Should be fine as long as they don't get significantly buried. My Chesters are a little bit below the surface and are doing quite well. Have new canes already 5 feet tall. Seem to be doing well.

ABz5b,

Thanks for speaking up. I've appreciated your posts in the past.

I'm thinking the top of the crown would be maybe an inch under the soil. Since the plants already have primocanes up I doubt it wouldn't interfere with that.

Maybe add just a little soil at a time and do it more than once?

PS. My one Chester has a cane that is already over 9 feet tall! I was out of town and didn't tip it off before it got that tall. It hasn't put up any other canes yet (which is weird since last year it put up four). My triple crown has two canes about 7 feet tall. And the Black Satin has four canes about 6-7 feet tall. They've been growing like crazy.

Yeah the one that is 5-6 ft tall is the size of a quarter at the base. I let mine get a little longer as I tie them to a trellis then top them the following year so you get more laterals. I have 8 of the chester and the lavender blooms are just opening. looks pretty neat. Wish they stayed that color instead of fading to white though lol. Boysens, CHickasaw, and Prime ark all are in full bloom with small berries on them. Cant wait till i get some ripe berries :)

My Chesters and Black Satin's are LOADED with berries. There must be thousands of berries on those plants! The Triple Crown is a little slower getting going, but looks like it will have tons as well. My boysenberry is getting close to ripening, and I've had a few loganberries already. I'm thrilled!!!

My Triple Crown's (6) plants didn't grow all that well last year after I planted them, couple plants had some canes about 6-7 feet . This year, the new canes are trying to out-do each other. One plant has new canes about 7' and only started from the crown about 1st June. The other plants have canes about 4-5 feet...and still looking like they also will be growing long.
I have a question. Should I tip back the new canes some 5-6 inches so they will form new laterals growth?

Fred,

I tipped mine like that last year. The result? Where I tipped it the cane split into two or three canes can kept growing. I didn't really get laterals down the cane. Instead the cane just split into two or three new canes at the tip and kept growing. There's no slowing these things down! They are impressive plants

I always tip them at the very beginning of the floricane year. You don't want the laterals to get beyond 18 inches.

Everything i have is either in full bloom or full bloom with some berries already formed except the triple crown which seems to bloom later than my other varietes. Looking forward to my boysenberries ripening up as I have 10 times the growth I had the year before.

How much growth would you say your Boysenberries have?

I planted mine last summer, so they are still pretty immature. I have two primocanes about 4 feet tall at this point on the most mature plant.

Planted mine the summer before last. The most mature plant Has 4 floricanes. 2 of the Floricanes are 12 feet long and are woven through the Fence. Has 5 Primocanes 4-5 feet long. Granted this plant is in a 5 gallon container and i fertilized it 2 times last year and i have fertilized it 2 times once at beginning of year and once at bloom. I mulch and have it on a drip system. I am a huge fan of the drip lines. Seems to make a huge difference in growth patterns as with the mulch the plants never run short of water. After yesterday I noticed i have room for one more container, which I'm going to put another boysenberry in. Clearing room for 5 more plants and I think im going to put my spare TC's in there. Might trial Lochness not sure yet,

How did you like the Logans? I have one trial plant in a big container and mine are a few days from ripe if i beat the kids off of it lol.

That's pretty impressive growth on the boysenberries! I'm looking forward to seeing what they do in the next year or two....

I'm actually out of town and haven't tried the Loganberries. I'm going off what my dad told me who ate them for me. He said they had a raspberry-like flavor more than a blackberry-like flavor, semi-tart, but "very good." So, i'm not entirely sure what that means, but it sounds delicious...

Yeah i only have 1 now seeing if i like them enough to get more or not. Currently have quite a few plants so i either need to lay a new bed/rototill or get rid of or thin out another variety.

Out of all varieties I have, I like the thorny Boysen the best.

My dad grew up eating boysenberries way back in the 1940's in southern Missouri. He says they were better than any blackberry he had ever had (but he's only had wild blackberries).

I've never had a fresh boysenberry. The few I'd have this year apparently got eaten by birds (so my dad told me today. Ugh!). Next year I should get quite a few, and the year after that a ton. I'm pretty excited.

I agree with your dad i havent had a blackberry that is as good as a boysen, and ive had quite a few varieties of them.

If I find the boysenberries as tasty as you and my dad say, I may find myself pulling out some of my blackberry plants to extended my boysenberry crop.

Here is a picture of the boysens. I keep these in 5 gallon pots and fertilize them 3 times per year. The picture you see is the base of the pot and canes extend and are woven through a chain link fence above the picture. This one has 8 new canes coming out in addition to the existing floricanes woven through the fence.

Chester's. 8 plants total 40 ft row

These are woven through the wires on the trellis. I keep them low so the kids can get to them.

Counted 85 lateral blooming clusters within a 2 foot radius on these Chester's. my tipping method seems to be working lol. Very productive. Going to need a 3rd wire for these next year.

This post was edited by ABz5b on Wed, Jun 19, 13 at 0:31

Thanks so much for the pictures! Those are impressive and beautiful plants. When I get home, I'll snap some pictures of mine and post them. I'm really impressed with the boysenberries. They look like they don't mind being in the pots at all. Very nice.

Yeah i was going to redo that bed underneath where they sit now, but they are doing so well in the pots i didnt want to disturb them.