[Lardman]

I know it seems a silly question - but I've been trying for 2 years without success.

The wild canes from next door only have to look at soil and they root - but try as I might I can't get my thorn-less ones to take. There's no room to pin a cane down where they are but I've tried air layering in compost  and soil , cuttings of varying hardness from soft to hard wood.

Does anyone have a sure fire way ?

[simonwatson]

Rather than taking a cutting, if you bend the tip of a cane all the way back to the ground, cut the end and dig it in, it should root, so long as the soil stays damp.

[savbo]

I had one good plantlet off our thornless blackberry where a branch had lain on thr ground for a year or two

Bending branches over hasn't worked, now I'm trying growing one of this year's canes up through the holes in a large plantpot, which I will soon fill with soil. My logic is that this year's canes, rather than the fruiting canes, will have more vigour for rooting..

let you know how I get on in 6 months!

sav

[Lardman]

Glad to see it's not just me then 

I'm trying growing one of this year's canes up through the holes in a large plantpot, which I will soon fill with soil.

I think I'll give that a go - small bags of compost do tend to dry out very quickly.