Get You Some Permaculture Plants! Thornless Blackberries!

in #gardening5 years ago (edited)


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If there’s one fruit we’d recommend to start growing it’s thornless blackberries.


They are not finicky like many other fruits and suffer from few pests and diseases. They are quick to yield (during second season) and offer years of care-free fruit production.


Blackberries are esteemed for their sweet and sour taste and high concentration of antioxidants, made apparent by their rich color.

Thornless blackberries have been bred over the years by hybridizing various members of the rubus genus to obtain higher yields, more vigorous growth, sweeter berries and non-thorny habits.

Their low maintenance, drought tolerance, nutrient density and low glycemic nature make blackberries an ideal food for anyone interested in home food production.


Thornless blackberries are a resilient and vigorous plant that simply loves to grow!

The main thing to consider is trellising as they can grow more than 12 ft in a season!

We grow ours on a 4 string systems using fencing wire on 6 foot T posts, but we also have gotten creative with cattle panels. This is the biggest investment with growing thornless blackberries and is well worth the effort to ensure healthy growth and easy harvesting.

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We want YOU to start growing some thornless blackberries and are now offering them for sale.


We are selling through


We have over 150 plants we propagated this season and want them all to go to a good home.


We are offering Chester and Triple Crown varieties. Here’s a bit about them:

Chester:

Said to be the most productive thornless blackberries. It is the most commonly grown variety in the Midwest. Ripens in July and is self-pollinating.

Triple Crown:

Great tasting berry sweet berry with a slight tartness. Fruits are borne uniformly and are easy to pick. Ripens in August and is self-pollinating.


The plants you will receive are shipped bare root and are ready to plant in early spring or summer or anytime in zone 8 and above.

Plants shipped in winter will stay dormant until weather warms up.

Spacing

We space ours at 5’ within the row to allow for their sprawling growth habits. I prep the soil thoroughly before planting. I use a shovel to remove rocks, perennial weeds and incorporate some organic matter like compost, leaves or a cover crop.

Ammending

If your site needs it, here’s where you could add minerals such as lime, rock phosphate, greensand or other amendments. As we have a lot of wild brambles growing on our land, and generally low fertility so we opted only for the addition of some composted chicken manure.

Basics

To plant simply spread the root mass in a hole just large enough to accommodate root mass and cover. The cane stub can be partially buried and will send out roots if buried.

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After planting you can choose to add a generous quantity of cardboard and mulch around the plant to retain moisture, suppress weeds and support soil microbes. I’m a fan of heavy mulching and would advise it. Once planted, water in until ground is saturated to ensure good root to soil contact.

Fertilize your new plants lightly in the spring to encourage vigorous growth. There are many ways to maintain fertility, so pick one that works best for you. We use a mixture of annual manuring and pathways planted in clover.


Berries will yield well for years if weeds are kept out, proper spacing is maintained and enough water is provided.

There is a small amount of annual pruning requires to thin vigorous growth and remove canes that have already fruited. While the plants are drought tolerant, they will yield more if given water, especially during fruit development.

We’re excited to be offering this to ya’ll and hope to empower many others to grow their own food!

And if you mention you heard about this through our blog, we'll send ya 4 instead of 3!! :) Steemy discount!


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oooh! This is so wonderful! I think selling, educating and growing the love of perennial food is so smart. All of my blackberries are thorny. They are gorgeous and abundant but I would sure love less thorny types.

Us too! And it was in my dream last night! Perennials for the win. Yes we often read of the thorny ones being the tastiest, but man it’s nice to have the thornless! Xo

Fabulous that you are selling them that's great. Any kind of berry is beautiful in my book

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Thanks dear! It feels like a good thing. Spread the berrylicious love 😘

Perfect. You just helped me decide where to plant after I order :)

Soon soon soon!

awwwwesome!!!!

Actually, waitaminute. Twelve feet in a season?!

Think they'd trellis well up a mature oak tree? Naturally being forest-edge plants, I was thinking of putting two out front and one in our food forest. Perhaps I should wait to order til I can get up a few cattle panels.

Yeah, they’re vigorous! That said a common training method is tipping them at 5.5 feet (common wire height) to encourage lateral growth. As for the oak tree, they will need to be tied every year and cut back after fruiting. If you tipped them, it could work out neatly against the tree. While they do occur in forest edge, full sun will ensure best yield.

Cattle panels are easy if you have raised beds or something to wedge them against, and go up in a hurry. We had a post and rock herb spiral to use.

I spent a while running an 80 foot length of 4 wire trellis today and it certainly looks orderly... not one for too many straight lines, but this is one exception.

Cheers :)

Five an a half feet is a pretty good height. I was picking okra seven feet up this year lol

What's a good partner to put in a guild with blackberries?

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Hehe love okra! I like clover and comfrey with it. We mulch the bases really well and put clover in the paths with a comfrey put here or there :) also had some echinacea near one. It grows well with others but if it grows in a thicket style, will eventually shade out its comrades 👍🏼

What is it about okra? It's so fun!

Mulch, clover and comfrey, got it! I need to up my clover and comfrey game. I got like 32 cuttings from Coe's Comfrey, but the chickens ate a lot of what came up. Think I've only got like ten plants left right now, and they're so small I don't want to chop and drop em yet.

Interested. Will they grow as a perennial in my 5a zone.

Awesome! Yeah they should do well at 5a as they’re hardy to zone 5.

These are on my list! Thanks!! :D

Awesome! Yes! Once your perfect land and you meet 😘

Exciting way to spread the wealth of your homestead. We tried some berries years ago when we first bought this house. I'm inspired to give it another go :)

Awesome! Just had someone from Southern California buy some through eBay! Such a hardy plant 😋

Thank you so much for participating the Partiko Delegation Plan Round 1! We really appreciate your support! As part of the delegation benefits, we just gave you a 3.00% upvote! Together, let’s change the world!

Thanks!! Yes love what you’re doing! Keep it up 👍🏼

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Ready to order, but is it a convenient time for y'all? Can definitely wait til after the holidays if it works better for you :)

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