Would love to hear more about blackberry care. Like when to prune, how to treat volunteers that pop-up, how to tell the difference between primocanes and floracanes. Thanks from Middle Georgia.
We usually prune ours in summer once they stop producing. We prune them to encourage more lateral growth instead of vertical. We leave volunteers and remove the old, dead canes.
I have several Prime Ark Freedom thornless blackberries and they are so great! In fact I have some in blossom and some baby green ones right now in January here in zone 9 California. I have them on drip and probably don’t fertilizer enough but still have enough berries for breakfast every morning plus enough for jam from just four plants. They don’t need a trellis just tie them down so they’re organized in my small backyard.
I ripped all my Arkansas Freedom berries out this winter and I’ve gone back to my wild ones. The thornless berries make a beautiful, large berry but in my book, if the berry doesn’t have good flavor then it doesn’t deserve a spot on my farm. I put a bunch of the Arkansas Freedoms out 5 years ago and have been sorely disappointed. It’s the biggest, most beautiful blackberry I’ve ever seen but since I thoroughly enjoy eating them, as do my customers, and we all have been severely let down because the berries taste like cardboard! The wild berries I have are the sweetest berry I’ve ever had and are well worth the thorns to get them and I will never go with a thornless variety again, my wild ones are that good but I hope yours will be good for ya Travis
We have wells, so we don't have a water bill. But it does affect the electricity bill. Unfortunately, we can't run our drip irrigation off a gravity fed system. Just not enough pressure.
I just put out some tarp where I want my garden this year. I thought that thing was going to kill , Me dragging it. I will have to hand dig my garden, don't have a tiller yet but my 13 year old daughter is helping👍. Blackberries are part of my dream orchard future.
Why dig? Kill the old growth with the tarp, then put 6” of compost on the beds and plant right into the compost. Never til again! Tilling just bring up weed seeds.
Love seeing Tiger in the garden. Hope you have a happy and prosperous New Year! Just trimmed back and tied up my boysenberries today. I'm anticipating the berries in Spring too. I got a real proud moment today when I harvested a leek for potato soup tonight. I trimmed it up and it still weighed a WHOLE POUND. They've been in since about June. I experimented with growing transplants (Dixondale) through Summer, and I guess you can say it was a success! I may try planting some seeds soon to see if I can get same results as Dixondale.
@@gardeningwithhoss Just saw your new video on leeks. I think you got the right idea. For years, I've used either my garden pitchfork to make the holes, or a dowel device my dad rigged up that I stomp on. Don't think you need to plant so tight, except'n it makes it harder for Tiger or the crows to grab them out of the ground. If you get them to the bottom of the hole and press the base, it's good.
I like the thornless idea big time. I grow Boysenberries and although there’s a thornless variety I have the type with absolutely brutal thorns. Worst time is pruning canes in the winter I get stuck and scratched so many times it looks like a self-sacrifice. The results are worth it though they’re very productive and produce plump berries that aren’t very “seedy”, freeze well and make for incredible pies! Looking forward to following your patch. As always a very enjoyable video.
I’m in the process of putting in a raised bed for blackberries and I’ve been eyeing up the Prime Ark Freedom for about 2 years, but I have been concerned because I’m Zone 8a and they don’t recommend outside of 8 (I would like a one zone buffer). But since you’re in 8b and warmer than me, I’m curious how they’ll do for you.
Have you thought of using some T-posts and either string or hog wire to let the vines run run up and be held? Its just a very little work and would not cost mush to control the plants making it much easier to harvest. Just a thought.
We didn't trellis our others and they've been fine. We're going to try and keep them pruned so we don't need to trellis. But we will if it seems absolutely necessary.
I have Chester and Black Satin thornless Blackberry vines. Zone 5b....they perform well. I keep them mulched with wood chips to keep weeds at bay and moisture in. Would love to expand but it gets hard on a half acre suburban lot. How often do you fertilize?
We haven't really fertilized the patch we've had for a while. But we'll probably take better care of this patch here. Probably need to do some research on fertilizing schedules for these guys.
I live in New Mexico and I run my drip lines above ground. The rats and mice chew holes in the lines periodically. Will burying the lines prevent the rodents from chewing holes in them or will the rodents dig down and chews holes in them anyway. Thanks for posting and God Bless...
For mice control set a couple of large plastic pails out with a food bait in them. One slice of bread with a dab of peanut butter works, Mice can smell food 30 feet away. The mice have the pail handle to assist them climbing in, and smooth walls inside to keep them in. You can even set a small board up to help them get in. A bit of sand, about one-half inch in the bottom of the pail keeps the pail clean.
We used to print a paper catalog, but made the decision last year to no longer do so. Our analytics showed that less than 8% of our customers were actually using the paper catalog, so we decided to save paper and resources.
We have lots of deer here, so many that you can hunt over a pile of corn. But my gardens are surrounded by hundreds of acres of commercial farmland, not woods. So they don't get very close to my garden.
Just had a thought. How much does venison sell for in your area? Internet gives me $28 per pound and a yield of maybe 58 pounds per carcass. But you have to pay to have the meat inspected prior to sale. Market gardeners could afford to let a man camp out 24/7 (maybe a couple of men in shifts) and shoot every deer coming onto the property. But $1,624 each less the inspection fee should make it worthwhile for a high school student even if he gets the wholesale price and not the retail price. Deer will soon learn to stay away.
It would be a hard sell here because everyone can get it pretty easily. Everyone here owns a deer rifle and knows someone with a little land. So if someone wants deer meat, they usually can get it pretty easily.
@@gardeningwithhoss We have a couple hundred acres in Colorado that we don't live on...yet...the first day there we saw a herd of mule deer and 2 herds of antelope. Hubby got all excited about hunting but the neighbor said that in the summer you drive down your driveway and have to blow the horn to get deer to move out of the way but first day of hunting season, they are nowhere to be found...I guess they have a hunting calendar too LOL.
I’m sure you didn’t mean to do this but when you go to that nursery from your link below, there is zero mention of a 20% coupon that they are offering. Glad I checked because I spent $300😳
Good to know. I had no idea about a coupon. I bought my plants several months ago and they just shipped in mid-December. I have no affiliation with Ison's and was not paid to mention their name. But they do have good plants.
Drip tape from here: hosstools.com/product-category/premium-garden-seeds/tomatoes/ And no, it doesn't clog when buried. Drip was actually designed to be buried. It wasn't until some famous market farmers decided to lay it on top of the soil and make folks think otherwise.
From Internet: Well-established plants can produce up to 20,000 pounds per acre. All these features make blackberries an attractive crop for commercial fruit and vegetable growers. But these people are 1) planting without drip tape so they plant fewer bushes. 2) They might not get a second yield. Drip tape can increase my yield by a third. 27,000 pounds of berries sounds like a lot of work but a lot of money. My one suggestion is that you not let the land lie fallow so much. I would lay out compost and vermicompost. I would add a cover crop and plant my main crop as close as possible over my drip tape.
Several years ago I planted 500 Tripple Crown thornless plants. They were wonderful, huge, sweet berries and our customers loved them. Sadly, four years ago, the Indonesian two spotted fruit fly made it to Indiana. The fruit fly lays eggs in under ripe fruit and hatch out as maggots as the fruit ripens. One bite of a berry with fly maggots in it will have you spitting out the nastiest tasting thing ever to hit your tongue. Now I bush hog them off twice a year and mourn their loss. Sprays aren't effective as the fly doesn't eat the fruit, just lands and lays eggs inside the fruit. The spray has to contact the fly to kill it so who wants to spay a broad spectrum insecticide like Malation every couple days as an air blast like they do for mosquitos in Florida. More importantly, who would want to eat them? I hope they aren't there in South Georgia. It was a no-brainer that we wouldn't sell many berries if we put a disclaimer on the berries, " please eat sour, under ripe fruit promptly, before maggots hatch out in the fruit! "
That's a bummer that happened to your berries. I haven't noticed any issues with those maggots down here. We've never sprayed our plants and never needed to thus far.
Would love to hear more about blackberry care. Like when to prune, how to treat volunteers that pop-up, how to tell the difference between primocanes and floracanes. Thanks from Middle Georgia.
We usually prune ours in summer once they stop producing. We prune them to encourage more lateral growth instead of vertical. We leave volunteers and remove the old, dead canes.
Good thing you have a solid farm hand like Tiger keeping an eye on everything
That's right. He keeps those field rats from chewing our drip tape.
I have several Prime Ark Freedom thornless blackberries and they are so great! In fact I have some in blossom and some baby green ones right now in January here in zone 9 California. I have them on drip and probably don’t fertilizer enough but still have enough berries for breakfast every morning plus enough for jam from just four plants. They don’t need a trellis just tie them down so they’re organized in my small backyard.
Good know. Can't wait for ours to start producing!
Found out about Hoss Tools from Cog Hill Farm. Enjoyed your video and look forward to watching more.
Welcome Joanne! We love the folks over there at Cog Hill.
I ripped all my Arkansas Freedom berries out this winter and I’ve gone back to my wild ones. The thornless berries make a beautiful, large berry but in my book, if the berry doesn’t have good flavor then it doesn’t deserve a spot on my farm.
I put a bunch of the Arkansas Freedoms out 5 years ago and have been sorely disappointed. It’s the biggest, most beautiful blackberry I’ve ever seen but since I thoroughly enjoy eating them, as do my customers, and we all have been severely let down because the berries taste like cardboard!
The wild berries I have are the sweetest berry I’ve ever had and are well worth the thorns to get them and I will never go with a thornless variety again, my wild ones are that good but I hope yours will be good for ya Travis
The wild berries are certainly the sweetest. No doubt about that.
Run a PVC pipe to the garden. Do you have rain water collection tanks set up yet? I used mine last year and saved on the water bill. Love your garden.
We have wells, so we don't have a water bill. But it does affect the electricity bill. Unfortunately, we can't run our drip irrigation off a gravity fed system. Just not enough pressure.
I just put out some tarp where I want my garden this year. I thought that thing was going to kill ,
Me dragging it. I will have to hand dig my garden, don't have a tiller yet but my 13 year old daughter is helping👍. Blackberries are part of my dream orchard future.
Make sure you pull the tarp back and wet the area every week or two. This will make it much easier when you get ready to turn it over.
Why dig? Kill the old growth with the tarp, then put 6” of compost on the beds and plant right into the compost. Never til again! Tilling just bring up weed seeds.
thanks for the advice, would not have known.
always good hearing abought a new addition to the garden
Thanks Jim!
Love seeing Tiger in the garden. Hope you have a happy and prosperous New Year!
Just trimmed back and tied up my boysenberries today. I'm anticipating the berries in Spring too.
I got a real proud moment today when I harvested a leek for potato soup tonight. I trimmed it up and it still weighed a WHOLE POUND. They've been in since about June. I experimented with growing transplants (Dixondale) through Summer, and I guess you can say it was a success! I may try planting some seeds soon to see if I can get same results as Dixondale.
We've had really good success growing our own leek transplants. Pretty easy. Congrats on your 1 lb leek!
@@gardeningwithhoss Just saw your new video on leeks. I think you got the right idea. For years, I've used either my garden pitchfork to make the holes, or a dowel device my dad rigged up that I stomp on. Don't think you need to plant so tight, except'n it makes it harder for Tiger or the crows to grab them out of the ground. If you get them to the bottom of the hole and press the base, it's good.
I just placed my order with Ison's for 3 Arkansas Freedom blackberry plants thanks to you. Happy New Year and God Bless, Travis!
Good deal! Hope they work well for you!
Hmmm blackberry pie! I'm in middle GA.. used to pick wild berries as a kid.thornless sounds terrific.
Blackberry cobbler is one of our favorite early summer treats!
HAPPY NEW YEAR! PEACE AND PROSPERITY TO YOUR FAMILY!
Happy New Year to you Brian!
I like the thornless idea big time. I grow Boysenberries and although there’s a thornless variety I have the type with absolutely brutal thorns. Worst time is pruning canes in the winter I get stuck and scratched so many times it looks like a self-sacrifice. The results are worth it though they’re very productive and produce plump berries that aren’t very “seedy”, freeze well and make for incredible pies! Looking forward to following your patch. As always a very enjoyable video.
Thanks Farmer Bob!
I’m in the process of putting in a raised bed for blackberries and I’ve been eyeing up the Prime Ark Freedom for about 2 years, but I have been concerned because I’m Zone 8a and they don’t recommend outside of 8 (I would like a one zone buffer). But since you’re in 8b and warmer than me, I’m curious how they’ll do for you.
I expect them to do well, but we shall see.
Hoss Tools I’ll probably go with them as well so we can see how they do in 8a vs 8b. Good luck!
Have you thought of using some T-posts and either string or hog wire to let the vines run run up and be held? Its just a very little work and would not cost mush to control the plants making it much easier to harvest. Just a thought.
We have considered that and may end up doing it.
Hoss Tools I have that variety and they don’t need a trellis at all.
i like them
Loved this video would love to learn more.. BLESSINGS
We'll be sure to keep everyone updated!
Are you planning to put up a trellis system? Those berries gonna weigh the branches down to the ground.
We didn't trellis our others and they've been fine. We're going to try and keep them pruned so we don't need to trellis. But we will if it seems absolutely necessary.
He mentioned at the end of the video that variety didn't require a trellis. One of the reasons he chose it.
Happy New Year, Travis! What a blessing those blackberries will be! And I wonder how that variety would grow in Central Florida?
I would assume that variety would work well for you also. Ison's has a pretty good support staff, so you could always call them and ask them.
I have Chester and Black Satin thornless Blackberry vines. Zone 5b....they perform well. I keep them mulched with wood chips to keep weeds at bay and moisture in. Would love to expand but it gets hard on a half acre suburban lot. How often do you fertilize?
We haven't really fertilized the patch we've had for a while. But we'll probably take better care of this patch here. Probably need to do some research on fertilizing schedules for these guys.
I live in New Mexico and I run my drip lines above ground. The rats and mice chew holes in the lines periodically. Will burying the lines prevent the rodents from chewing holes in them or will the rodents dig down and chews holes in them anyway. Thanks for posting and God Bless...
Yes, burying the tape should greatly reduce your rodent damage.
@@gardeningwithhoss Thanks a bunch.
For mice control set a couple of large plastic pails out with a food bait in them. One slice of bread with a dab of peanut butter works, Mice can smell food 30 feet away. The mice have the pail handle to assist them climbing in, and smooth walls inside to keep them in. You can even set a small board up to help them get in. A bit of sand, about one-half inch in the bottom of the pail keeps the pail clean.
Sir do you (hoss tools) have a paper catalog? Enjoy your videos and thank you for sharing your and dads knowing.
We used to print a paper catalog, but made the decision last year to no longer do so. Our analytics showed that less than 8% of our customers were actually using the paper catalog, so we decided to save paper and resources.
Really like your channel, you must not have to fight the deer like we do in SW Arkansas.
We have lots of deer here, so many that you can hunt over a pile of corn. But my gardens are surrounded by hundreds of acres of commercial farmland, not woods. So they don't get very close to my garden.
Just had a thought. How much does venison sell for in your area? Internet gives me $28 per pound and a yield of maybe 58 pounds per carcass. But you have to pay to have the meat inspected prior to sale. Market gardeners could afford to let a man camp out 24/7 (maybe a couple of men in shifts) and shoot every deer coming onto the property. But $1,624 each less the inspection fee should make it worthwhile for a high school student even if he gets the wholesale price and not the retail price. Deer will soon learn to stay away.
It would be a hard sell here because everyone can get it pretty easily. Everyone here owns a deer rifle and knows someone with a little land. So if someone wants deer meat, they usually can get it pretty easily.
@@gardeningwithhoss We have a couple hundred acres in Colorado that we don't live on...yet...the first day there we saw a herd of mule deer and 2 herds of antelope. Hubby got all excited about hunting but the neighbor said that in the summer you drive down your driveway and have to blow the horn to get deer to move out of the way but first day of hunting season, they are nowhere to be found...I guess they have a hunting calendar too LOL.
I’m sure you didn’t mean to do this but when you go to that nursery from your link below, there is zero mention of a 20% coupon that they are offering. Glad I checked because I spent $300😳
Good to know. I had no idea about a coupon. I bought my plants several months ago and they just shipped in mid-December. I have no affiliation with Ison's and was not paid to mention their name. But they do have good plants.
Hoss Tools of course I trust you completely and that’s why I bought so much from them thank you for letting us know about them!
Drip tape from gardenersupply.com? And does burying the tape ultimately clog it?
Drip tape from here: hosstools.com/product-category/premium-garden-seeds/tomatoes/
And no, it doesn't clog when buried. Drip was actually designed to be buried. It wasn't until some famous market farmers decided to lay it on top of the soil and make folks think otherwise.
Thank you!!
Do you know when your Purple Haze seeds will be in stock on your website?
I wish I did. I'll check with my supplier as it has been quite a while.
@@gardeningwithhoss great, thanks
Do u have any idea how tall thornless blackberries get ine has reached 12 ft high
Depends on the variety. Some varieties require trellising while others can be pruned and kept more bushy.
You do know that you remove the old canes, just as you do on blueberries?
Yes, we do that usually when we prune them.
From Internet: Well-established plants can produce up to 20,000 pounds per acre. All these features make blackberries an attractive crop for commercial fruit and vegetable growers. But these people are 1) planting without drip tape so they plant fewer bushes. 2) They might not get a second yield. Drip tape can increase my yield by a third. 27,000 pounds of berries sounds like a lot of work but a lot of money.
My one suggestion is that you not let the land lie fallow so much. I would lay out compost and vermicompost. I would add a cover crop and plant my main crop as close as possible over my drip tape.
Sounds like the drip tape was a good decision. Thanks for the tips!
Can u take cuttings from thornless blackberry?
Yes youcan
Which of your seeders would work best in heavy sand/ loam soils?
Thanks
Definitely the stand-alone Garden Seeder. The Seeder Attachment is designed more for firmer soils.
From where do you acquire your wheat straw?
Not real sure of the original source. A friend that works at a local cheese-making shop has the connection. We usually split a load with them.
Several years ago I planted 500 Tripple Crown thornless plants. They were wonderful, huge, sweet berries and our customers loved them. Sadly, four years ago, the Indonesian two spotted fruit fly made it to Indiana. The fruit fly lays eggs in under ripe fruit and hatch out as maggots as the fruit ripens. One bite of a berry with fly maggots in it will have you spitting out the nastiest tasting thing ever to hit your tongue. Now I bush hog them off twice a year and mourn their loss. Sprays aren't effective as the fly doesn't eat the fruit, just lands and lays eggs inside the fruit. The spray has to contact the fly to kill it so who wants to spay a broad spectrum insecticide like Malation every couple days as an air blast like they do for mosquitos in Florida. More importantly, who would want to eat them? I hope they aren't there in South Georgia. It was a no-brainer that we wouldn't sell many berries if we put a disclaimer on the berries, " please eat sour, under ripe fruit promptly, before maggots hatch out in the fruit! "
That's a bummer that happened to your berries. I haven't noticed any issues with those maggots down here. We've never sprayed our plants and never needed to thus far.