Cultivated Blackberries - Help!

dave_wright40

Hi, first post so go easy on me!
In my garden I have three clumps of cultivated blackberry canes that were already in the garden when we bought the house 20 years ago and have produced fantastic crops every year. Embarrassingly, I have paid very little attention to the canes, other than the odd pruning of obviously dead canes. This year, I have noticed a noticeable reduction in the number of canes. I would like to take action now to prevent further deterioration.

What do the Forum suggest or advise?

TIA

Dave 

dave_wright40

Images of the blackberries.

BobTheGardener

I think it's just a matter of getting the pruning regime right.

Cultivated blackberries fruit on sideshoots which appear on the canes which grew the previous year.  Canes older than that need removing and cutting those down to the ground before they die off naturally stimulates new canes to grow from the base.

In other words, after a cane has finished fruiting, cut it down to the ground.

The only canes your plants should have are the current years new canes (which will fruit next year) and last years canes which will be bearing flowers now.  All older canes need to be removed completely.

https://www.growveg.co.uk/guides/how-to-prune-blackberries-and-raspberries/

dave_wright40

BobTheGardener said:

I think it's just a matter of getting the pruning regime right.

Cultivated blackberries fruit on sideshoots which appear on the canes which grew the previous year.  Canes older than that need removing and cutting those down to the ground before they die off naturally stimulates new canes to grow from the base.

In other words, after a cane has finished fruiting, cut it down to the ground.

The only canes your plants should have are the current years new canes (which will fruit next year) and last years canes which will be bearing flowers now.  All older canes need to be removed completely.

https://www.growveg.co.uk/guides/how-to-prune-blackberries-and-raspberries/

Much obliged Bob, thank you.

fidgetbones

If you pin a long shoot down to the ground or in a pot of soil, it usually roots. That will give you fresh stock to replace those past their best. If you plant them in a slightly different position, eg 2, 4, and 6, along a fence instead of 1, 3, 5, 7,  You can grow them on a year in between the old stock, then take the old stock out.  A good planting hole  enriched with some organic matter and a good sprinkling of fertilizer will give them a good start.