New to Blackberries

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WillsC said:
I would put them where they get the most sun.
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I did noticed that the best blackberry patches are always growing on the south side of the hills or forest edges.
Our patch back in WI was tall enough that in a couple of places I would just duck my head and pick from the underside of the bush.
 
LOL! These berries were cleared from this short access road on our property 2 years ago. They are starting to take off again and climb our stand of Doug Fir to the right of the photo.
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They do require good sun and here in the PNW they thrive with the amount of rain they get unil July. They do very well with no water (unless they are in containers) July through September.
They also do very well with some partial shade.

I agree with Math Ace about the thorns and have picked a few from the chooks feet, but mostly they just eat the leaves and when they have cleared their browsing range they leave them alone.

A berry that my chooks leave completely alone is Wild Raspberries.....they grow here just as prolically as the BB's do (and do great in the shady areas of the tree lines and along the back side of my coop runs), but for some reason the birds leave them alone.
 
Ashdoes said:
Wow. Do you think my thornless bushes will go nuts like that and invade everything? I really just want a wall of bushes to provide shade for the chickens and of course lots of berries. I do not however want the run taken over by the bushes. Do you think I should plant them at the other end of the yard? If we had the back acreage fenced I'd plant them back there, but it's just not ready yet. Any tips?
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Blackberry bushes are vigorous plants, regardless, and you will need to eventually do some judicious weeding back every few years. Here in the PNW, we have 2 particularly aggressive blackberries: the Himalayan (which was used by Luther Burbank to produce some of his thornless cultivars) and the less pervasive cut-leaf blackberry. Our acidic soils are particularly amenable to berries of all types, including the superior-in-every-way native Pacific dewberry (a dewberry is an entirely prostrate blackberry), so these ultra-aggressive invaders found blackberry Nirvana here. We have mild, wet winters that never affect them.

So, in Colorado I don't think you will have a problem with invasiveness. I never had troubles with the cultivated varieties, even I my PNW garden. Pushy, yes, always. Aggressive, no.
 
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Well, this is the great thing about all these people in one place. I changed my mind on the planting area. The back acre seems perfect. This way if they do get a little crazy, the chickens don't lose space. Now I get to research something better for a shade wall.
Thanks guys!
 
pinkchick said:
Ohhhhh how I wish I could transport the wild, prolific and ever invasive blackberries of Pacific Northwest to you!!!!!! I'd happily give them all!
They will come back every year and the roots spread under the soil and send out new canes every so many inches or sometimes even further apart. They will climb anything they can even though they do not need the support and they can reach heights you wouldn't believe given the right circumstances and environment.. Over here a person will see many trees being taken over by them in the dense blackberry jungles. I've lost a few chickens and chicks in the jungle.
The chickens will eat the lower leaves they can reach. No worries.......that won't slow the plants down one bit. The only way to slow BB's down is to cut the cane.......O but once again never fear.....they will make a come back from being whacked as well. Repeated pruning of a cane and not allowing it to produce new leaves is a great way to actually affect the cane and kill it. Goats are extremely effective at repeatative pruning.
My thornless BB's are in containers and during very cold and freezing weather I take care to not let the roots or the contanier freeze. I set the big 5 gallon planters in half wine barrels and insulate with straw inbetween the pot and barrel and also the base of the canes and I move under cover, either to the green house, or my covered front porch where the straw cannot get wet or yucky. I found out the hard way about the roots freezing and had to start over.....since I have been moving them under cover and insulating they have overwintered well in a container. Planted in the ground and well established they should do just fine.
Take care to pick up the cane and all debris after clippings....blackberries can start from a piece of the cane sitting on top of the soil.
LOL! I've never known a world without blackberries.
Hubby and I are looking into moving to another state, either Montana or Colorado. Montana was where we were initially thinking, but Colorado has won the hubbies heart. I've been wondering how my thornless berries will do in the high desert.
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Oh I share your bane in life with black berries. I've uncovered barns and cars at home swallowed by those dang bushes. At least the berries are sweet. When we were little, we'd pick a 3 gallon bucket full every 3 days for a month.... My chickens must have tough feet since they hang out around and under them bushes all year round.

Never grew the domestic varieties, but I don't ever hear of them taking over like the plague.

As for planting things against a coop... personally, I don't like to do so as it makes repairs on structures much harder when it's partially alive. Humidity, at least in the PNW, causes structures to mold, mildew, rot, collect bugs much faster than when you have a good 6 foot clearing around everything.
 
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