. Blackberry harvesting in Indiana is generally July 15 to July 30 with a late crop in August. It can shift by two weeks depending on the year’s weather so your best bet is to check with a local berry-picking farm. 

shannon (not verified)

7 years 9 months ago

My berries started out great after one small harvest this season we have a week long heat wave and a lot of berries dried up and some are partially ripe some kernels on berry are tan in color whats happening i
I In in sacramento I believe I have been invaded by Apple moths

Kristin (not verified)

7 years 9 months ago

I purchased 2 blackberry bushes from home depot over a year ago. I live in central Fl, so I thought they would be easy to grow. I planted theem in full sun with good drainage. When I bought them they had leaves no fruit yet, they slowly lost all the leaves and continued to grow long stems and seem to be alive, I have trimmed them, and the wood/stem part seems to be good alive and flexable, but there is still not one leave or fruit. What is going on or what am I doing wrong? Any help? Thanks

Hi Kristin,

Thanks for writing! Blackberries are biennials, meaning they grow canes during the first year and produce fruit on those canes in the second year. Second year canes die, leaving seeds from fruit to seed the next years first year canes. If they did not produce fruit the first or second years, then there would be no new canes to replace the old. If the canes you have are in their third season, they have lived out their lifespan. You may need to purchase new bushes, or ask a neighbor or friend for a few transplants. We hope this helps!

Jessica (not verified)

7 years 9 months ago

We picked up a couple of potted blackberries today at the local farmers' market. The potted plants are at least a few years old, and have fruiting canes on them (some of the fruit is nearly ripe)... we'd planned to buy some canes in the fall and plant at the normal time, but these plants are large, vigorous, and healthy looking. What's our best bet for getting these planted with minimal stress? Nip the fruit off now and plant? Leave in pots until the fruit is done and then prune and plant? Plant with the fruit on?

See the planting tips above; you want to avoid planting in fall in places that have winter. While spring is advised, under the circumstances, sooner is better than later. Any plant that is transplanted experiences some “stress” in the process. Think of it: this growing thing is interrupted, removed and reset and expected to get on with it, when in fact, the roots have to take hold and the plant has to stretch and get used to the sun/moisture/soil in this new spot. You seem to want to pick the fruit. Any why not if it’s ripe. Take it as a sign that the plant was “happy” where it was—in the pot, in that soil, and in whatever sun etc the grower kept it. Transplanting it will probably stop the fruit in its current stage for all the reasons cited. How about this: think longer term: Do you want a few berries now or a bigger harvest later?

Mary Fowler (not verified)

7 years 10 months ago

Live in Minnesota and have the blackberries that bare on 2nd year canes. 2016 was 1st year they bore fruit and there were lots of canes produced so figured 2017 would be even better. All but 2 of the bushes are coming back this spring only from the roots. We did prune them last summer as they were taking over the area. Is it possible that this is winter kill or another issue?

Not sure we have a good answer for this one. We suggest that you contact your local cooperative extension service; find your state here: http://www.almanac.com/plant/roses#comment-78313   If you have time, come back to let us know what they say.