Trying to start a blackberry plant from a piece of fruit?

[frdnicholas]

I have a lot of wild blackberries growing on my back fence entangled with briars and all kinds of vines. I'm wondering if I could start a plant from a piece of fruit? Would I need to dry it before planting it in a pot? Is there something else needed? Just an idea....
If I can grow it in a pot, I would be able to take care of it. The ones on the fence are too meshed with briars and unidentified vines that are at least 20 years old.

 

[Chuck]

You can but growing blackberries in a pot might be next to impossible because the fruit grows on an old cane for a season and last years new canes will produce next year. Just look at the vines on the fence and how big they are. To have fruit the vine must get longer and longer and bushier and bushier. And the seeds must have cold stratification for about 3 months in Georgia before planting and once they sprout and are transplanted they need at least 2 more years before they will be mature enough to bear fruit. And during this time the plant is getting bigger and bigger. You would be better off by planting them in the ground and have them grow up a trellis.

 

[Tetters]

The blackberry brambles around here are a proper pain in the rear. They seed all over the place and cause more nuisance than they are worth. The damn things root everywhere they touch the ground, and attack you as you walk past them. If you find one in your garden that is in a suitable place, keep it in check, prune it often to get larger fruit, and hope it doesn't take over

 

[Oliver Buckle]

The damn things root everywhere they touch the ground,

That's the way to propagate blackberries. Peg the tip down into the ground or a pot, then they will stay true. With seed you don't know what you will get, and more likely than not it will be awful. Spend a couple of bob and get a decent variety with fruit twice the size and no thorns, then propagate that.

 

[YumYum]

Bend a primocane over into a container and cover the tip with 6-8" potting mix. Drive a stick in the ground near the top of the bend and tie up cane to support it all. Keep watered and moist. 3 weeks later cut the cane off the mother plant leaving about a foot of cane with leaves to feed the root. Viola new plant. Blackberries are very easy to clone. Just make sure you have a variety you actually want.

 

[Susan BBPM]

I have a lot of wild blackberries growing on my back fence entangled with briars and all kinds of vines. I'm wondering if I could start a plant from a piece of fruit? Would I need to dry it before planting it in a pot? Is there something else needed? Just an idea....
If I can grow it in a pot, I would be able to take care of it. The ones on the fence are too meshed with briars and unidentified vines that are at least 20 years old.

The most reliable way I've found of propagating blackberries is to let the ends of the canes embed in the soil (or better still, in a pot of soil). The tips will develop roots, and once they're properly established you can cut your potted blackberry away from the mother plant.

I'm not convinced your blackberry will do well in a pot. Mine didn't.

The best approach I've found of managing blackberries in the ground is to run two wires along your fence about a foot apart. Select two strong canes off of this years growth and tie them to the top wire (so let the canes go directly up to the top wire then train one along in one direction and the other in the other direction. This is where you'll get next year's fruit.

Then, next year you'll tie your new canes (next year's fruit) to the wire below. This keeps it out of the way whilst you harvest fruit from the canes above.

 

[gary350]

If you dig up a new blackberry cane with plenty of roots you can transplant it and it will grow if you do in now before weather turns hot. You can also dig a tiny ditch play the whole cane in the ditch and cover it up the cane will sprout several new plants along the cane. If you transplant enough canes for a 20 ft row you will have a 20 long blackberry patch next summer.