[Puff]

I've a fancy to grow some blackberries.  The local nursery has both the thornless and thorny types.  I'd like to grow them up posts then across wires (is this called 'espalier'?)

Has anyone on the forum grown them this way?  Which type did best, thorny or thornless?   Any tips on varieties ?

[shirazcat]

Hi puff,
             Growing blackberries & their varieties is best done as you suggest, on post & wires. It is not called espalier, this is the term for training hard fruits such as apples & pears on wires. For blackberries you need 2 stout posts, approx 6 feet apart with 3 wires stretched between them roughly 18 inches apart, the first one needs to be about 3 feet from the ground. Plant the blackberry in the middle of the posts. In the first year shoots will grow & these need training in to the wires as they grow. It is best to train them to one side, because next year you will get more shoots & these can be trained in to the other side. In the second year the first lot of canes will fruit, then you cut them down in the autumn. In the third  year the canes that grew in the second year will fruit & so on & so on.
 More info available from the RHS site, but that is the basics. I would grow thornless varieties ,these are much easier to deal with & there are some excellent modern varieties, one of which is called waldo. This has large  very tasty fruits that crop much earlier than other varieties (the end of July)
              Adrian.

[richyrich7]

Hi Puff
I grow them like shirazcat say's, in my back garden. We have a thornless variety called "Loch Ness" its very tasty and bears quite large fruit, the berries are regularly the size of a thumb or a little bigger, it also crops over a longish period.
If you know any one who has a nice blackberry then ask them for a cutting they are pretty easy to root.
Hope this helps Merry Christmas
Rich

[Puff]

Thanks for the advice there shirazcat and richy

I think I'll be going with a thornless variety, sounds alot easier than wrestling great thorns.  I've seen one thornless plant down the allotments, so here's hoping the owner is up for a swap

Merry Christmas

[supersprout]

Hello puff, I went on an excellent course at Barnsdale Gardens on propagating soft fruit - a morning and change from £15 including lunch, well worth while it seems to make more sense seeing the plants and asking questions than reading!

A pic of how Nick Hamilton trains his blackberries like shiraz, keeps it very simple. The canes are 'stopped' at the ends if they overgrow, and he uses mulch to keep the weeds down.

[Puff]

Thanks for the diagram supersprout, makes it nice and clear