Thornless Blackberry

The thornless stems make for an easy harvest of the delicious, sweet fruit. On established canes, you can pick your fruit regularly December to March. You can eat the berries straight from the bush or cook them into jams, pies, sauces etc.

This Thornless Blackberry is ‘Chester’ and it is a high yielding variety that doesn’t’ sucker. It is not suited to pots because it is too hungry and vigorous. They need a cold winter to set fruit.

The canes are semi erect and should be supported on a trellis for best results. Train them up and down the trellis like an ABC logo, plaiting them through the wires.

Top prune in summer to encourage branching, and remove the old canes in winter – they fruit on last year’s stems (one year wood). The plants are self-fertile, so you only need to start with one, though come harvest time you may wish you had planted more!

Plant Thornless Blackberries in full sun, into humus rich, well drained soil. Space 150-180cm apart. Plant the cane quite shallow, around 10cm deep. Water in and keep moist when in flower and fruit. Add some mulch to help with water retention and weed reduction. Protect from hot afternoon sun.