Growth Stages for the Blackberry Plant

Blackberries need support to allow air circulation and to make picking easier.


If you live with blackberries in your yard and have tried to eradicate them, you might imagine that the vines never stop growing and that their roots reach 10 feet down. While they are highly adaptable to different climates, blackberries have predictable growth habits. Grow them in full sun with regular to moderate amounts of water, well-draining soil and fertilizer applied as buds begin to swell just before new growth begins.

Seasonal Growth

Blackberry roots are perennial, but the canes themselves are biennial. Canes begin to grow one season, when they are called “primocanes,” produce fruit the second season on canes called “floricanes,” and then die. At any given time, blackberries will have canes in different stages of growth. The berries grow on shorter offshoots on the floricanes. To reduce powdery mildew in blackberries, cut two-year-old canes to the ground after they finish producing each season.

Growth Stages in Different Varieties

You'll find blackberries available in early, midseason and late varieties, with fruit ripening at different times depending on the variety and on your climate. Those like “Brazos,” which thrive in U.S. Department of Agriculture plant hardiness zones 8a through 10b, ripen early and are especially suited for hot summers. Others, such as Himalayan blackberries (Rubus armeniacus), ripen in midseason and grow in USDA zones 5b through 10b.

Fruit Growth

Fruit begins when the flower buds on blackberries start to swell and grow into flowers, which then ripen to berries each summer. “When blackberries are green, they're red” is a statement that greatly intrigued young Little Tree in the novel “The Education of Little Tree" by Forrest Carter. A few varieties, such as “Prime Jan” and “Prime Jim,” which grow best in USDA zones 7a through 10a, produce two crops each year, one in the fall on the top of primocanes, and one the next summer on the floricanes.

Additional Growth Stages

If you disturb the ground around blackberries, either by tilling or by pulling up old canes, you may encourage new growth from the suckers that grow up naturally around the base of an existing plant. These suckers take root and grow where they are, or you can dig them up and replant them in another location. If you do this in early spring, the roots will continue to grow through the year and begin producing canes the following spring.

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