Blackberries

[Legitmatrix101a]

Hi

I have four blackberry plants which are blooming. I was excited to get blackberries but after the blackberry flower petals shriveled up and fell off the blackberry on the inside died and dried up. I had given the plants 10-10-10 all purpose fertilizer to help with growth so I dont think it was a nutrient deficiency problem. Please help so that I don't lose all my blackberries. Thanks!

 

[Callender Girl]

Sorry, I don't know the answer. I have a row of thornless, heirloom blackberries and because of the crazy weather, those berries -- along with my peaches, aronias and tomatoes -- are ripening much earlier than usual. Maybe, just maybe, your situation is weather-related? Again, purely a guess on my part.

I have never fertilized my blackberries, but in past years, they always ripened when I was away on vacation. So, I didn't see a need to help them flourish just to feed wild birds.

Hope someone can give you a good answer.

 

[Mtnboomer]

Has it been dry there? Fruit is the most expensive thing for a plant to produce (takes lots of energy). So when the plant is stressed, the fruit is usually the first thing sacrificed.

We had a bumper crop of wild blackberries here and enjoyed about 1/2 the harvest. Then the rain stopped and we didn't get a drop for 3 wks combined with high temps (upper 80s low 90s). The 2nd half of branches loaded with red berries about to mature shriveled up and went to waste.

 

[Tonyroo]

Wild blackberry doesn't require fertilizer, they do better without it. They just need a lot of sunshine. My patch have a lot of thorns, I wouldn't walk through it to pick the berries in the middle area, so it goes to the birds.

 

[Legitmatrix101a]

Has it been dry there? Fruit is the most expensive thing for a plant to produce (takes lots of energy). So when the plant is stressed, the fruit is usually the first thing sacrificed.

We had a bumper crop of wild blackberries here and enjoyed about 1/2 the harvest. Then the rain stopped and we didn't get a drop for 3 wks combined with high temps (upper 80s low 90s). The 2nd half of branches loaded with red berries about to mature shriveled up and went to waste.

I live in Texas and its mid-summer which means we have temperatures in the high 90's low 100's but I water my container blackberries once every 2 days and they are very drought resistant.

 

[AntiqueB]

My older blackberry bush did fine in NJ, but we had a very wet and cool spring. The younger one, planted last spring, did not produce fruit, though. Actually, it's been a good year for fruit so far. I have twice the normal number of apples, and the peach tree I was considering getting rid of seems like it will produce well.

I never fertilize or spray any of them, so it's a miracle I get anything!