blackberries with few blooms

[fizzle7033]

The farm we live on had what at first appearance was going to be a vast blackberry patch. But, there are few blooms on the plants and many are just naked stems. What can we do to ensure we have a better crop next year??

[Deberosa]

Are they the long arching kind of blackberries? If so they will only fruit on new canes. Thickets of them "move" across a field by their canes touching the ground and rooting for the next year. The old canes quickly just become a dead mass.

[fizzle7033]

That's the type, so should we cut down the old ones? Would it hurt/help to fertilize them?

[Deberosa]

I can't help you much on the cultivation. I spend most of my time hacking them back! I don't think they need alot of fertilizer though - just new starts.

[lateaprildawn]

Hi Fizzle, as Deberosa says you only get fruit on 2 year wood.

You could try to chop out the thicker and therefore older wood but it would be a very awful task !

What would be easier is to chop the whole lot out and miss out on the few berries for this year and have a fresh productive patch next years.

Pruning will stimulate the plant into growth and if you pick your berries and them remove the branch you have taken them from its a good way to know which is the old wood. Prune as you pick.

I have never had to fertilise blackberries, and they seem to grow best on derelict and poor waste land. The only thing that seems to affect fruit is the right amount of rain just after the flowers and the right amount of sunshine once the berries have swollen.

Good luck and dont forget to wear armour plating whilst you prune ;D

[Deberosa]

Oh yes, to much experience with clearing out blackberries. Pruning as picking is a great idea, and what I did was take loppers and cut the canes into about 2 ft sections that could be pulled from the mass.

If you are clearing a large area and you can get to the base of the canes you can cut them at ground level only and then with a rake you can roll them into a big roll that then can be dragged to a burning place. But you probably would want to do the selective pruning.