Are blackberries hard to control?

Question

I just planted two unnamed blackberry cultivars in a raised bed with rhubarb surrounded by flagstone. It seemed like a good idea at the time but now based on a remark about how they are a "nightmare to control" I'm having second thoughts.

• Do they send out a lot suckers?

• Can they be controlled by yearly hard pruning?

• How far will the suckers extend? More than a few feet?

Edit: I cannot mow the plants down in a raised bed. Is it feasible to plant them in a bottomless pail so they only send new canes from the base of the roots and not send suckers under my flagstone path?

Answer 1

There are two dangers with blackberries:

1. Suckers
2. Seeds

I have tons of wild blackberries; it must be some kind of sick contest between them and the ragweed as to which is the top weed here. I don't know that much about cultivated blackberries, but I believe have seen "non suckering" advertised as a feature of some cultivars.

They'll apparently grow anywhere. I have a pile of rubble/boulders where nothing should be growing, but the blackberries love it. Here, I blame the birds for spreading seeds.

Mowing seems to keep them under control (not eliminated, just controlled). I say this, because I don't have them popping up in the middle of the lawn, or in fields that are mowed at least a couple of times a year. But at the edges of the lawn, fields, or areas where I can't easily mow, there are many blackberries.

(I don't want this answer to sound like a complaint, though. I usually manage to freeze a couple of gallons of wild blackberries in August, and that doesn't count the berries that don't make it to the freezer. I definitely prefer the blackberries to the ragweed!)

Answer 2

It will probably depend on the particular cultivar.

Wild blackberries are extremely productive in spreading. I live on an Island nearly coated with blackberry.

They seem impervious to mowing, burning and chemicals:

http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7434.html#MANAGEMENT

So, that doesn't bode well. :/

One recommendation from the site above is to mow, then roto-till the roots several times.

Answer 3

Depends on where you live... where I live, it is too dry for them to be too dangerous... and the varieties that I have tried to grow for the last 2 years haven't done much yet.

I dug up about 40 Raspberry canes this spring and not one had major roots further down than 4-5 inches, so I wouldn't worry about trying to confine them if you have them in a raised bed and it isn't directly adjacent to a neighbors yard.

cons:
consider that the plants grown from a thornless blackberry seed may have thorns... the can spread quickly... they don't call them brambles for nothing!

pros:
they taste so much better than the berries that are available in a grocery store.