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Fruit & Orchards

Blackberry runner question

14 years ago

Hello All, I'm new to blackberries this year (so please be nice considering my stupidity) and have a question about runners. Most of my berries are Kiowa that I got as bare roots and all are doing well. I have one Brazos that my husband got me which seems to be at least 2 years considering its size. A new cane has appeared only about half to a full inch away from the original cane I planted. Before I dig it up to move it I want to make sure it is a runner. Do they put on runners so close to the original cane? I guess I was expecting to see one a couple of feet away from the original plant this year if I saw one at all. Thanks for your help!

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Comments (6)

gldno1
14 years ago
Why would you want to dig it up? There can be several in a cluster. I would just dig up and move any that came up a great distance from the mother row. I have runners come up 10 feet away! I am developing a black berry patch instead of a row. I just try to keep a path mowed down among it.
kelgalon
Original Author
14 years ago
I was going to give a couple of the runners to my mother who wanted to start her own patch! If there can be several in a cluster maybe I'll just wait for one 10 feet away...that would be much easier to dig up :-)
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Scott F Smith
14 years ago
kelagon, if its that close its not a runner, its another shoot coming from the same rootball. If you are desperate you can split such rootballs in the manner that divisions are taken of flowers.

Scott
eskota
14 years ago
Wait until next winter, you'll have plenty of babies about 2 or 3' out from the mother plant. These come from the roots, not the crown, and need transplanting if you don't want a "patch."
jellyman
14 years ago
Kelgalon:

I think we need to clear up what seems to be a fundamental misunderstanding about blackberry canes. Blackberries are biennials that grow up new primocanes each spring. After wintering over, they are ready to blossom and form fruit, at which point they are called floricanes. Blackberry canes are not permanent structures like fruit trees; they are in a constant process of regrowth and renewal.

At the end of the fruiting season, the spent floricanes turn brown and die, and should be cut off at ground level. That may be the situation your original cane is in now, but don't try to remove the new primocane that is coming up beside it or you will reduce your own blackberry crop next season.

After your planting is better established, new canes may appear farther from the original plant, and that is when you can dig them up to share, should you choose to do so.

Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA
eskota
14 years ago
Again, just for clarity, upright blackberries and red raspberries don't have runners. They develop adventitious buds on their roots. "Root sprouts" is the correct term for the new plants that develop.

Black raspberries, trailing blackberries, and some hybrids (Dormanred, Youngberries, dewberries, etc) reproduce by tip layering. The end of their canes grow roots when they touch the ground.

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