How to improve Blackberry bushes to produce better Blackberries?

Bricriu

Anyone know how to improve the quality of Blackberries on Brambles/Blackberry bushes?

I have plenty of brambles in my garden, but the Blackberries that grow on them are not of very good quality; they tend to be small, half-green/red when the rest is black or ripened, and prone to maggots.

Would really welcome advice on organic fertiliser to improve quality, and how to prune the bushes so that they produce a better yield.

Connemara Man

looksee

Leave the wild ones for the birds and buy a decent rootstock to provide you with fruit.

macraignil

Got a thornless variety myself a few years back that is much easier to deal with, and produces better quality and bigger fruit than the wild type so agree with Looksee that getting a better variety would be the best way to get better fruit. The thornless variety I have has been easy to propagate and from the one plant I started with I must have over twenty now without making any real effort other than dividing some from the older plants every so often.

Happy gardening!

dfbemt

There is lots of good advice on the www. Over the years I have developed my own technique, which is not the way the experts would tell us, but this works for me........

Every late Autumn I cut back half of the canes (the older ones) to about 5cm and trim the remaining half (the newer ones), generally ending up with a 50-80cm cane. Then I apply a good layer of general farmyard manure and leave them for the winter.

When the new canes emerge, I apply a reasonable amount of ash from the stove (wood ash only).

Once flowers start to appear, I scatter handfuls of chicken pellets, approx every month, and gently rake them in.

And that's it really. Some years are good, some not so. But every year the bees visit (they loves the blackberry flowers) and do their business and that's just as important for the garden in general as getting a good crop. A win win.

Best of luck with yours.