Thornless Blackberries

With thornless blackberries, you get that yummy blackberry flavor without ripping your skin to shreds.

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Wild blackberries are a treat , but unless you encase yourself in protective clothing , your arms and legs will be bloody by the spine . So when I noticed thornless blackberries in a catalog a few years ago , I was eager to give them a try .

I determine to set up plants fromNourse Farmsin Deerfield , Massachusetts . Unable to settle on a diversity , I asked them to send me the one best beseem to my region ( southwestern Connecticut ) , and they chose ‘ Chester ’ .

My five plant come in early spring , and I planted them about 4 ft . apart , as recommended in Nourse ’s planting guide . I built a simple trellis of metal fence post and wire to support them . Incredibly , my resident cervid charter a fantasy to the new canes , so I hastily enlarged my orchard fence to include them . My fence wo n’t win any design awards , but I can live with that , now that the deer are on the exterior looking in .

Both thorny and spineless blackberry bear yield on 2nd - year cane . But that ’s where the similarity ends . ‘ Chester ’ organize huge arc cane and astonishingly tumid berries .

To keep the industrial plant approachable and productive , a little pruning is in parliamentary procedure . In late fall or wintertime , you remove cane that expect fruit the old year . In early summer , you could prune the ends of the first - class canes to encourage the formation of fruit - bear side shoots .

At my place , yield commence to get on in late August and go along for several weeks . The yield may look ripe , but it is n’t really ready unless the berry come right off with little insistency . You do n’t need to cull every day , just two or three times a week . pick , sans thorns , is painless and relaxing .

What to do with these tasty berries ? We reverse them into electronic jamming ( a specialty of my son ’s ) , shoemaker , cooler , and smoothies , or just eat them clean . Blackberries can also be freeze for use in the winter ( disseminate on a cooky weather sheet in a single level , then transfer to a plastic bag ) .

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