Blackberries

[monkeyx]

Looking for advice on blackberries. I have harvested some wild berries that I was going to try and grow from seed. Will the fruit be ok from these, or would I be better buying some seeds for a cultivated variety?

Would spring be best time to plant the seeds?

Tim

[chris]

It'd be better to take a hardwood cutting (or cutting from this years growth - I was reading recently), they root more readily, and will bear fruit much much faster than when grown from seed. I think you're talking a few years before you'd see fruit if you germinated (not sure how difficult that is either) from seed.

I'd go back with a pair of seccies and lob a bit off (well, a couple to make sure) - ~October is a good time to do it.

Alternatively, you could pop to a garden centre when their out of season - be a bit cheaper... some recently in my garden centre (couple months ago) were £2 ! You'd then be able to choose say, for example a thornless variety.

Got to say though, I've recently had some blackberries from my bush at home (bought in, not from a cutting) and the taste is crazy? So sharp, yet sweet - it's mad!

[rustylady]

Looking for advice on blackberries. I have harvested some wild berries that I was going to try and grow from seed

Tim, It will take ages from seed, and the results will be unpredictable. Best way is to find a plant you like the taste of and take a cutting - if you can find a bit where the cane has touched the ground and formed roots so much the better. Either that, or the shops will be selling blackberry plants about now.

[Two_Sheds]

Just as Rusty says, they are tip-rooting. You should bend a tip to the ground, peg it down until it's rooted and then separate from the mother plant.