Cultivate Wild Blackberries???

[53gravely]

Hi all,
Has anyone ever tried planting/transplanting Wild blackberris into rows?
I have a second home in Vermont and as a kid used to go pickin' and mom made THE BEST jam. I want to grow them in rows so I can mow and maintain in between for better picking access

I have a 3/4 arce field and I want to put in rows of domestic Blueberries and Raspberries. I want blackberries but I like the flavor of WILD Blackberries more.

Is it as simple as picking a quart of wild berries and planting them in a prepared row?

[egon]

If they are growing on the land in question just mow rows and you will have them. [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

Egon

[Bird]

I've only done some domestic blackberries, but as far as I know, you transplant the wild ones the same way. I got my information from Texas A&M University via my local county extension agent. Dig up some roots from the berry vines you want to transplant, cut them in approximately 6" lengths, plant them horizontally, from 2" deep in clay to 4" deep in sand, and water them. Of course, a soil analysis might help you know whether any kind of fertilizer is needed. And they tend to spread on their own once started. I kept my row approximately 4' wide and 50' long and simply mowed anything that strayed outside those boundaries. And each year when they finished producing (mid-June in my area), I mowed them down, fertilized, and watered. You know the vine that grows this year produces berries next year, so I always had a good crop.

[Pat]

I dozed the topsoil from my building site into a pile to reserve it for later. Wild blackberries came up in it. I gave my mom a couple FEL buckets of top soil and by accident a few blackberry plants were included. She destroyed several but when more came up by root she kept one.

Wild blackberries are hearty. These accidental transplantings were my only BB transplantings. Mostly I brush hog the excess bushes and also brush hog clear zones to get easier access to some larger patches. Left alone my place would become an Eastern Red Cedar farm but if I hold the cedars at bay it would become a wild blackberry ranch.

My advice is to fertilize a large patch of berries in the spring then wait until berry picking season to decide which plants produce the best/most berries. Not all berry bushes produce equally. You might as well transplant chunks of root stock and or plants that have a good yield. I have neighbors that don't transplant but do fertilize and tend some of the naturally ocurring berry plants and it makes a whopping difference in yield.

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[53gravely]

Thanks all. This field 10 years ago had an outrageous crop of wild BBs. Saplings started to come in so I felt it was time to brushhog everything to keep it a field( it's between the house and "the view"--do NOT want trees eventually).
The only thing that came back was some wild RASPberries and a lot of bloody milkweed.

I will try some 6" rootclippings "seeded" with some wild Blackberries I can get from my neighbor.

Will having some domestic plants mixed in cause some larger berries thru cross-polination (maybe generations later?)

What fertilizer to use?

[DocHeb]

Not an expert at this, but I think wild blackberries can carry viruses that can affect "domesticated" berry crops - ask your county extension agent.

[Fordguy]

that's what I thought. The deer thanked me so much, for making them walking paths to THEIR blackberries. end of that plan!

[egon]

Fordguy

[img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

Why should you be any different than the rest of us.

Egon