I have wild blackberries here. Nothing I would recommend. I would think they would want full sun if possible. I get most of my info from my local Ag center or by googling the plant and the zone. Dave's Garden has a great website.

Thanks Silvia. After I did my post I did a word search on "blackberries" and found several good threads with lots of information about "chill hours" and varieties. By the way I planted some of the black tomato seeds you gave me last spring. I now have tomato plants as tall as I am. If I get caught by a freeze I have another set that I just potted and I just planted more seeds. I'm determined not to get shut out on tomatoes. Keep posting! I always learn something and the pictures of your cooking makes my mouth water!

Papa Jim

Papa JIm,
The Kiowa Blackberry do well here (200 chill hours).(thorny)
The Triple Crown also do well for me here. (thornless)
This summer I bought two Tupi blackberry plants that originally came from Brazil. The Mexicans grow the Tupi blackberry plants in Mexico for berry export so I thought I would try them out to see how they do in Florida. They are the thorniest blackberry plants I have ever seen. Even the leaves have thorns.

I bought the Tupi from Berries Unlimited, they also have other blackberry plants. click on the link below.

Here is a link that might be useful: Berries Unlimited

Thanks Lou. You anticipated my next question: "Where do you get them?" By the way, do any of them make attractive plants?

Papa Jim

FWIW, after growing the thorned type of blackberries, I decided to buy some thornless 1s & get rid of the the others - the thorns are too much of a (literal) pain!

Anybody have experience with Navajo? They are thornless. decorative and according to one site good through region 10, although I did find another site that said they require 800/900 chill hours.

Papa Jim

Thank you Papa Jim for all your nice words. About the blackberries I have the variety Arapaho and I am satisfied with them.

Silvia

I have 90 feet of blackberries. At one time had Ouachita, Apache and Kiowa. The first two not good, I like the Kiowa. It is thorny but the fruit is large and sweet. If you do not have full sun the quality of the berry will suffer. Having partial morning sun and full afternoon sun is much better than the other way around.

I have had birds bother the berries but never the tree rats.

Lou is starting me a couple Tupi as I want to try them as I have heard nothing but good things. Blackberries do benefit greatly from mulch.

Yes, Blackberries do benefit greatly from mulch, but do not use any acidic type mulch and keep the mulch at least six inches away from the main growth. Our heavy summer rains can cause rotting or fungal problems if the mulch is too close to the plant base.

Navaho needs 800 to 900 chill hours, which is too high a chill requirement for Florida. (it will never fruit here unless you dig it up each winter and place it in your refrigerator for a month or two) this could possibly cause some friction from your better half - you think?

Papa Jim, go with the Triple Crown as the best all around thornless blackberry for Florida. This variety has sweet aromatic berries with excellent flavor. Very productive. Canes are semi-erect, vigorous, and sturdy. It was named for it's three qualities - yummy flavor, large berry productivity, & vigorous growth, hence - Triple Crown.

Bamboo-rabbit had a taste of the Triple Crown berry this spring and enjoyed it's flavor. (yes I also had to get him a start of this berry too) We swap a lot of stuff between us as we are only 10 minutes away from each other. A couple weeks ago he brought over some Mysore berry plants he started for me.
We are now both trying out the Caroline Red Raspberry plants for Florida, normally red raspberries do not grow and fruit in Florida.

Lou

Triple Crown from Berries Unlimited it is then! I am hesitant to put anything in my ground (sand that is). Nematodes defeated my efforts to grow tomatoes completely until I learned container growing on this forum. I'm assuming Lou's Blueberry mix will be a little too acidic for Blackberries. How about Al's Mix or his gritty mix?

Lou, those Triple Crown sound good and if anything does not do well in the garden, I will think of replacing them with those blackberries.

Papa Jim, all my fruit trees get the leftover soil from the containers that I grow tomatoes after the season ends, blackberries get the same.

Silvia

Papa Jim,
Just like Sylvia I use my season end leftover tomato soil from the tomato containers for my blackberry plants. I use modified 3 foot tall 15 gallon waste baskets for growing my tomato plants so I have plenty of used tomato soil from the ten tomato containers for my new blackberry additions each year. I make my own mixtures in the spring time using a shovel full of this and that into my cement mixer so I'm not sure what is in the mixtures you describe as Al's mix. I did at one time know the ratios I use but now I just make it automatically without even thinking about the ratios and mix it until it looks right. DUH!

You are correct in thinking the mixture for the blackberries is different than my blueberry mixture. Sorry I can't be more specific but a good tomato mixture should work. You want a PH around 6.0 - 6.5 for blackberries.

Lou

Thanks Lou. My tomato mix has worked well, so I'll go with it. Now all I need to do is order my Triple Crowns and start rounding up some big pots.

Papa Jim