Cindy wrote:

jan wrote:


Can blackberries be pruned now? They have stopped producing.
I have long shoots that will produce berries next year. It is these
long 5' shoots that I would like to cut back, hoping to encourage
more branches to shoot off from the base. Is now the time? JAN



I don't know when the best time to prune them is, but don't cut the new
shoots - take out the oldest ones. You cut the new ones, you won't have any
berries. You'll get more and more new shoots as the plant matures.

Jan, what I did last year with my dewberries (which are essentially
wild blackberries) was to cut them down to the ground after they quit
producing. There's a long enough growing season that they came back
after that and produced the canes which made berries this year. This is
the first year in three years that I've gotten more than a couple
handfuls of berries. YMMV. I spent part of the last two days cutting
them down again; now I'll let them grow for next year.

Of course, the weather may have had something to do with it, too.

DT
http://www.thehungersite.com/