Welcome to the forum. Also, congrats on the purchase of your first house.

July is generally a pretty bad time to plant most things because of the high temperatures we have here not only in July but also in August. Normally blackberries are planted in late winter/early spring. There are a couple of ways to plant them. You can plant them from cuttings, often sold in bags or bundles in stores in winter time, or from container-grown plants that are in pots. Normally you will find them in gallon pots, but sometimes in slightly smaller pots.

They generally are available at full-line nurseries, garden centers and big box stores at the proper planting time. I don't know if you'd be able to find any in stores at this time of the year. You also can order them online, by mail or by phone. Simmons Berry Nursery in Arkansas is a great source for varieties that grow well in this part of the country and so are Womack Nursery and Bob Wells Nursery in Texas. I believe all three either take orders by phone or online, and they all have websites you should be able to find easily by Googling.

They need well-drained sandy loam soil, but will tolerate clay soil. In either case, no matter which sort of soil you have, they like growing in soil that has had a lot of organic matter added. My brother grew the most beautiful blackberry plants I've ever seen, and they were highly productive too, and he planted them in almost 100% composted cow manure piled up on top of rocky, caliche clay ground.

You will notice that many of the varieties bred in this region of the country are named for Native American tribes. Cherokee is a particular favorite of mine, though I rarely see them in stores any more. They've probably been superceded by newer cultivars. Others that grow well here include Apache, Chickasaw and Choctaw.

Blackberries are vigorous growers and need loose soil 2-3' deep so they can stretch out their roots and grow. You can buy varieties that are thornless and varieties with thorns. In spring/summer of a given year, they produce berries on new growth from the prior year. So, your 2016 harvest, for example, would come from primocanes that grew in 2015. Once a cane has produced a harvest in a given year, it will not produce the following year, so you prune it off the plant. The new canes that grow in 2016 will be the primocanes that give you your 2017 harvest.

I'm going to link a fact sheet from OSU for you that tells you most of what you need to know.

Remember that different varieties bloom and produce fruit at different times. If you want to have a lot of berries at one time in order to freeze them or make jam, plant several plants of one variety. If you want to have a longer harvest period for fresh eating, plant different varieties that ripen fruit at different times.

If you luck out and have native blackberries pop up in your yard, they produce very small but very tasty berries.

Here is a link that might be useful: Raspberry and Blackberry Culture in OK

Dawn, thank you for the detailed reply! I've read OSU's documents a few times already--those guys are a great resource.
Thanks for the input on high organic matter in soil. Good to know.
At this point I'm undecided between planting 1gal plants after the heat has broken (Sept?) and giving the Blackberries at least 2 months to grow, or waiting until next Feb and planting them then. I would think a 2 month head start would be good? Any thoughts?

l have a bed of Natchez they bear first week of June and are thorn less. nice big berries can be a little tart if picked too quick.

I am going to plant some Osage this fall. they are a new variety produced by university of ark. they to are thornless and are said to be sweeter than the Natchez they will ripen the second week of June

There are some thorn berries that are said to be better tasting and if i was going to plant thorn berries I would look at Cherokee and Choctaw

Well, if you can find them, then planting in fall is fine. I am not sure if you'll be able to find them at that time of the year. Normally I do not see them down here in southern OK until January. Sometimes, though, you will find them at places like Lowe's or Home Depot in July on clearance. If they are healthy and you find them now, you could plant them now, or keep them in their pots (or move them up to the next larger size pot) and keep them well watered and then put them in the ground whenever the heat breaks, which at our house sometimes occurs around mid August, but sometimes not until late August or early September. A fall planting will give them a bit of a head start on growing their root systems, but it won't give you much of a head start on vegetative growth. While a couple of months sounds like a long time, generally it takes them a little while to settle in and start growing some roots and then they will start growing vegetatively---and then the first freeze will arrive.

Also, remember that you don't always get your first frost, freeze or killing freeze when expected. Our first year here, we had a killing freeze around September 28th or 29th. A few years later we had our first killing freeze around December 18th. So, no matter what your average freeze date might be, Mother Nature has the final say and does as she pleases.

Oldokie, Can you find blackberry plants for sale up there in the fall or are you ordering them from somewhere else and having them shipped?

Dawn

Teacher snake, congrats on getting the garden bug. I have a huge blackberry, thornless patch with many babies. Would love to donate a couple baby canes to you. Mine are loaded right now. These are the very large berries and delicious. Wish I could give you the variety but are hand me downs from my grandmother. Contact me if you are interested. Welcome to the crew!

Thanks for the helpful replies, everybody! C1nicolei I sent you an email. You guys are great!

Mine are from pense nursery in Ark. They ship in spring

Mine are from pense nursery in Ark. They ship in spring

Oldokie,

Thanks.

Dawn

I grow blackberries in OKC and have had luck with Apache ( Home Depot ) and TLC sells Black Satins. Both big plump berries ripe in July. I go for minimal thorns.....

Mark