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Joshua Peede
Landscape Designer & Gardener
ISCO Landscaping • Wilson, NC
SCC Landscape Gardening Graduate
Home Grown
Botanicals with SCC Graduate
Get Growing with
Brambles
by Joshua Peede
What is a bramble? You may have
encountered one on a walk through the woods,
or in a childhood story but never really knew
what it was, except for
the fact that its thorny
stem grabbed your
skin or clothing as you
walked by. In simple
terms, a bramble
is not a scientific
name, but a common
reference that groups
trailing or shrub-like
plants with thorns
and berries together
from the genus Rubus.
Brambles are from
the broader Rose
family, and many are
native to the United
States. Some of the
most common brambles are blackberries,
raspberries, logan berries, and dewberries. In
this article, I am going to touch on the basics
of growing the first two in the list above, and
give you the insight necessary to go out and
plant your own bramble patch.
When selecting a site for blackberries or
raspberries to grow, choose a place that has
full sun for at least a few hours a day, but
possibly with some protective shade trees
nearby to keep the berries from scorching in
the hot summer sun. With both blackberries
and raspberries, there are erect, semi-erect,
and trailing varieties. Based on the types that
you select for your garden, you will most likely
need a trellis to support the canes as they grow
and become heavy with fruit. Semi-erect and
trailing varieties are most likely to be grown
on trellises.
When selecting varieties to grow, there are
other things to consider, such as fruit color,
ripening season, and whether the plant is a
primocane or floricane fruiting plant. Many
varieties on the market are floricane fruiting,
but there are more and more primocane
fruiters coming on the scene as modern day
hybrids provide this opportunity, where even
two harvests per year are possible on the
same plant. We will look into this subject in
more detail shortly, so that what I’m referring
to is better understood. Last, but definitely
not least, I am glad to say that many bramble
varieties grown today, are thornless, which
makes growing and harvesting so much easier,
and more enjoyable!
When choosing the type of brambles you
want to grow, I’d recommend selecting some
that yield at different seasons, so that you
enjoy harvesting throughout the year. Next,
there are many ideas for trellising methods
on the web from different growers, but what
you need is a basic system that follows some
similar guidelines to these. You should use
treated 4 x 4s or t-posts, then run heavy gauge
wire or cable in a tight fashion, so that there’s
no real slack, at a height of about 3 and 5 feet
off the ground. These lines will give you a
place to tie the canes and give needed support
for the growing brambles.
As I said earlier, most brambles are
floricane fruiting plants. This means that the
plant sends up a
shoot or cane one
year, and it does not
produce fruit until
the second year. In
the first year, these
canes are referred
to as primocanes;
then the second
year they are called
floricanes. There are
a few exceptions of
brambles that fruit
on primocanes, as
mentioned before.
No matter what type
of brambles they are,
all fruiting canes will die after producing fruit.
They will turn brown and must be cut to the
ground.
On floricane fruiting varieties, it is a good
idea to have 4 to 6 strong primocanes selected
at the end of the first growing season, before
the floricane season begins. Pick the thickest
canes, and remove the weak and spindly ones
as they will only take energy away from the
fruit on the strong canes. Tip these soon-tobe
floricanes back in late winter before the
growing season begins to a height of 3-5 feet
high to encourage lateral branching that will
support fruit that year.
Plant erect and semi-erect plants about
3 to 4 feet apart, and trailing varieties about
6 to 8 feet apart for best results. If you plant
primocane varieties, then you can just prune
all the canes back to the ground after each
fruiting season. There are multiple colors
of raspberries, and less of blackberries, but
when planting, it is advisable not to plant
red and black fruiting plants together in the
same area. It can be done, but the pests from
one type can be harmful to the other if not
handled in a timely manner. With that being
said, neem oil is a good option to use as a
fungicide and insecticide, that is safe to spray
on edibles. You still must wash fruit before
eating, and wait a couple days to harvest, if
the need arises to spray during the fruiting
period.
There is really nothing like picking fresh
produce from your own yard. Hopefully you
will find this information useful in guiding you
to make the right decisions before beginning
a bramble patch of your very own. Happy
Gardening, and best wishes on your efforts! ☐
No. 142 The Pinehurst Gazette, Inc. p.29