Looking for BlackBerry Bushes WITH THORNS

[cluckmecoop7]

Won't dear still eat the berries? Well, I don't know much about that sort of stuff so .

 

[TooCheep]

I get mine from Stark Bros.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Lucky you! I had to plant mine.

Not so lucky, it's so prolific around here! I spend a lot of time cutting them back, there's at least 400' of blackberry down the driveway and along the front of the property, and some more on the sides. We keep talking about goats to help with the trimming!

 

[cluckmecoop7]

They will be less likely to eat the actual plant down to nothing. At least not when theres other things to eat that dont have thorns. Deer eat everything. They destroyed my garden last year. It was my first time doing a garden so it was a good lesson learned but I was really sad. Luckily it happened fairly early so the plants were able to recover somewhat and I could get at least a few veggies.

Okay, thanks for the info. I'm sorry about your garden. I always fence mine.

 

[LittleMissCountry]

Won't dear still eat the berries? Well, I don't know much about that sort of stuff so .

The deer and birds clear our wild blackberries out if we don’t get to them as soon as they are ripe!

 

[LittleMissCountry]

Two legged predators come and steal mine in baskets lol (I don't really care, we don't eat them anyway, but the chickens enjoy them).

I don’t have enough blackberry bushes for people to steal from. Lol. We had about half an acre of them, but honeysuckle took over last year and choked them out. We used a bush hog and cleared out most of it, leaving about 6 bushes. I plan on pulling up as much honeysuckle as I can find.

 

[rosemarythyme]

I was so excited to find wild blueberry bushes when we moved here but the birds get them before they even ripen!

I just planted blueberries last year but yes birds love stripping the bushes well before the fruit ripens. Going to net it this year, good thing I have a lot of netting sitting around.

 

[ValerieJ]

Ours are wild in the woods. I think If I covered them, the wild critters may get tangled in the netting

That would definitely be a consideration. I might try making a fence cage around a few bushes and putting netting over the top of that. I do that with young trees we plant.

 

[LittleMissCountry]

That would definitely be a consideration. I might try making a fence cage around a few bushes and putting netting over the top of that. I do that with young trees we plant.

I may try that with one of them. Most of them are sprawling and cover a good 4 ft squared area.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Let us know how it works out! Maybe a 4' round fence? If you cover it over with net, it only has to be about 4' tall to keep the little animals from getting caught in the net. I have to warn you that a bird CAN get caught in the net. A robin got caught in the net over our chicken run, and when I found her she was dead. It was heartbreaking.

Since my blueberries are still small I plan on making a wire mesh surround and putting the netting over top for now. Maybe I can put netting around the wire too to keep birds from getting in at all (if it's taut, that should help minimize any birds getting tangled in it). Really just need the bushes to get big enough to not get wrecked by rabbits at this point since they're the main issue right now.