What's wrong with my blackberries?

[Rahab222]

As usual, I'm here with my gardening problems. All the blackberries on my two-year-old vines are red and hard as marbles. Every time we get a strong wind or rain through here, it knocks many of them off the vine. Are these going to eventually turn black and juicy or is there something wrong?

I've added a photo.

 

[majorcatfish]

how much water are you giving them?
if you give to much, the berries will grow so much that they will push off the core..

 

[whistech]

Rahab, I'm not a blackberry expert, but it looks like your blackberries are about 2 weeks from being ready to pick and it looks like your are going to have a good crop. The blackberries turn from green to red and then black.

 

[w_r_ranch]

Different varieties mature at different times... there's nothing wrong, they're just not ready yet.

 

[Rahab222]

Oh, to think I almost ripped these vines out for not producing because the berries are so hard right now. I think the city life has taken over my farm girl roots. Growing up, it seems like the blackberries just appeared I don't remember there being "stages" except for the white flowers. We pretty much stayed outside all day, working on the farm, riding horses, etc. So we just picked and ate the berries where we saw them. If we wanted a cobbler, we'd pick a bunch and take them to Mom. I think I'm going to have to make Sam's cobbler recipe if I get enough berries.

Do the vines just continue to reproduce or do I need to plant more bushes to get a larger crop. These are thornless. The ones on the farm grew wild and had lots of thorns - I do remember those.

As for water, it's pretty much been natural rainfall. We've been blessed with plenty of that in Houston this year.