Netting the Posh Garden Blackberries
While our vegetable garden is struggling in this insane summer heat, my Prime Ark Freedom blackberries are thriving! I bought five roots last year and planted five more this year! Typically, these blackberries fruit on second year canes, although I am seeing a few berries on the roots I planted this year. The true stars though are the ones I planted last year. About the end of June to the middle of July, I’ve been enjoying big, beautiful blackberries for breakfast each morning. Then…. the birds discovered them!
I wasn’t sure if I should net them but given, we have a plethora of birds on our property, I shouldn’t have given it a second thought! Sadly, I was a little slow on coming to that conclusion and sat one morning drinking my coffee on the North patio and watched as a murmuration of birds descended on my blackberries and put an end to my “berrylicous” breakfast! The worst of it was that the ‘little stinkers’ didn’t eat the whole berry, they’d nibble a bit here and a bit there and leave the mangled fruit on the cane! This is when I decided to get netting!
I ordered it from Gurneys.com, which is the same seed company from which I ordered my blackberries. Once it arrived, I set to work covering my plants. While reading the instructions, I learned that once the canes produced the berries it is a good practice to trim them back to the ground which allows better airflow for the remaining canes. So, I first set to work trimming the spent canes and topping of the new growth; doing the later encourages additional growth which will bring even more fruit next year! Interestingly, the Prim Ark Freedom blackberry is thornless, this makes picking berries so much easier and it makes netting it even more so!
In researching how to net blackberries, I learned it is best to install additional stakes and drape the net over them, so it doesn’t get tangled in the canes. Originally, I was going to use T-posts but then did a price comparison and opt to buy six-foot-long wooden stakes at Home Depot. I also purchase little terra cotta pots to put over the top of the stakes to hold the netting in place. Unfortunately, I didn’t measure the beds in which the blackberries are growing and bought netting that was too long! I have it bundled at the ends of the bed. Given its length I might end up using this netting for my table grapes next year and use the netting I bought for the grapes for the berries… the grape netting came in short which means I now have to by at least two more were as if I use the berry netting, given its overall length it might cover the whole row of grapes. I will figure that out next year! For now, I’m excited to say I’ve learned how to take care of my blackberries both in trimming and netting which is awesome. I also recently learned that this variety often gives you a second fall harvest! So, while it seemed kind of pointless to net them after the fact, turns out it might be worth it after all! I did see some new berries on a couple of the canes so figures crossed with a little luck I might be having blackberries for breakfast again very soon!
