Your basic premise is accurate. However there are two things I want to point out. One should not effect you as you did not harvest the first year as many will think to do in your situation. This is that the "2 year" crowns are sometimes a reference to size rather than age. Thus it is misleading. The second however is something I read about crops that go dormant in the winter months. It seems that some crops that should go dormant but don't, due to a warm winter in areas like the US south, will not regenerate properly or will die from a sharp temperature drop followed by a frost that happens quickly. This is from some reading I was doing on the internet that might or might not have been about asparagus at the time. Perhaps a viable explanation if true.

Update on blackberry winter survival (three weeks later)… Uncovered Plants - Black Satin (no winter damage). These were low to ground so maybe some snow protection. - Triple crown (some winter damage) - approx. 20% die back). Seem to have handled the winter fine but some dieback, primarily on the thinner canes). - Ouachita (some winter damage) - approx. 10% die back). Almost no dieback…surprising because I thought they would be less hardy than other erect varieties. - Kiowa (significant winter damage - approx. 75% die back). At first I thought these had overwintered well, but two of the four plants didn’t leaf out and the other two were significantly damaged. This variety has had some health problems over the last two years with (2 of 6 previously dying). Since this year’s crop was a loss and I have had problems with this variety in the past, I decided to replace them with a newer, thornless variety: Von Blackberry. - Prime Ark 45 (significant winter damage - approx. 50% die back). Honestly, some of the dieback may be from the primocane fruiting sections from last fall, but what is left seems to be growing well now. I think I’ll make these a primocane only crop after this season. - Wild Treasure Trailing. In ground planting - left uncovered and plant died back to ground. Potted planting (covered) lost most of its cane length. Given space and effort, not sure this variety is worth keeping. - All raspberries were uncovered and nearly all had no noticeable winter damage. I even had a blackhawk black raspberry and two double gold raspberry plants in pots just sitting in the open and both plants are growing really well and blooming. - I did have two canes on the Cascade Delight raspberry that died during the winter but I believe that was partly due to exposed roots from some soil erosion in their raised bed. Covered Plants. - Black Diamond. I decided to give it a reprieve and let it grow again this year but spray it for cane borers. I had to remove all of last year’s growth due to cane borers but this year it has three times as much growth (e.g. canes) and looks healthy. There’s already a 8” of growth this season and that’s a lot for this variety in my climate. - Siskiyou. No winter damage. Both plants look good and have been putting on amazing growth (well, at least amazing compared to my previous attempts). These second year plants each have 5 or more canes and the cane diameter has doubled since last year. The primocanes are already about ½ inch thick (e.g. diameter) and about 12” in length so far. Yeah! Last year’s growth is getting ready to bloom. - Kotata. No winter damage and the plants are growing new canes. I have 2-3 new canes per each plant and there’s about 6-8” of growth so far. Less vigorous growth from these plantings. - Thorny Boysenberry. The non-potted plants suffered the trifecta of cold weather, cane borers, and voles, so I have maybe 10% of the canes from last year but they are getting ready to bloom. I have had problems with leaf spot on these but I gave them a good lime-sulfur spray treatment this spring, so hopefully this will help. New growth has been outstanding with the cane diameter doubling, much like the Siskiyou blackberries, and there are 8-10 canes per planting with 12-18” of growth already. I’m going to do a better job of protecting these in the winter this year. - Marionberry. I lost about 50% of the cane length from the overwintering period but have learned more about what not to do while preparing them for winter. Plants seem fine but not as vigorous as Siskiyou or Boysen but more vigorous than Kotata. - Loganberry. I lost about 75% of the canes on these from cane borers and the cold. These may be the least cold hardy of the trailing berries that I own. The primocanes are growing vigorously though.

Wait until they are mostly brown and dead then trim off the stalks and carefully dig up the crowns with as much damp soil as you can with each one. They should be transplanted to the new location now. That means the new bed has to be ready for them before you dig them up. Then mulch them well in the new bed, feed them well in the spring, and give them a no-harvest year next spring to recover. Dave

Mmm, I can't say that I was perfect with it... I had it in an unheated greenhouse and mostly relied on the condensation to keep the soil moist on everything. I did keep the 2" saucer underneath it, though, and only took it out when temperatures were below freezing because I figured that sitting in ice would be worse than dry. @ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5 , I pulled it out of the pot but unless I pull the soil apart I can't really see the roots :-( So I guess I'll just leave it alone and see what it looks like in a few weeks. It's not exactly hurting anything so I can let it go for awhile and hope for the best, but I'm planning to build a water bog this year and it was going to be a focal point so I HOPE to see some growth soon!