Blackberry Merton Thornless

Hi,

We have had his Blackberry for around 15 years and its always been a good cropper but the last couple of years its only produced 2 new canes vs the 3 - 5 it used to.

This year, though a fair bit of fruit forming , the whole plant looks to be lacking in vigor.

Not been able to find any reference as to how long these plants last , so not sure if it needs replacing or its just one of those seasons, and a good feed will revive it ? ( which we do anyway each spring)

Noticed when posting this thread that in another, @JWK recommended Chester as for its very good fruit.
Seems its a smaller plant at 6- 8 ft but wondered how many fruiting canes it typically produces, or if we would need 2 of them to produced the same amount of fruit from the Merton ?

 

Hi John,

Never thought about taking a cutting, but just seen some ytubes on doing that which seems easy enough, though no sign of any new shoots on ours yet, though its often quiet late.

Assume as a cutting it would have more vigor than the old parent plant, though not heard of any viruses etc that could cross contaminate things ?

Either way will have to keep the old plant going as it will take a cutting or new potted plant a couple of years to get fully established.

Do you grow your Chester in a fan shape against a wall ?

 

Thanks for the photos, it looks a compact plant for a Blackberry which would suit our small garden.

Think we will have to look for a new plant as still no signs of any new shoots on the old Merton which looks even poorer after the heatwave.
Will give it a foliar feed and see if that perks it up a bit.

Also lost a lot of the ripe fruits on the Raspberries as again the heat seemed to almost cook them !