Get those canes ready for spring growth

When we plant berry bushes, we look forward to picking handfuls of luscious berries all summer long. To achieve that, it’s best to get your pruning and cleaning up of your berry patch done now. I love late winter for pruning- most leaves have dropped so you can see what you are doing and nothing is actively growing so no damage is done.  

LEFT PHOTO: Here is a ‘before’ photo of a blackberry patch that has been in the ground for 4 years or so. Notice there is a lot of growth from the previous summer.

Prune out the dull-colored, more hollow stems that fruited this past summer, and any small scraggly stems. Choose 3-5 main, healthy new stems that were the new growth from this past summer. These will be green in color. Train them up to be your fruit-producing canes for this summer.

RIGHT PHOTO: Here is what it looks like after removing the spent canes. It’s actually fairly simple to prune blackberries once you know what to look for.