Hi there!

For those of you that grow thornless boysenberries, I've got a few questions if you have some time to answer them:

1. On my new primocanes coming up, some have thorns. Should I let those priomocanes grow or cut them out and only let the thornless ones grow? The past few years, I've cut them out because someone mentioned they don't produce as well as their thornless couterparts, even though they both seem to originate from the same crown.

2. I've heard a variety of discussions with regards to letting the primocanes grow on the ground and then tie them to the trellises in February or March. I've never been able to do that because if I did it would be almost impossible to keep the grass and weeds under the trellises and irrigation lines from growing 2 to 3 feet tall during

the summer and fall months down here. Usually, I start to tie the primocanes up about now so I can use my weedeater to keep the weeds and grass at bay during the summer months. Mind you, I'm down here near Montgomery AL where it gets hot and humid in the summer time and pre-immergant herbicides don't seem to do the job (e.g., simazine and

surflan) as well as advertised. My question is what do you do to keep the weeds and grass from consuming your primocanes during the summer months or is that an issue for you as some of my primocanes will grow over 15 feet

in length?

3. Last fall we had an issue with rabbits eating the outer layer of the primocane's bark near the crown down to the cambium layer and, in some cases, ate all the way through the canes. They also did a good job on my Doyle thornless, although they didn't seem to bother my erect blackberries. Anyone have any thoughts as to how to protect the canes from those little rascals? Maybe if I let the weeds grow up around the canes during the summer, the rabbits won't see them ... :o)

Any thoughts will be greatly appreciated as we have a lot of folks that love boysenberries!

Ken Barber

Millbrook AL