>>1063451•Blackberries are super easy to propagate via rhizomes that shoot new plants up a couple feet from the parent plant.
•Raspberries are sure easy to propagate via cuttings/layerings.
The first year a berry cane grows it will not flower and fruit. That same cane will flower and fruit in its second year. Some varieties of red/gold raspberry will actually flower and fruit 1 to 2 times in the same year in their first year of growth
After you have harvested all the berries from a single cane, it will die that winter. When it dies and turns brown cut it out. Blackberries can get out of hand is a serious way. Do you best to keep them in order. You can tie them up, corral them up, or let them fall all over and merely hack your path through once a year. As the bramble patch expands the center will eventually die out in a few years do to lack of nutrients. If you want to maintain the canes in the same place you'll need to fertilize it once a year. A 2 inch layer of mulch will usually suffice. Most people here use saw dust, wood chips, straw, and leaves.
Raspberry patches are not nearly as prolific as blackberries. Wild cultivars of black raspberries do better than red or gold. Gold tends to be the weakest performer and most care is needed for it. Thornless "Blackberries" tend to be a weak performer too and don't like the cold winters where I live.
Birds will eat most of your crop. You need to protect it. You can set up some scary anti-bird devices as well as some poles to install netting over the brambles. Don't allow the netting to touch the canes or allow the canes to grow through the netting. It will be a nightmare if it does. The best method is to have some posts with arches at the top with rope purlins so you can slide the netting over with the help of another person.
>your picIt depends on the cultivar. Some of my best blackberry canes are about 12 feet tall with branches making them 5-6 feet wide. That's 1 cane that's 1.5 inches thick at the base.
