Video

Thanks!!

The answer is yes, and no. The blackberry is shaped like a pine cone and the boysenberry is round and similar in shape to a marble. Blackberries are supposed to be smaller in size to the boysenberry (according to this website). When you look at the berries grown by Knott's Berry Farm and by the Boysen Berry Farm in Northern CA, you will notice that their berries are quite large. Larger than anything I have cultivated at home. Thank you for the question! Differences between Blackberry and Boysenberry www.differencebetween.net/object/comparisons-of-food-items/difference-between-blackberry-and-boysenberry/ Boysen Berry Farm - Home of Rudy's Original Boysenberries www.rudysoriginal.com

That's wonderful! So glad to hear it! I also am excited to see the berries changing color! Going to be a tasty harvest!

Yes! One plant from 2018. I'm in climate Zone 8b, according to USDA.gov. (planthardiness.ars.usda.gov) There are several different types of fertilizer people use. According to Knott's Berry Farm pamphlet they include with the purchase of the plants, they have found that chicken manure works well with the progress of the plants. I have been using strictly Miracle Grow on my plant for the time I have owned it. I had the plant in a 24" pot with Miracle Grow potting soil, for about a year until it could establish itself in the desert. Once it established itself, I transplanted it to the ground in my backyard. Digging hole twice as large as the pot it was in, mixing the outer portion of the whole with Miracle Grow potting soil and the natural ground. The soil here has a lot of clay in it and doesn't absorb water very well. Then about 2 years after I planted it in the ground, we moved to a new house. I didn't want to leave my plant. So I dug it up and took it with me. I had to trim it back really far, so it took a while to get it to come "out of it." I continued to give it Vitamin B as to help with the shock of being moved, and again surrounded the soil with miracle grow potting soil, mixed with the natural soil. 50/50 mix. It has been about 3 years now, but it's starting to produce berries like it did before. So far, so good. I'm excited to see how many berries I can get off of it this year and next year. Thanks for the comment!

Sounds good! Looking forward to seeing what is produced this coming year! Thanks for the comment!

All expanded out of one plant. Yup! I am trying to experiment with the thorny canes, to see how the fruit will come out. I will most likely cut off all the thorny canes, as those tend to come out from the roots for me. I have a feeling the thorny canes are from the original species of plant due to the Boysenberry being a hybrid. But I want to see how it all comes out. Normally it bears fruit about June to early July for me. Thanks for the comments!

I remember reading about 5-6 canes per plant, although I just allow as many as will grow. I'll most likely cut back on the thorny canes, but I want to experiment and see how the berries are that are produced by these thorny canes first. I have a few thorny canes right now on the trellis and will be taking video of that as the plant produces a crop. Thanks for commenting!

I have a feeling they're growing up from the root, like the roots are surfacing and then those could be the wild plant, being Boysenberries are a hybrid. Other than that, I'm not real sure. I'll have to do some research on it. :)

@@BackyardBoysenberry I've heard you've pruned them out, is that normal for your practice? Pruning out all the throney varieties? They are the only variety of berries we have on our property that have thorns lol

When I say "thornless" it doesn't mean completely free of thorns. Just a majority of the can is not covered with thorns. I'll have to explain in another video. :) I have let some of the thorny canes grow from last year, to see how large the berries will be that are produced from the plant. Comparing those with the berries from the "thornless" canes. I'd like to see the sizing difference. For now, I'll be cutting out the thorny canes that are not coming from the base of the plant. Any thorny canes that came from it's base, I will consider leaving in place. Thanks for the comment and questions!

during the spring/summer, I will use the same watering schedule as many of my other plants/trees. I'll be giving it miracle grow by hand once a week. It gets a lot of water from the sprinklers for the grass. So I'm not too concerned about water by hand daily. During the first couple years, I was watering daily with a 2 gallon watering can during the summer, as I didn't have automatic sprinklers. So I would consider that, as a schedule. At least two gallons of water every day. I would normally water the plant in the evening, just before sundown. In the cool of the evening when the wasps and bees have gone for the day.

@@BackyardBoysenberry thanks for the heads up. Yeah I've noticed our plants do very well with regular watering schedules. Thanks for the heads up with the care! I appreciate you 😎

as long as I continue to remember to put miracle grow on there! I just need to remember to do that once a week. HA!

That is awesome! So happy for you! After being 3 years old, you'll probably have a great crop! So exciting! All those little white flower blooms will be a berry! Either small or large, but it will be a berry! So much fun! Congrat's! Keep on growing!

From what I remember, when I grew up, my folks had 3 plants, all had thorns. An extended family relative had the thornless canes. We noticed that the thornless canes produced smaller berries while the boysenberries that my folks plants produced were quite large. At least they felt large in my hands when I was a child. But I remember the berries being about 2"-2.5" long. I have been getting berries about 1"-1.5" long off my thornless berry plant. It isn't necessary for your plant to become thorny. I hope you are able to get quite a few berries this year! I know it took my plant a good three years to get established and produce a real nice harvest, you can see that from the older videos. So glad you are enjoying the channel! And so glad you're enjoying your plants! Thanks for the kind words and comment! Ken

My plant was looking pretty sad as well. I would encourage you to use Miracle Grow at least once a week. Especially as it is producing the berries. It should grow some nice healthy looking berries for you when you give it the food! Congrat's and keep on growing!

That's great!!

Mainly I have come across caterpillars. From moths. That's been my main pest. Other than that, birds eating the berries, but I bought some flashing to put on the vines and trees to help detour them. I'll need to do that today so as to save any berries I have left. Thanks for the comments!

Water daily! Water with Miracle Grow weekly. But water it daily. It will come back quickly. If that doesn't do the trick, and the leaves look like they're being eaten, then you may have a caterpillar that needs dealing with. That happened to me with the first summer that I had my plant. I ended up finding a caterpillar and had to discard him (or her). But give you plant at least 1-2 gallons of water on a daily basis. If it gets hit with your lawn sprinklers, that should be sufficient. But if it doesn't have automatic sprinklers set, then I would suggest watering by hand. I hope it comes out of it quickly!

@@BackyardBoysenberry Thank you, I'll try that!

The blossoms will "flower", then the petals will fall off after about a week or so. With your bees doing the work of pollinating, your berries should take about 6-8 weeks to ripen. Possibly 10 weeks. Then there will be more that will ripen after that as well. They will all ripen at different stages. Some could take a good three months. In the high desert, our berries finish about mid-July. But in the LA area, you could go until late July or even early August. In the fall, you will be able to cut off the canes that produced berries this year (they'll be a bit woody) then the canes that grew this year, will produce the fruit for next year. Very exciting! So happy for you! Give it about 3 years, and then you will have some real nice crops. Takes a while to get established. Happy growing!

Many thanks for your tips. I'll do my best to continue to cultivate the thorny canes as well as the thornless. I'm looking forward to getting some larger berries!

Yes, you'll get some berries where the flowers were at. Yes, they are the precursors to your berries. Once the canes that flowered are done producing berries this year, they will be done and not produce berries any longer. Those canes will be done and most likely will die off. According to the pamphlet that Knott's has provided. You should be growing some new canes for next years crop soon.

Thanks Ken!

High desert of SoCal. It gets full sun during the day.

Hi there! So excited that you were able to get 2 plants from Knott's! Were they able to get you the pamphlet called "Care of Plants on Arrival"? If not, I'll post images on the CZcams page here. I use my sprinklers to water the plant. I probably should water it more, but I figured this is seeming to work. I do recommend giving your plant miracle grow plant food once a week from spring to fall. When the weather turns cold and the canes go dormant, then once every couple weeks to even once a month is good. I would use my watering can that holds 2 gallons of water, once a day on the plant. During the summer months especially. If you water every other day, that should be fine as well, as you won't get the heat that we normally do in the desert. If watering every other day makes the leaves dry, then water daily. The plant loves the sandy soil found near the ocean the best... allowing the water to drain. You should see a few more canes growing up throughout the summer. You won't get many berries this year at all, you may get a few. Next year, you will get a few more. It generally takes about 2-3 years to get a really nice sized crop. As the plant will need to establish itself and concentrate on growth. Probably the summer of 2025, you will have a very nice crop. Our 3rd summer is when we got a 5-gallon crop. Our second summer was the first years growth, it produced about a one-gallon crop. Meaning I got about 1-gallon of berries. That 3rd year, I was able to pick 5 gallon sized ziplock bags full of berries. If you keep putting fertilizer (plant food) on it, it will give you a nice harvest! :)

Thank you for your informative long reply. Catching up on your videos, I did hear you mention Miracle Gro which I will definitely be starting next week! Looking forward to your next posting as well and again Thank You so much :)

I'm sure it'll do great! These plants love the rain! Keep it where the water will run off, and it will serve you well! I've seen many blackberry canes run wild in the mountains of So-Cal, where they get tons of rain and snow. When I was in Land Surveying with our local County, we were surveying a County owned parcel that had not been maintained for several years, the blackberries were running wild! They were HUGE! So tasty! Had a grab a couple while surveying the property. Enjoy your boysenberry plant!

Thanks for the tips!

Thanks!

Will do for sure! Thanks for the comment!

If you have a local area nursery that sells them, it will likely be in the spring. Or you can take a trip over to Knott's during the Boysenberry Festival and they sell the plants already potted for (last year's price) of $25 per plant. This is what I did back in 2018... then planted in a pot until it was established, then planted in the ground in my backyard. Make sure you put about half potting soil and half natural ground about 3 feet in diameter when planting in the ground. It will take a few years to produce a good harvest. So be patient. As long as you care for your plant, it will continue to produce fruit! Happy growing!