Billions of berries for Blackberry Jamble

August 15, 2011 12:46 PM

Can I move a blackberry plant safely?

We recently moved into a new home and much to our delight there is a hole slew of blackberry vines on one side of the house.

We came in and early summer and they were ripe and they were excellent. our neighbor told us that the vines came from cuttings from another neighbor almost twenty years ago. They run along our communal fence.

I have built a nice way for them to crawl and look forward to next season, but here is my question.

90% of the berries are on the fence line, which is where we want them, but a few are on the other side of the walkway, which is up against the side of the house.

We really would like to have them just on the one side, can I move the plants that are on the house side? Are blackberries complete plants, or is each one just a vine that has kind of broken through the ground?

I hope my question makes sense, any other words of wisdom greatly appreciated.

Henry

posted by silsurf to Home & Garden (8 answers total)

Blackberries are pretty much weeds and one of the ways they spread is by their roots and shoots. You can easily cut bits out - a bit of root and a bit of stem will do and by the end following year, you'll have a whole new plant. They're more or less indestructible, although they can be hard to get rid of.
posted by rhymer at 12:50 PM on August 15, 2011 [3 favorites]

Just going by my personal experience, it's a lot harder to KILL a blackberry than to keep it alive. Even when I tear them out, I have to make sure they don't just sprout up again in the compost pile. The vines have the ability to make their own roots.

Short story: Don't worry. Move them. They'll be taking over again in no time.
posted by small_ruminant at 12:51 PM on August 15, 2011

Maybe my alternate question of "how the f*%# can I get rid of these blackberries that keep sprouting even after I dig them up and perform exorcisms on them?" will give you some encouragement.
posted by Aquaman at 12:51 PM on August 15, 2011 [2 favorites]

Nthing that it'll be no problem. We had blackberries growing all over the islands in our front yard for years growing up. No one planted them. They just showed up one day. Whenever my dad would go out to weed, he'd come back in cursing, a thorny vine of blackberries mangling his arm, brandishing it at my mom while grumbling, "the $#!&ing blackberries are back! See if you can make something with these, I have to go find the weed killer."
posted by phunniemee at 12:59 PM on August 15, 2011

Where are you located? You could likely prune every cane and vine down to the ground and they would all be back next year. You'll probably be chopping them back monthly next year to keep them away from your walkway.
posted by peep at 1:26 PM on August 15, 2011

Document your moving the plant carefully. If, in the course of the move, the plant succumbs, patent whatever you did and sell it.

And what peep says.
posted by bz at 1:28 PM on August 15, 2011 [11 favorites]

Blackberries bear fruit on second-year canes, so if you want to be able to harvest the berries, you most definitely don't want to be pruning every month.
posted by Lexica at 1:35 PM on August 15, 2011

There is a complex of roots under the ground that are putting up the canes, they are all tangled and twined together down there. The root system is perennial and in my experience pretty hardy to transplantation. Indeed as many are noting digging up a root snarl and transplanting it will likely be the easy part, actually getting rid of the plant in the parts you don't want them won't be so easy. As Lexica correctly notes, canes will not fruit on first year growth so you if you prune them you need to make sure you keep some canes going over to the second year for them to bear fruit. You do need to prune them though because they are an aggressive weed. You can keep them in check however if you prune judiciously (I have one that rules a corner of my garden - but just the one corner - and I really only prune it once a year) and assiduously yank new sprouts trying to spread out of your designated area.
posted by nanojath at 9:47 PM on August 15, 2011