At my new place, I've had nothing but heartache so far with planted blackberry cultivars. The power company sprayed herbicide on ones I had planted--twice--killing about three dozen in the two episodes. Others I have planted have not thrived.
However, I do have wild ones growing in various places. One such spot is along my driveway. There's a substantial thicket that is heavily shaded, but does produce some decent-tasting berries (although they're rather small, as wild berries are likely to be).
So far, I seem to mostly have luck with wild berries rather than the ones I have planted. At my old suburban house, I did have some University of Arkansas cultivars that did well (Ouachita and Navajo; Apache wasn't so good). I have planted both of those at the new place, but am still waiting on my first harvest. Back in the suburbs, there were berries along the road (at least until the county came along and mowed them down).
Harvest time is now for these along the driveway; they just started to ripen about a week ago (early-mid June) and are now ripening rapidly. As these are wild, one can end up punctured and ensnared pretty easily when picking. Inevitably, some clusters of alluring berries are too far back to reach without bloodletting. However, there's enough low-hanging or peripheral fruit to provide some satisfaction.
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