pruning blackberry canes that are half brown, half green?
jbclem
8 years ago
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jtburton
8 years agoRelated Discussions
When to mulch blackberry canes for winter protection?
Comments (12)Woodstock, I don't grow Kiowa, but the AR thornless I grow have less winter dieback than TC. I've read before thorny erect are generally hardier than thornless erect, so my guess is Kiowa will probably do fine. But as I said, I've had pretty good luck with TC. I really don't think wind is the big factor because we get tons of it here. One thing that is perhaps different is that my planting is mulched very heavy. The mulch almost never lets the ground dry out. Fertility may play a role as well (i.e. high fertility produces larger canes, larger canes being more hardy than smaller ones). On the pruning, mature TC plants will send out too many laterals for the trellis. I generally remove some of the laterals leaving about 3 laterals per wire, keeping the bigges ones. The laterals will also grow too long and overlap laterals from the next plant, so you generally have to shorten the laterals as well. New plants don't have as much vigor and may require very little pruning. "As far as I know, older maps put me in 5, newer maps put me in 6, so what zone am I actually in?" The USDA redrew the zone maps several years ago. If the new ones say zone 6 then that's your zone. As you allude, the minimum temperature of a zone is the average minimum winter temperature. So if most of your winters are around 0F then it would be hard for your zone to average minus 20F for a zone 5. That said, it only takes one winter minus 20F to kill some fruit trees, so zone rankings have their limitations....See Morepruned butterfly bush in half - today!
Comments (6)Pruning Ornamental Shrubs Care and Pruning of Butterfly Bushes "These large shrubs often give gardeners fits about pruning. The important thing to remember is that these are tough plants. There is almost nothing wrong you can do. You can prune anytime. If you prune hard during the growing season the worst that can happen is you will cut off your flowers for a while. But, they grow fast and more flowers quickly replace those that are lost. The normal life cycle of this bush is to go dormant in zones 5 and 6. At this point the canes above ground are dead. They can then be pruned to the ground. This is usually sometime after frost. If you are in a marginal zone 5 area, it is a good idea to apply a three to six inch layer of mulch covering the crown. In zones 8 and up, the bush will remain evergreen and can be pruned to the ground or in any configuration that suits your garden."...See MorePruning Blackberries and Raspberries
Comments (8)The raspberry instructions are fine; the two-year-old canes can be pruned anytime after they have been harvested. although if there are a lot of green leaves remaining, that can benefit the planting. For erect blackberries such as Apache and Ouachita, your pruning summary above is standard. It is intended to create a plant that requires little or no support from a stake or trellis, that is why the laterals are pruned so short. I don't know what "Tie the pruned canes to your fencing" means with respect to blackberry training. Perhaps you meant trellis. With this pruning style, the most that would be needed is one central stake per clump of canes. This pruning method means you will be relying on a large number of canes to generate a large crop. Otherwise blackberries can be allowed to run wild, they will form fruit all along the length of the lateral no matter how long it gets. Most people do not need or want that many berries. It may be well into June or even July before your canes are tall enough here to prune; let them get one or two feet taller than your target height so that the top is sturdy enough to bear laterals. You can certainly do the thinning in spring if sprouts are numerous. Let them get big enough so that the stronger ones become apparent....See MoreBrown Leaves, Green Suckers: Should I prune?
Comments (9)Ok, I'm in California (Long Beach) ... Zone 10. I'm brand new to all this gardening stuff. This year was my first year ever to grow anything and I'm making tons of mistakes (but learning). The entire idea of even growing a garden was sort of a joking challenge on behalf of my wife. I did not trim suckers off my tomato plants at all until I read a couple of articles and saw a you tube video ... and this guy said, "I want to grow tomatoes, not tomato plants." So I started trimming suckers off my tomato plants ... to the point I was afraid I would kill the plant. OMG!!!!! My plants went crazy ... they exploded on me with the tomatoes, they are shooting out all over the damned place. In the picture below, that plant right there (and that's just one) is only about 4 feet high, its growing into my jalapeno plants, into my artichokes ... my cage can't support it (I got it tied off about 4 ways to Sunday) ... you can see all the tomatoes on the plant and that's just on that side ... and ... I've probably gotten 20 tomatoes off that plant already. I totally underestimated everything about these tomato plants! But regardless, I am a convert now about trimming suckers off my plant, if it doesn't have hair and its not growing up ... it gets pruned off. BTW, I'm using Ferry Morris Beefmaster, Hybrid seeds (my wife picked up on sale at Rite-Aid) that I grew from seed in a dixie-cup starting back in February ... and I moved em into the ground towards the end of March and just started watering. I didn't even think the silly things would grow, it was just dirt I scraped the grass off of and broke up (I did stir in some potting soil left over ... a little more then half a bag). We're getting tomatoes the size of my fist (some larger, some smaller). We already have had BLT's several times, gave away tomatoes, had em on our burgers and salads, and made a pot of home-made spaghetti sauce that fed 6. I'm like totally blown away ... its like jack and the bean-stalk!...See More
jbclem
8 years ago
Scott F Smith
8 years agojbclem
8 years agojtburton
8 years ago
PROThe Logician LLC
8 years agogarymc
8 years ago
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