Kitchen Garden Forum

I inherited a thornless blackberry with my house 5 years ago and it used to throw up 3 or 4 new canes each summer but last year just 2 and this year only 1. How long do these plants last? Is it getting to the end of its life?

Thanks

Welcome to the board.

The only reply I can offer is that I've noticed when wild blackberry bushes get past their prime the stems get thinner and the fruit gets smaller. I assume that at some point cultivated blackberries may do the same.

We have two bushes and crop from them did start to diminish so we now put manure on each of them every couple of years. Seems to have done the job

Do you cut back the stems after fruiting is finished, leaving the new stem growth for fruit to form on the following year ?

Agree with Pa!

I mulch mine each winter with some well rotted manure which they do seem to like. Saying that though I lost my 'Big Bute' mature blackberry suddenly this year. It was 3 years old, broke into bud in Spring but then just stopped & died. I don't want to say it but it didn't look a natural process & I wonder if it got contaminated from someones weed spraying. I was gutted as it was fantastic, but luckily I took some cuttings and have started harvesting from them, although they will have to be moved as it is too close to the shed & it's a fight to get in the door.

Westi