Make room in your yard for Triple Crown Thornless Blackberries (at least 1 but more is better!) and you will have access to some of the most amazing berries around.
Triple Crown Blackberry has become our family’s favorite blackberry – and not just because it’s thornless (though we do love the ease of harvest). It has a LOT more going for it and has *gasp* dethroned our beloved Marionberry as the most amazing berry to grow.
I planted 3 bushes in an 8-ft. row three years ago just because they were thornless. Really – I didn’t know anything about the Triple Crown variety, but I wanted to replace some out-of-control super thorny blackberries that refused to die completely even after 3 years of being covered (sometimes with plywood!). I thought if I planted thornless berries, I’d always be able to tell if the rogue berry was showing again because it would have thorns. And it worked – when any small thorny shoot comes up it is easy to tell it’s not supposed to be there.
But then, we started realizing that the berries on these thornless bushes were SO very good. And some of them were super-sized berries. And they produced a long time. By year three, those 3 little bushes produced enough blackberries to fill all our fresh-eating desires (including desserts like refreshing berry parfaits and big crumb berry crisps) plus 10 quart bags of frozen berries. That’s when I knew I needed to share this discovery with you! Some links in this article are affiliate links and if you click on them I will receive a small commission at no cost to you – thanks for your support!
Where to Buy Triple Crown Thornless Blackberries (click to go to page listings)
- Amazon
- Stark Brothers online
- Burpee online (this is where I ordered mine from a couple years ago)
- Gurney’s online
Basic Growing Information
- Triple Crown blackberry is named for its three attributes; flavor, productivity and vigor. It’s also disease resistant and grows huge berries.
- Grow in zones 5-9, though they have insufficient cold hardiness for many northern regions except in tunnels.
- The recommended spacing is 5 ft apart (ours are only 3-4 ft. apart and obviously do well).
- They like slightly acidic, well-drained soil in full sun to part shade.
- Very sturdy canes; considered semi-erect because they produce some longer, new non-fruiting canes mid-summer – just cut them to 4-5 ft. when they get long (for established shrubs). This is called “tip-pruning.”
- Immediately after fruit harvest, remove all canes that fruited to the ground. In late winter to early spring, remove any canes damaged by winter and thin the remaining canes to 4 or 5 strong, well-spaced canes plus trim the laterals thereof. Plants generally perform best when staked.
You can find more growing details here.
5 Reasons To Grow Triple Crown Thornless Blackberries
1. They produce over a long period. Most of the growing guides say a 4-5 week harvest, which is a couple weeks longer than many berries, but our plants produce almost 2 months! Of that, 4 weeks is the “main” harvest with large bowls filled every 2-4 days. After that, they keep producing smaller bowls full of fruit as the berries continue to ripen.
In the photo above you can see the berries that have been picked, those that are ready to be picked now, redder berries to the right that will ripen in a week and even green berries that will ripen in a couple weeks.
2. They are easy to pick. Uh, obviously since “thornless” in is their name. But if you’ve grown up picking any berries at all, you will realize the absolute joy it is to see the “perfect” berry hanging just out of reach…but then stick your hand in there anyway because – no thorns. There are no out-of-reach berries here!
3. They are compact and easy to maintain. The canes are very sturdy and when you get long canes in early spring and again in mid-summer (that don’t have fruit on them), like the canes in the photo above, you just cut them back to the height of the other canes (tip-pruning). In spring, these then grow lateral shoots, making a compact berry ‘bush.’ This makes them perfect for smaller backyards – you could even grown them next to a house.
These canes never get out-of-control like some other vining berry canes we know and love:
These are our Marionberry plants, a berry that is pretty much an Oregon legend. They have a complex flavor that I’ve always thought no other berry could come close to – until Triple Crown came into our lives. And Marionberry’s super-thorny, really long vines need a lot more attention – and I always end up scratched. I still love Marionberries and since they produce in June, they help us harvest blackberries all summer, but if we ever have a smaller space, I won’t be able to grow them anymore.
4. The berries can grow HUGE. The plants produce all sizes of berries, but some are just gigantic, like the bottom berry above. One end of our row gets more water than the other end, so the berries more adequately watered are consistently bigger. And let me tell you, finding – and eating – a berry that size never gets old.
5. They are super flavorful. Like I mentioned, I didn’t think any berry could compare to Marionberries, but the taste of these berries are amazing. The firmer berries can be sweet-tart, while the older berries that are just starting to turn “dull” are more fully sweet, but we like them all. There’s a lot of depth to the flavor and everyone we’ve shared them with (and that’s a lot, because I love to tell everyone about these!) thinks the same. Trust me on this.
I’ll leave off with this photo taken in early August:
All the stages of berries are illustrated here, from flower to already harvested. This mean weeks of delicious, huge, easy-to-pick berries are in your future – if you plant them.
So guess what I want you to do?
(Tip: the deals on Amazon are pretty good, actually – I bought ours online and they did great. You just want to make sure there is a money-back guarantee if they don’t make it the first few months)
Tell me – who else grows these berries? Do you like them as much as we do?
Disclosure: this post contains affiliate links and by clicking on them you help support AOC at no extra cost to you – thanks so much! Plus you can trust I’ll only share what I love. (You can always read our entire disclosure page here.)
Su says
I’m starting to think my two Triple Crown plants were mislabeled. I live in zone 8b in the southern Willamette Valley. I can’t remember for sure where I got them… Maybe Home Depot. I planted a 50′ row with Marionberries, TCS, Sweetie Pies, and a thornless Boysenberry. The Marions and Sweetie Pies are delicious. The TCs are the most tasteless berry I’ve ever tried. The Boysenberry doesn’t taste anything like a Boysenberry either. Unfortunately the TCs are absolutely loaded with berries. I’m trying to decide whether to rip out the plants immediately so I don’t have to pick all those berries. (We have a fruitfly problem so I can’t just leave them to rot.) I wish I could taste your berries to see if they are really that different. I hate to dig out such productive plants. I’m not a big fan of Himalaya Blackberries (for so many reasons) but they have a lot more flavor than my “TCs.”
Jami says
Oh, shoot! They really are wonderfully flavored. I have no idea why yours aren’t. 🙁
Su says
I really think they must be mislabeled. I’m going to try to find some locally that I can taste to see if I want to try planting them again. Or I might just replace the ones I have with more Sweetie Pie plants. They are also huge and delicious. 😊
Becky Sewell says
I found a nice TC plant at Walmart, and after reading your article I went back yesterday and bought it! The $22.88 price seemed a bit steep, but I’m planning to tip-layer it, generating several new FREE plants this fall and winter, then digging them and spacing them out into a trellised row in the spring. Burpee is offering five plants for thirty-some dollars, but I know how to tip-layer this one and generate a lot more plants.
A wild horribly-thorny blackberry ‘volunteered’ in my mother’s garden two years ago, and I watched to see if the berries would be any good. This year it went crazy, suckering a large area, and it was covered with berries, but with our drought the fruits were very small – and SOUR!!!! I’m going to dig it up and get rid of it – the Triple Crown will more than adequately replace it! I was actually glad to see that the local catbird (with or without help) is eating the ripening berries on the wild plant. They can have all they want – I don’t want ANY vestiges of it left to re-grow!
Jami says
Yikes, you’re right that is a bit steep, but your plan sounds like the perfect way to get around that!
It’s a great idea to replace thorny vines with thornless because then you can see if any volunteers show up and remove them.
Susan says
Hi Jami, nice article! Will TC do ok planted against a SSW facing fence?
Jami says
I think it should work just as well, Susan!
Daniel S Bixler says
I grow triple crown too. I grew up with boysen and olallieberries, I wanted to be done with thorny trailing varieties. I researched when we moved into out blank slate back yard and Triple crown was the winner. Sine then, I have also grown the University of Arkansas varieties including Prime Ark 45, Prime are Freedom and Ouachita. Prime Ark 45 are super thorny but the berries are Huge and very sweet. Prime ark Freedom are similar but slightly smaller berries and thornless. Oucahita is thornless and similar to Triple Crown, but evern more productive and much earlier. The Prime Ark varieties produce 2 crops a year, so I get late summer blackberries too.
Jami says
Oh, that’s good to know, Daniel – I’ve seen the Prime varieties and wondered about them. That would be good to grow Oucahita along with TC and get a longer harvest! (Wish I had the room at our new place!)
Lisa says
Your blackberries are beautiful. I live in zone 9b. I was told by the store I got my Triple Crown Thornless Blackberries from that they would grow in my area. I planted them a year ago, and the plants have grown and look beautiful, but not one flower or berry has shown up. I planted a few other raspberry plants and a different blackberry plant, and they both have berries. Does this berry plant need a few years to produce? Is there something special about the requirements of a triple crown that other berry plants don’t need? Thanks so much in advance.
Jami says
Hmmm, while I can’t remember how long it took these berries to produce, I do know it’s not unusual for some blackberries to take 2 years to produce. I have some I planted last year, too, in our new place, so I’ll be seeing if they produce this year!
Other than that – do they get enough sun? Since the other berries are producing, it seems that you have pollinators. Hopefully they just need a bit more time. 🙂
Roberta Underhill says
Good morning. I am new to blackberries and I am hoping I don’t kill the 3 plants that I just planted. We are in Florida. I have been reading and watching some videos on growing Triple Blackberries and from everything I am seeing they seem easy, but I’ve been known to kill the unkillable plants, sadly. I was just wondering if you need to feed or fertilize them and if so, when and with what?
Thanks for any info you can share. My plants are really small still and pretty much just look like sticks with a few leaves and white flowers randomly on them.
Jami says
Thankfully, blackberries are pretty easy to grow, Roberta, and as long as you’re seeing growth, it’s all good.
I would suggest planting in good soil and then topping the soil with a quality compost every year – that’s all I did for fertilizing and mine produced a ton.
I would also suggest watering with a soaker hose or drip system so the water gets right to the roots, and water on a consistent basis when it’s dry.
The only other thing you’ll need to do is prune them, which is basically cutting them back to about 4 feet in height before the growing season and sometimes trimming during the season if the canes get too long.
Good luck – hopefully you’ll be enjoying delicious berries soon!
Jordan says
Reading your post inspired me to get a patch of our own. I ordered 10 of these to go in our garden. Still waiting on them to come. But thank you for sharing, otherwise I wouldn’t have known 🙂
Jami says
Wow, how fun, Jordan! Just be prepared for a LOT of berries, because I only had 3 plants and we got enough berries to eat and freeze for the winter. 🙂
Jordan says
How long did it take to get that many? Was it the first season you planted them?
Oh dang lol well at least we’ll have plenty 🙂
Jami says
Yes, you will!
No, they take a couple years to get established. I didn’t get any the first year and some the second – in their third year they really took off.
Jane Reeves says
I am confused, as I have been told thornless berries panted too close to a thorned berries, will result in switching the thornless into thorned.!? However yours didn’t seem to produce thorns!?
Jami says
They were about 12 feet away from a thorny Marionberry row, so maybe that’s enough? I actually haven’t heard that – I just know that thorny berries are pretty invasive and will come up everywhere so they could take over a row.
wendy wagner says
Your information was helpful as we have planted 3-4 thornless blackberry bushes 1 year ago and this year we have had
a good bit of berries up to 3 quart bags. They are almost done and we needed info on what to do about prunning
them and best time to do so. we do have quite a few long trailing pieces and were unsure of whether to cut completely off or not. There are some on the inner part of bushes that are drying up. So when fruit is done we should cut the dying ones off at crown and cut the long trails back to the lenght of the other ones. In spring do we need to cut more back to get more fruit? Thank you Wendy we live in ohio
Jami says
Yes, that’s what to do. You shouldn’t need to cut in spring, but as they grow through the summer, you can cut any of the long new canes to 5-6ft so they can start growing lateral shoots. Otherwise they’ll be too tall. You really can’t go wrong with these, though, they’ll just keep producing for you!
Beth says
If I order 1 or 2 of these now (just before mid April) will that be in enough time to get them into the ground? I’ve got a couple of possibilities. Both are raised beds but one is smaller — 5×5 maybe? — and the other is a bit narrower but rectangular/longer. Either spot should provide them with enough sun. We’ve just recently gotten a great new CSA (they’re based in Canby but are now including Silverton…YAY) so I’m not growing as comprehensively as I otherwise might. Berries and salad goodies primarily.
Jami says
Yes, plant away Beth! Either spot sounds like it would work, but I’d probably go with the narrower bed.
Beth says
Thanks — I’ll be ordering this week! I’ve bought these at Bauman’s in Gervais and they are WONDERFUL!