Best Thornless Blackberry Varieties for a Hedge Guide

The Short Answer: Erect Varieties Make the Easiest Hedge

For a fruiting hedge with the least support and training, choose an erect thornless blackberry such as Ouachita, Navaho or Osage. Erect varieties have stiff canes and send up new shoots from their roots, so a row planted 2 to 4 feet apart fills into a continuous hedgerow about 12 inches wide. Semi-erect varieties such as Triple Crown, Chester and Natchez are vigorous and productive, but they need wires: University of Maryland Extension says Triple Crown and Chester require trellising, and University of Illinois Extension describes its semi-erect thornless cultivars as plants that need to be trellised.

Thornless varieties earn their place in a hedge because the work is done by hand. Tipping, tying and picking all mean reaching into the row several times a year, and smooth canes make those jobs quick.

Check winter hardiness before anything else. University of Maryland Extension states that thornless blackberries are typically hardy in USDA zones 6 to 8, with winter injury possible in zone 6b and colder regions. Illinois adds that most semi-erect and trailing thornless cultivars are not very winter hardy and suggests them only for the southern part of that state.

Three Growth Habits and What Each Needs

Oregon State University Extension sorts blackberries into three types, and the type decides how much structure a hedge needs.

Erect. These produce stiff, erect canes that need pruning in summer, called tipping, as well as in winter. Oregon State explains that erect cultivars send up new canes, or suckers, from buds on their roots. That habit closes the gaps between plants.

Semi-erect. These produce vigorous, thick, arching canes from the crown of the plant. Clemson calls the same group semi-trailing. They stay where you plant them and need wires to hold the long canes up.

Trailing. The canes are not self-supporting and trail along the ground unless they are trellised. Trailing types are the least hedge-like of the three.

Yield follows vigor. Oregon State puts a mature erect planting at 18 to 28 pounds of fruit per 10 feet of row and a mature semi-erect plant at 25 to 35 pounds per plant. A gardener willing to build a trellis gets more fruit from the semi-erect group. A gardener who wants a freestanding row is better served by the erect group.

Nine Thornless Varieties Compared

The descriptions below come from University of Maryland Extension’s fact sheet on thornless cultivars, with growth habit and fruiting type cross-checked against Clemson’s variety table and, for Navaho, against Oregon State’s listing of it as an erect summer-bearing cultivar. Season is relative to other blackberries. The Maryland harvest chart is drawn for USDA zone 7b, so expect later dates farther north.

Variety	Habit	Crop on	Season	Notes
Ouachita	Erect	Second-year canes	Early to mid	Very upright; medium to large berries; good storage potential
Navaho	Erect	Second-year canes	Mid to late	Very sweet, small to medium berries; long picking season; higher heat tolerance; highly susceptible to orange rust
Osage	Erect	Second-year canes	Early	Medium berries with a sweet, low-acid flavor; high yield potential
Ponca	Erect	Second-year canes	Early	Described as the sweetest of the University of Arkansas blackberries; can benefit from trellising
Prime-Ark Freedom	Erect	First-year canes	Early	Very large, sweet berries that do not store reliably
Prime-Ark Traveler	Erect	First-year canes	Early and late	An early crop on overwintered canes and a late crop on new canes; firm, sweet fruit
Natchez	Semi-erect	Second-year canes	Early	Large berries of 8 to 10 grams; extremely vigorous and needs heavy pruning
Triple Crown	Semi-erect	Second-year canes	Late	Medium to large, sweet, aromatic berries; requires trellising
Chester	Semi-erect	Second-year canes	Late	The latest of the group; medium, tart berries; more winter hardiness

Three picks stand out for a hedge. Ouachita is the plain choice for a freestanding row, with very upright canes and fruit that keeps. Navaho, released in 1989 as the first thornless cultivar from the University of Arkansas, has the same very erect habit and a long picking season, though its susceptibility to orange rust is a reason to buy clean plants. Chester, a semi-erect variety released in 1985, is the one to consider where winters are hard on blackberries, provided you build the trellis it requires.

Planting one early and one late variety lengthens the season. Osage or Ouachita followed by Navaho keeps an all-erect hedge in fruit across most of the blackberry season.

Summer Crop or Fall Crop

Most thornless blackberries fruit on canes in their second year. A cane grows one summer, overwinters, fruits the next summer and then dies. University of Maryland Extension calls these floricane-bearing types. Pruning means cutting out the spent canes after harvest, and a good pair of pruning shears handles thornless canes easily.

Primocane-fruiting varieties also bear on first-year canes later in the season. Prime-Ark Freedom and Prime-Ark Traveler are the thornless examples in Clemson’s table, which notes that these types allow two crops a year in most of South Carolina. The same idea is familiar from fall-bearing raspberries.

This type offers the simplest pruning of all. Oregon State’s instruction for growing them for a single crop is to cut all the canes to just above ground level in late winter, which is March in Oregon. The new canes are tipped, branch, and fruit starting in late summer until killing frosts end production. That last point is the limit: in a short season, frost can arrive before much of the fall crop ripens.

Planting and Spacing the Hedge Line

Blackberries need full sun and well-drained soil. The recommended pH range varies a little by source: 6.0 to 6.5 from Clemson, 5.6 to 6.5 from Oregon State, and 5.8 to 6.8 from NC State. A soil test before planting tells you whether you are inside those ranges, and our guide to reading a soil test report explains the pH line.

Spacing depends on the habit.

Source	Erect, in the row	Semi-erect, in the row	Between rows
Clemson	2 to 4 feet	6 to 8 feet	10 feet
Oregon State	2.5 to 3 feet	About 5 feet	10 feet for erect, 12 feet for semi-erect
NC State	As close as 3 feet	6 to 10 feet	Not stated here

For a single hedge along a fence or path, the between-row figure tells you how much clear ground to leave on the picking side. Clemson also recommends keeping a weed-free strip 2 to 3 feet wide on either side of the row.

Support can be light for erect types. NC State describes a single wire attached to posts about 3 feet above the ground as a quick, easy trellis. For semi-erect varieties, Clemson’s design uses two rows of wire at 2 foot and 5 foot heights.

Keeping the Hedge Narrow and Productive

Two jobs keep an erect hedge in shape. The first is tipping. Clemson and NC State both say to cut off the tips of new shoots when they are 30 to 36 inches tall in summer, which makes the canes branch and stiffen. Oregon State gives 3 feet for erect types and 4.5 feet for semi-erect ones.

The second is holding the width. NC State’s rule is to let the suckers grow in a band 12 inches wide and remove all others, and Oregon State gives the same 12-inch hedgerow. NC State notes that unwanted suckers develop when roots are damaged, so avoid digging or deep hoeing close to the row.

After harvest, cut the canes that fruited down to the ground. In winter, Clemson recommends shortening the side branches on the remaining canes to 12 to 14 inches. Tipped at 30 to 36 inches and held to a 12-inch band at the base, an erect row stays narrow enough for most garden boundaries.