[TheSpartacat]

Hello all,

My plot, that i got this year, has inherited a rather large amount of blackberry canes from whoever was last cultivating it (about 20 yrs ago!) ... there's a patch completely congested with canes about 10ft by 3 foot wide, many of the plants are in clumps of about 5 or 6 canes that I'm not sure how to split, or even if I should!!
I'm having to dig them all up because in the past 20 years they've spread across where the path should be, and are mixed in with a lot of wild brambles and bindweed roots.

I've moved some of them and replanted them in single file (only a few inches between them!! I'm a blackberry novice) in order to make a kind of boundary at the end of my plot... My question is will they still grow  and fruit at that distance?

They have considerably more space than they used to, and they seem to be pretty health looking plants but didn't fruit this year (they were all strimmed down to ground level in Summer before i got the plot)

Will they fruit next year? Do I need to space them out further? (I won't want to devote a huge area to them, but also don't want to waste them?!) And should I cut them down to about 10 inches again?
They're a kind of upright thorny variety-  with pale/white stems and dark fine thorns.

Sorry so many questions, I'm kinda scratching my head about them, and can't seem to find any info on what to do with an "overly established" blackberry patch!

[mumofstig]

The shoots that have been formed this year are the ones that will bear fruit next year, so don't cut them back any more.  I would think they need to be about 3/4 feet apart, because of the huge shoots they send out each year.........if you plant closer you will just end up with a thicket of them again

You get a huge amount of fruit from each 'bush' so I wouldn't keep the all, just a few.... but spaced well apart

[noshed]

They are what are usually described as "vigorous" plants so MOS is right, thin them out a bit.

[TheSpartacat]

Thanks for your advice!! Mucho appreciated!
I guess I might be able to find someone else on the site who was thinking of getting blackberry canes and see if they would like them?. There really are quite a lot!!!!

[sunshineband]

I am sure someone would be very grateful for some canes