Congrats Lisa,

TC is an excellent berry. Don't make the mistake I did when I first laid mine out by planting too close together. Six feet in the row is about as close as you dare space them with a trellis. Also give yourself plenty of room b/t rows so you won't crowd your equipment.

Trellising is going to be a heck of a chore for 300 plants.

I've been experimenting growing TC without a trellis with just a few plants by keeping the canes cut back to about 3-4' in height. I'm satisfied enough with the results, I'm planning on expanding the planting and just try to raise them like fully erect varieties. I plan to use closer spacing since I won't be using a trellis.

Hi Lisa-
Congratulations on your 300 Triple Crowns! My goodness, that's going to be a ridiculous amount of berries! I know nothing of commercial farming, but if I had to pick a blackberry to do a U-Pick with, it would probably be TC. With your 300 plants, I look forward to what you can teach me!

Of course Olpea is correct, as always. 6 feet between plants would be an absolute minimum. I'd shoot for more like 8 feet being optimal. ... Though, by keeping them so low, perhaps I'd shoot for 10' (or even more) between plants. (though it's probably too late for this advice!)

I'm curious, though, why you'd want to keep them at 3-4' in height... Surely your average picker can pick well beyond that. I struggle to keep mine at 8'.... having to top them 3 or 4 times during the season. Is it really worth sacrificing so much of the plant so that you don't need a trellis? (though I guess 50% less height doesn't necessarily mean 50% less yield) I've got to believe it's going to require constant pruning to keep it at those height?

Have you ever considered planting another variety to extend your UPick season? Doyle comes to mind.

Let us know how it works out!

-Glenn

Howdy Lisa my first planting was 8,000 plants I went commercial for fresh market the reason for planting so many first year was I did not no which of 5 cultivar would produce in zone 8b. 2 made grade high production 5,000 plants. After 18 months picking packing begins. I had all land needed so spacing was not problem, but knowing right spacing was in drill row for my variety's 4 foot yours triple crown 6 more feet needed row middles should be 12 foot at least because people passing in row middle plus plants space leaves only 6 foot to pass. My best row spacing was 22 feet because I used 35 pickers.

just for info that hard to find a gallon blackberries weight 5 lbs. & 4 oz USDA. But in freezer gallon bag 5 lbs fits best large berries

Hi Glenn,

I've been experimenting keeping TC at 3-4' for the sole reason of reducing workload. It just seems to take so much labor to keep the canes on the trellis, so I have tried growing some without a trellis. Without a trellis, the canes will blow over and break if I let them get much past 4'. There is yield loss in keeping them so short, but I thought I might make up for some of it by spacing them closer.

I'm really not recommending it to anybody yet, because I'm still evaluating it myself. I may end up using a couple wires around the perimeter of the rows to stabilize the canes so I can grow them a little taller. I've seen this done successfully with erect varieties and it doesn't look like too much work.

I like .....V.....V..... with T post every 20 foot are more and wire on each side hedgerow the plants take care in drill row. Cane lean over to wires and berries make on outside to wires with 10% inside wires should only be 30 inches apart. I drive post into drill row and use threaded end post round. This system I use on 22 acres because worked easy install.
Placing nobs on post inward to row with clips come with post made adjusting wire height possible and nobs help hold load on wire.
First year wire from ground knee cap high after all first summer growth over winter move wire up to top front pocket height use this method because hand free measurement.
Did side pruning with tractor and sickle bar mower some run in upright mode belt driven bar. Side pruning done twice each summer mid and end growth. Top pruning done about 7 times a year in zone 8b.

Gator,

Any chance you can post a pic of your trellis system? It sounds like your sold on it, but I don't understand your description.

V-trellis (with metal T-posts)
This system I started in Georgia when grew blackberries.

Figure 2a and 2b

Improvement to what see T post bottoms should be close together in fact all measurement are wrong in figure 2a but general id is there.

Here is a link that might be useful: V-trellis (with metal T-posts)

Now that's what I need, a Stiles shift trellis (Fig 5b).

Can someone share with me how to include a photo with your post. Thanks! Lisa

Hi Lisa-
Follow the advice in this link. Basically, for this forum, you have to post it to some other site first, and call it/link to it from it. -Glenn

Here is a link that might be useful: Adding a picture on any forum

Thanks Gator,

I've seen the V trellis design with wooden posts.

I'm not sure what the advantage is of setting the posts (T-posts, or wooden posts) at an angle. I've seen one setup where the grower set the t-posts straight (like you would building a fence) and used wires like one would in a V trellis system. In other words, it was essentially a V trellis system, but the posts were set straight up and down, instead of a V.

It seemed the advantage of setting the posts straight up and down was that the wires were a little wider at the base, so it was easier to keep the emerging canes inside the wires.

Any comment on that?