Thornless Blackberry 'Doyle's Thornless'

Our experience with Doyle's Thornless Blackberries goes back to May of 2010. We live in the Okanagan valley in the city of Kelowna, Brit...Read Moreish Columbia, Canada. We carefully examed the possibility of growing these blackberries in this region as we do have cool winters but there seemed to be no reason to not plant these berries as they are reported to be very hearty. This valley is full of orchards where cherries, peaches, apples, apricotes, plums, etc are grown readily and exported to many places in the world.
We ordered about 150 blackberry bushes. The order was filled out with no problem from Florida and it was reported that 5 boxes were coming. Fine, we awaited their arrival and only 4 boxes arrived and it was obvious that Air Canada had had some problems along the way and so these poor little plants came upside down and thrown into other boxes rather than the ones that Doyles had packed them in!! What a mess. But this was Air Canada's problem and not Doyle's. We let Tom know at Doyle's about what happened and he said that they coulded warranty plants in that shape so they would send a brand new batch of plants!! What a pleasant reception and treatment. Anyway, we planted the poor little fellows that had arrived and wondered if any of them would actually suvive after ther rough treatment that Air Canada had given them!! About a month later about 180 plants arrived in such neatly packed boxes that they appeared to have come from across the street!! Yes, they exaggerated the quantity of bushes that they sent and so we planted these little bushes too. The truth of the matter is that we maybe lost about 5 plants from the first shipment and none from the later order. We now have about 280 Doyle's Thornless Blackberry bushes and naturally some are a little more hearty than others but we understand that it is between 3 and 5 years before they really "kick in"! We have these bushes divided into 19 rows and as was suggested about 2 yards from one plant to another and about the same space between the rows. We used a post pounder to put in the 8 foot posts and put 4 strands of 12 gauge wire at 2 1/2, 3 1/2, 4 1/2 and 5 1/2 foot levels on all of the posts. We also put a 4 foot plastic fabric(3.2 oz), stapled down with hundreds of little foot long staples. We made holes in the plastic material for only the posts and the little plants to come through...doing this saves mowing grass right up to the posts or to the trunks of the little bushes. Now 2 years later we just mow the grass between the rows or the plastic strips rather than trying to mow right up to the posts or the plants. Yes, we have an irrigation program here and so we have just ordinary plastic pipe installed the full lenghth of every row with a little water dropper at the base of every bush...that way we can water as much or as little as we want at any time of the day or night. Yes, that is lots of work but well worth it.
Naturally the first year, 2010, there was no fruit but all but 5 plants survived. In 2011 we put about 65 ice-cream pails of berries into our freezer, not counting how many we ate blackberries at breakfast, lunch or dinner time either! Our eventual plan was to have a U-Pick program and that became a reality in 2012!! Adding the U-Pick and the We-Pick together we gathered about 425 ice-cream pails of berries this year. Yes, we had to buy another freezer and we are still selling the berries in the winter time in little zip lock bags. We had no clientel but were so happy with the way those that came were so pleased and returned sometimes several times over. We used the newspapers and the internet sites for advertising and gave our customers a little card with our data for harvest time next year!! There is so much more we could be sharing but this is already too long and overdue! I couldn't tell you how often we phoned Tom at Doyle's to get some more advice or help and we were always received that much and more. Yes, we have the little Spotted Wing Drosophila fly that may become a larger problem in future years but to this point no damage. If you have any questions we would be happy to answer the phone at 250-717-1114 and either Bernie or Ruth will answer the phone. Our e-mail address is brhall@telus.net .

Wonderful plant! Prolific bearer of yummy berries on a 100% thornless, healthy shrub. Carefree. A child's delight. Fabulous service f...Read Morerom Doyle's.

2005 was the first year for this to produce berries. They were big and very juicy, but not much flavor, and they weren't sweet. Chipmun...Read Moreks and ants didn't even bother them, even when they were so ripe they fell! I contacted the company, and they said the pH could be off; I can't remember the range they said it should be. I am trying it in some other locations in my yard to see if they do any better. I am also going to give them less water in case that was the problem.

Even if the flavor of the fresh berries doesn't improve, I will keep them. I eventually tried cooking them with sugar, and they were very good to eat that way or in pies.

If there is enough moisture, everywhere it touches the ground, it roots.

If they do better in the future, I will update this.