Strength of rebar (sp) ?

[LtlWilli]

It takes only a small stretch of the imagination to see how all this ies into my beekeeping. I bought three kinds of thornless blackberries with different bloom dates. With that, I get a good 5 weeks of berry blooms to go toward their nutrition, and to extend my u-pick gambit. When I set it up, I built my trellis to "normal" heights, thinking it would be adequate. Boy, was I wrong!!! The new canes for this year hit six feet and I topped them. That is not enough. These rascals kept going up. Now I have Ouachita and Apache canes to deal with that are 12' to 14' easily, so I have to raise my trellises. The cheapest method is buying rebar and raising it all by 18" to 24"....Due to costs, 3/8" will be my best method, but I am wondering if it is strong enough..................any thoughts will be welcomed.
Thanks
LtlWilli

[peggjam]

The smaller sizes of rebar will bend easily, so unless you go with 3/4 inch, it proably won't be strong enough to hold your trellis up in a stiff breeze:).

[Hobie]

Not a real answer, but rather a few thoughts.
My first thought upon reading this was, how the heck do you harvest berries off 12-14 ft canes?
Is there any way to train them to climb up 5-6 feet and then grow horizontally, like creating a tunnel? This would solve the structural issues. For the taller trellises, I would worry about windage. (but I get 30-40 mph winds here regularly)

[LtlWilli]

Hey, thanks ya'll...I was really hoping that an 18" piece would bear the load. But, we do get an almost constnt wind up here on this hill, and I am using barbed wire that has been unwound to get the barbs off it. Oh well, it wil be worth it. I am letting them go to 7' , and then looping them back to the wires. The best part it , of course, NO THORNS!!!...HawHawHaw

[justgojumpit]

When I worked at a vegetable farm, our method was to drive 7 foot t-posts at an angle into the ground, and run tensioned wire between them. This worked quite well. an approximated sketch, viewed from the end of the row is shown below:

\ ............... /
.\............... /
..\............../
...\............/

ignore the ........... for some reason the characters wouldn't hold their spacing with just the space bar???

justgojumpit

[Beee Farmer]

Make sure you pick up grade 60 rebar... its quite a bit stiffer..I too would suggest 3/4" min on them.

[LtlWilli]

The setup that jumponit had is exactly I have, with addition of a center upright to help carry the weight and prevent sagging.

[justgojumpit]

The only thing that you have to think about in that setup is you you will keep the ends of the rows from getting pulled in by the weight from the middle. This was solved in the following manner (view from side of row)

||------------------------//\
||-----------------------//...\
||----------------------//......\
||---------------------//.........\
||--------------------//............\
||-------------------//...............\

Again, ignore the .... the || are t-post, the --- is trellis wire, and the \ is strong cable to secure the top of the angled end post to an eye hook coming out of a pillar of cement in the ground, made with one of the cardboard cement pillar forms.

justgojumpit

[john steinmeyer]

I secure two posts about 25 feet apart. Then run a wire between the posts at about the 5 foot high level and another at the 3 ft. high level. Then as a cane reaches beyond the top wire just fold it across and down to the lower wire and continue this "weaving" back and forth as long as necessary. You will end up with a nice looking hedge of berries. Only plant about 4 bushes between the posts.

[john steinmeyer]

I secure two posts about 25 feet apart. Then run a wire between the posts at about the 5 foot high level and another at the 3 ft. high level. Then as a cane reaches beyond the top wire just fold it across and down to the lower wire and continue this "weaving" back and forth as long as necessary. You will end up with a nice looking hedge of berries. Only plant about 4 bushes between the posts.

[MapMan]

You'll just waste money and time with the rebar approach. Better to invest for future years and good care with a well-built trellis. I use a T-trellis like shown in this article (http://www.umext.maine.edu/onlinepubs/htmpubs/2066.htm). Hasn't failed me yet. Watch your pruning to manage them for next year, too. They grow wickedly fast.

MM

Per the article:

Blackberries should have the growing tips of the new canes pinched off when they reach four feet. This encourages the canes to form side branches, or laterals, which will bear the fruit in the following year. Remove all canes that fruited following harvest. In the early spring, thin the remaining canes, leaving only five to seven of the sturdiest per hill. Cut the side branches back to 12 buds (usually about 12 inches in length) and tie the canes to the wire or post for support.

[Jack Grimshaw]

Blackberries fruit on 2 yr old canes.
In the dormant season cut 2 yr canes to the ground and 1 yr canes to 3 ft.Tie to wires to keep upright if needed
At berry picking time ,hack the heck out off the new canes for access,won't hurt them.
I wish mine were thornless!!!

Jack