Tomatoville® Gardening Forums - View Single Post - Small semi heated cold frame, think it will work?

drew51 · November 18, 2014

Nice! Yeah you want them on a trellis, and in a place that you can easily control spread.
Around the tree might be bad as the tree shades the plants, they like sun. Depends, you probably have more intense sun than I do in MI. It can work there. But hard to trellis them there. I would probably move them. You could use stakes.
Yes they tip root themselves. Never when you want more plants though! Only when you don't! You can cut them to form two plants, or you can pull it out and trim it down back to one plant. These will fruit. Either way don't leave them like that. You could do it now, it's not going to grow more this year, or wait till fully dormant. Brambles are tough, my advice is good, but at time exceptions can be made. Mine are almost dormant, not quite, but I needed to remove a net, some canes were really tangled in it, so I cut them out now. Not the best time. Late winter is the very best time. Also while I was out there, thinned them too. Everything is dormant now, at almost noon it's 19F right now. Really here now it is a bad time to expose canes by cutting to this cold. But they are tough, probably won't hurt them.

Your plants are young, they will grow like crazy eventually. Here is a 2 year old blackberry.
It is a semi-upright. The main stem is thicker than my thumb. It is over 5 feet tall, with canes going everywhere. All those are primocanes. All grew this year. So expect crazy growth next year. On the left border to this plant are young plants the size of yours under the leaves for winter protection. Here it can go below zero, so they need protection. Leaves around the base to keep the crown warm.
I will spray the upright canes with wilt-proof to help them survive. I should have done this, now have to wait till above freezing. Next Monday looks like a good day here to do it.
Yeah raspberries are the worst spreaders, they tend not to tip root, but suckers off the mother plant can come up out of nowhere 6 feet or farther from the mother plant. Most times right next to it, but I have seen suckers emerge 8 feet away.

November 18, 2014	#19
drew51 Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Dec 2013 Location: Sterling Heights, MI Zone 6a/5b Posts: 1,302	Nice! Yeah you want them on a trellis, and in a place that you can easily control spread. Around the tree might be bad as the tree shades the plants, they like sun. Depends, you probably have more intense sun than I do in MI. It can work there. But hard to trellis them there. I would probably move them. You could use stakes. Yes they tip root themselves. Never when you want more plants though! Only when you don't! You can cut them to form two plants, or you can pull it out and trim it down back to one plant. These will fruit. Either way don't leave them like that. You could do it now, it's not going to grow more this year, or wait till fully dormant. Brambles are tough, my advice is good, but at time exceptions can be made. Mine are almost dormant, not quite, but I needed to remove a net, some canes were really tangled in it, so I cut them out now. Not the best time. Late winter is the very best time. Also while I was out there, thinned them too. Everything is dormant now, at almost noon it's 19F right now. Really here now it is a bad time to expose canes by cutting to this cold. But they are tough, probably won't hurt them. Your plants are young, they will grow like crazy eventually. Here is a 2 year old blackberry. It is a semi-upright. The main stem is thicker than my thumb. It is over 5 feet tall, with canes going everywhere. All those are primocanes. All grew this year. So expect crazy growth next year. On the left border to this plant are young plants the size of yours under the leaves for winter protection. Here it can go below zero, so they need protection. Leaves around the base to keep the crown warm. I will spray the upright canes with wilt-proof to help them survive. I should have done this, now have to wait till above freezing. Next Monday looks like a good day here to do it. Yeah raspberries are the worst spreaders, they tend not to tip root, but suckers off the mother plant can come up out of nowhere 6 feet or farther from the mother plant. Most times right next to it, but I have seen suckers emerge 8 feet away.