The plants I put in the ground a month or two back are starting to shoot off runners in every direction. When I put them in the ground I placed them by some paracord that is ran from three posts. Using this cord I can train the plants up and grow along the fence made of paracord. There are two lines going across three t-posts. A lower one to start on and then to train them up higher on the taller one later.
This string is very strong, its known for its name because of its use in parachutes. And it can hold up to 550 pounds with the type I am using. Way more than any bearing bush will produce, so its a bit of overkill. But the next step down is around 250 pounds. Hard to say maybe one day the bush will get so big it will weigh that much. But I doubt it will ever reach the 550 pound mark.. lol
Looking for the runners we pick them up using gloves. There are lots of spines on the boysenberries stems. Also found ants living under the leaves, guess it protects them from the sun good. The ground around these plants is very hard, so maybe they were living under them since its hard to dig.
Seems they are happy growing along the ground. But if I want the berries getting them up high is a good idea to protect them from critters. Will also make it easier to pick them, and probably the leaves are better protected from growing mildew when on the ground.
With three bushes, I hope to fill in the whole area where the paracord is tied to posts.
The plants are looking quite lively, a lush green. Seem happy with their widened holes. We had some plants in these holes previously, but they did not make it. So when we planned on putting new plants in we made sure the holes were even deeper.
Before we start tying up the vines we can see all three along the way. I wonder what will happen when the winter comes around. Guessing the leaves will fall off and the vines will remain until next year.. something simular to how it works with blackberry vines.
There were only a few vines long enough to tie to the paracord lines. As the others grow longer I will come back and train them on here as well.
I really like these twist ties, they have a soft rubber so they do not damage the plant too much. I have used them for a few years training my cannabis plants, so its great to put these to use on other plants too.
So now I will wait for more runnners to grow, and then I will tie them to the paracord as well. Its a similar process to how I train my blackberries. But instead of a welded wire fence I am using paracord this time. So hopefully it will work, but I have read others growing boysenberries this way so I am hopeful it will work.