I am no expert either but...

Different varieties will fruit on either last year's canes or on this year's canes. Some new fruit twice in one season.

So... find out what variety you are growing and then here or in the description available on google or on the online nurseries ( Stark, Miller, Raintree etc.) that sell the variety, will give you all the info and more.

Mike

Fred, I grow mine on a double wire trellis and I snip them about 6" before the tip gets to the top wire. But you can do the same for the bottom wire then train one new shoot up and then tip again as it gets close to the top wire. I don't bother as all the fruit that forms below 30" the chickens eat anyway.

Do you know what variety of blackberry it is? I can tell it's probably either Triple Crown, Chester, or Black Satin, but I'm not sure.

That being said, go ahead and tip them. Where you tip them the cane will send out new shoots thereby increasing your potential yield next year.

The blackberry canes in the photos are Triple Crown variety. I also have Natchez, Quachita, Apache, Navaho, and Prime Jan
I'm more concerned with The TP's getting Tip, as they are the ones with the 6-7 feet canes.

This week I picked three quarts off three Natchez plants that I planted last year. The berries are size about the size of Paul Bunyan thumb...big, big, big....bite size.

I will tip back the TP's about 4 inches.

Thanks for the advise.

Tip them and just watch. In three or four days they'll be putting out two/three new laterals at the end of the cane where you tipped it. If you let them grow, they'll grow another 7-8 feet. I tipped mine this way last year every four-five feet. The result was that at the base I had one cane but as you went up it spilt into two, then four, then eight, etc. It was crazy. This year those canes have put out new laterals at every old leaf group that now have fruit with clusters of 10-15 berries each. There must be thousands of berries on this one plant!

I planted a number of the aforementioned varieties this springand all are growing rather well, especially the Triple Crown and Natchez. As a trailing variety the Triple Crown is being trained on a 6 ft. 2 wire trellis. The Natchez will later be on a 3-4 ft trellis but presently is tied on a single 5 ft. stake.

I found on a couple sites that the Natchez needs tipping at ~4ft and the laterals dormant pruned to 18 to 24 in. I have done the tipping but now have laterals, some more than 4ft, and they are producing other sets of laterals. I would appreciate suggestions re. how to treat all this new growth -- do I need to pinch the laterals/sub-laterals or just let them grow and wait for the dormant pruning?

Here's a very good read regarding blackberries... It helped me a good bit.

Here is a link that might be useful: Link

Poolecw, Even though I am in RI most of the information in the article is very good for my zone 6b-7a. The information is excellent. It will be very useful with my two year old blackberries. It is all so logical and easy to understand. Thank you so much, Mrs. G

Yes thanks,I printed the whole thing and will put it in a binder for future reading. Brady

Can cuttings from growing tips be rooted easily?

I know they can be layered while still attached, but I need to cut these back last week.

They are about to swallow my car! And they are wild, self-seeded with big nasty thorns!

yukkuri kame,

I'm new to this, so I can't say for sure. I planted a boysenberry cutting a week ago and it's still green. (Boysenberries are a cross, but mostly blackberry). It's early, and only one test sample, but it looks like yes, cuttings from tips can be rooted. I cut the tip, planted it, keeping the soil moist.

Hopefully someone with more experience will give you a definitive answer.

yukkuri_kame
You try but need experience a lot experience a cutting bud has to transform to root bud and this takes time along time so fresh tip more likely die first.