Pruning Blackberries

Keeping Blackberries neat, tidy is an important job to getting great fruit from the plant. Here we are going to explain about pruning blackberries. Pruning your blackberry bushes back each year not only keeps them looking tidy but it also keeps you blackberry bushes looking healthy but it will encourage a bigger crop on your fruit which means more blackberries for your pies, jams, and crumbles.

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When is the best time to prune Blackberries?

Pruning blackberries at the right time of year is important, this will help towards fantastic crops and healthy plants for years to come. If you do not grow your blackberries properly they will run wild.

When pruning back blackberries there are two times of the year when you cut them back. At the beginning of the year you will be pruning the tips of the blackberry bushes and then at the end of the fruiting season you will be pruning back the correct blackberry whips. We will explain the two processes below.

Pruning the tips of the Blackberry Bushes

In the Spring just before your blackberry bushes start to grow you need to prune the tips of all you blackberry canes or whips. You need to do this on every blackberry cane. The blackberry canes need to be pruned back to around 25 inches long. If the blackberry canes are shorter than 25 inches long just prune 2 inches off them.

The reason why we prune all the blackberry canes back is that this will force the blackberry bush to gain more branches on it rather than the canes just getting longer. This will encourage a more heavier blackberry harvest for your pies and crumbles.

Full pruning of the Blackberry bushes

Once your blackberry canes have finished fruiting at the end of the summer your blackberry bush will need a full pruning. Be warned you need to wear thick gloves or you will be covered with the thick thorns from the blackberry bush and they really do hurt.

Blackberries will only fruit on the canes that are two years old. They will not fruit on the canes that have just fruited. Therefore those are the canes that need cutting off. All you need to do is cut the canes off at ground level. Watch out for the thornes.

We hope you have found these tips and advice on pruning Blackberries useful. Find lots more tips and advice here.