Sue:
Below link should be of interest you.
Look at page 7 for fertility management.
I have grown a few Apache blackberries for 3 years.
Even with straw mulch, weed control is my biggest problem.

Here is a link that might be useful: Growing Blackberries in NC

Ironically enough, just last weekend we discovered our land which buts up to the garden I want to plant these in, is loaded with wild blackberries. I don't know how I will ever get rid of them all to prevent disease from spreading to mine?

Why does everything have to be so complicated? Aaarrgghhh!

Susan

If I were you, I'd keep the wild ones. They'll likely be much more disease resistant and vigorous than cultivated ones. I've never grown cultivated blackberries, but I've bought them, and the flavor does not compare favorably, IMO, to the wild ones. I'm in the Ozarks, so maybe yours are different, but what we do here is cultivate/manage the wild ones the best we can, i.e., keep them somewhat thinned and weeded, cleared around, and throw some fertilizer under them every so often. Some are better than others, so you can select over time.

One more thought - with berries, like with herbs and tomatoes, sometimes a little neglect is the best thing for them in terms of flavor. In other words, a rocky hillside works better than rich garden soil, mulching, and regular watering.

Susan,

This is my second year with blackberries. Outside of the birds, I am extremely pleased with the outcome. I put down some 10-10-10 when the leaves appear in the spring, and once again 2 monthes later. I'm in Texas so I'm not sure about the watering schedule because of all of the rain we've had.

I jsut started giving them miricle-gro every 2-3 weeks since they are fruiting (saw that on Fresh from the garden). I spray a garlic/cayenne, apple cider vinegar, and fish emulsion spray every 2-3 weeks for fungus and a couple of pests. Cut the canes after fruiting and dont fertilize after July.

You should be good.

RobiniaQuest, I too think wild blackberries tend to have good flavor. But I am out west where we can grow several varieties of excellent cultivated blackberries that probably are not hardy enough for your zone because they have some genetics of the native dewberries that aren't very coldhardy.

Only trouble for us is...THEY ARE JUST AS HARD TO MANAGE AS THE WILD ONES! Big rampant thorny things! The package said "bush" but they are in fact arching canes just like the feral ones. Nice big flowers (almost ornamental I would say) and big berries tho.

I'm tempted to dig them up (maybe sell them) and replace them with upright types, but I will wait to compare the fruits to that of the upright bush types. If the fruit on the bush types is good enough I might dig out the sprawlers on the theory that I don't have enough time to keep them "tame".

atash,

Put them on a trellis to keep the canes of the ground. Makes picking and weeding a lot easier.

Susan,

I have wild berries and domesticated berries on my property. The domesticated berries are trellised, fertilized and watered regularly. The wild berries are cut back with a chain saw / lawn mower /hedge trimmer whenever they get to big on the fence. I keep them both because of the weather. This year we had little rain so the irrigated, domesticated berries where our best crop. two years ago after the hurricane my domesticated berries took a beating but the wild berries did great because of all the new sunlight from the downed trees.

Al

My 2 cents, leave the wild berries alone. We have tons of them, they are tough and yummy (though small)