Alternatively you can leave the canes intact, and the portions of the cane that didn't fruit in the first year will give you berries in the second. "Navaho" (R. "Navaho") earns high praise for its exceptionally sweet, late-June-to-August berries. Blackberry Variety Review By Courtney Weber, Associate Professor, Department of Horticulture Last updated 4/8/13. Growers use the canes' growth habits to distinguish between the different kinds of blackberries, separating them into "trailing," "erect," "semi-erect" cultivars. Up to 8-feet wide, "Apache" needs a sunny spot with room to spread. University of California Cooperative Extension Santa Cruz County: What Is the Best Way to Prune Caneberries? If the thought of fighting thorny canes is the only thing between you and a summerlong supply of homegrown blackberries, you're in luck. Passionate for travel and the well-written word, Judy Wolfe is a professional writer with a Bachelor of Arts in English literature from Cal Poly Pomona and a certificate in advanced floral design. If the thought of fighting thorny canes is the only thing between you and a summerlong supply of homegrown blackberries, you're in luck. Cutting the laterals back to 1 foot in late winter or before they start flowering in early spring encourages larger blackberries. Varieties of Thornless Blackberry Plants. The cut canes become thicker as laterals emerge from their lower sections, so they support the developing crop without help. Today, multiple thornless cultivars provide months of gleaming, ebony fruit for preserves, baked goodies and eating straight off the cane. How Far Apart Should Blackberry Plants Be Planted? Its 8 to 10 quarts of 1- to 2-inch berries, desirable for their extremely tiny seeds, are ready for harvesting in early to mid-June. New canes, or "primocanes," grow from the roots or crown each year and usually provide the next year's fruit. Introduced in 2007, semi-erect "Natchez" stands 4- to 5-feet high and benefits from trellis support. West Virginia University Extension Service: Pruning and Training Thornless Blackberries, The Blackberry Plants for the Largest Berries, Information on Thornless Blackberry Plants for Zone 8 & 9. Blackberries flourish in deep, mildly acidic, well-drained sandy loam. Cultivars requiring 200 to 800 hours of temperatures between 32 and 45 degrees Fahrenheit perform well in Mediterranean climates. The Arapaho thornless blackberry produces fruits that are glossy black and firm, containing smaller seeds than most other blackberry varieties. Spreading from 3 to 5 feet with canes of varying heights, self-pollinating "Arapaho" does well in partial to full sun. Information on Thornless Blackberry Plants for Zone 8 & 9. Erect cultivars include 'Ouachita,' 'Navaho,' and 'Illini Hardy.' Erect varieties are mostly descended from a native eastern blackberry and produce vigorous canes that grow vertically. It produces its high yield of fruit in July—from jam to wine, the Chester thornless blackberry is a winner for gardeners in many climate zones. Called primocanes in their first year and floricanes when they flower in their second, the canes die back after producing berries. The Arapaho is known for good cold hardiness and disease resistance. Thornless blackberries first appeared with the 1911 introduction of Californian Walter Cory's "Cory Thornless." © Copyright 2020 Hearst Communications, Inc. Thornless blackberries grow as erect, semi-erect or trailing plants. The blackberry (Rubus spp.) Of the three, only semi-erect plants require a trellis or other support. There are hundreds of blackberry species and hybrids, but they can all be classified into three different growth patterns. Apache" (R. "Apache") produces heavy, gleaming-black berries on erect, 5- to 8-foot canes. Berries aren't as large or as tasty as with trailing varieties, and yields aren't as high, but the berries are sturdier and less damage-prone and the plants are hardier. The fruit's 11.7 percent sugar content is the highest among all University of Arkansas blackberry cultivars. Trailing varieties are native to much of the continent, with Rubus ursinus being the most common in the Pacific Northwest. If anything, some varieties are too wild, becoming invasive and creating walls of thorns that resemble something from a fairy tale. Averaging 10.7 percent sugar solids, the fruit ripens over five weeks beginning in mid-June, after its white, early-summer flowers open against medium-green, compound foliage. Like trailing cultivars, they should ideally be trellised for support. It is the Black Satin variety. The latter is especially cold-tolerant, which can be a factor for gardeners at higher elevations or in colder microclimates. Blackberries are a different type of "not berry." When Can Blackberries & Raspberries Be Transplanted? Floricanes produce earlier in the season than primocanes, so this way you'll get two crops from the same plants. "Arapaho" (Rubus "Arapaho"), an erect thornless blackberry, produces white spring flowers and deep-green foliage. A few kinds of blackberries have an interesting quirk. Aside from having some berries to eat in the first year, this is an advantage for growers in areas where cold winters might otherwise kill the overwintering canes before they can bear fruit. As the name suggests, semi-erect blackberries stake out a middle ground between erect and trailing varieties. With strawberries, for example, those tiny, crunchy seeds are the actual fruit, from a scientific perspective. This isn't an issue for most growers in the Bay Area, where winters are mild. Its berries average 9.6 percent sugar content, slightly higher than the larger, 9.5-percent fruit from "Natchez" (R. "Natchez"), another early blackberry. Properly pruning erect thornless cultivars such as "Arapaho," "Apache" and "Navaho" encourages them to send out lateral branches. New canes grow from the roots as well as the crown, so upright cultivars are more prone to becoming invasive. It too, is a thornless variety. Cultivars New cultivars are released all the time, and the vast majority of them fail to catch on for various reasons including poor adaptability … Blackberries are part of the larger rose family, and like roses, they grow on long, usually thorny canes. I made my purchase 3 years ago. Trailing varieties yield large, elongated berries with excellent flavor and aroma and small seeds, so they're popular in their own right or as the base for hybrids. Trim each year's primocanes back to 3 1/2 feet in late summer or early fall. The white-flowering shrub likes full sun, but does best in cool-summer climates in USDA zones 6 through 8. I purchased four of these plants online without doing any research. The berries aren't as tasty as those from trailing varieties, but they compensate with very heavy yields and thornless canes that make for easy picking.