Our Dewberries, Rubus trivialis, grow in full sun to partial shade, but I noticed recently that the bigger, more tender berries were found under our hardwood trees. These trees are 30-60 feet tall and spaced well apart, so the berries aren't all in dense shade all day. It could be that the animals are finding and eating the exposed big berries more easily out in the open, or it could be that the berry vines under the trees have been less disturbed by mowing or whatever and so they have had the chance to develop larger vines in the first place. Any opinions on why the best fruit was under the trees?
Carol

I know this message is a little late, sorry, I just found the forums!

You're wasting your time doing anything to blackberries, unless you are trying to get rid of them. Just let them grow naturally because they are going to do that regardless of what you want, lol.

You could always move them by cutting the canes with hedge trimmers and mowing the entire bush down. But you are going to have to wait for fruit if you want to do that.

Better just to leave them alone.

I'm with Biophilia on this one - both in New York state, where I grew up, and here in Virginia, I'm finding the best fruit is in open shade under hardwoods (or at least deciduous trees). My opinion FWIW is that in a hot summer climate, the berries under the tree have more time to plump up before they actually change color, so there's more flesh per seed.
Steve, if you have good big patches and they are satisfying your needs, I'd say leave 'em unless you really like looking for trouble. However, if you have a smaller patch by the house, it's worth training it some. My current (tiny) patch is under a post oak, well watered because it's next door to where I keep the potted stuff waiting to go in the garden. I go thru it every year cutting out the old canes and any new ones that are too far from the adjacent fence, and tie the fruiting canes to the fence. It provides enough good berries to munch and put on cereal, which is what I want from it. I pick wild if I want enough for jelly.

You know, while I do love all of my MANY wild blackberries, they grow like TRIFFIDS!!!

Decide on how large a patch you want & then keep the rest cut or mowed down. Half my vegetable patch is now full of them because of a load of fence posts dumped there that we weren't able to use right away. The blackberries are now 8-foot tall & spreading outward except for where we've been able to bushhog them back.

My family has wild blackberries that have been around for 100 years. We've moved them from farm to farm, place to place. I keep my patch 20x60' with the old canes cut out and trimmed back to 4'...If not, it is a giant barbed jungle. My mom never cut them back as much as I have but the yield is better. I also keep them mulched 6-8" with leaves. I also have a small patch under a cedar tree and it produces equally well. My plan is to move them to a field so I can mow them into rows. They're really prolific and I dont fertilize them...Other than the leaf mulch.

I love these old threads....

I finally found thornless blackberries.

For my not-so-thornless berries, I have a pair of Welder gloves easily found at HD or L. Be sure to look in the welding aisle and not in the gardening section where they have Trump gloves that just don't fit an average gardener's hands.

They are also good for working with roses.

Be aware that most berries do not grow on this year's new growth.