There are wild berries in my area that the locals call dewberries. They look and taste like small blackberries. I always thought they were just wild blackberries. It turns out there are some differences between the two.
Dewberries versus Blackberries
Officially, dewberries run along the ground, like a ground cover. Blackberries have upright canes. Both occur in the NorthTexas area as native plants.
Dewberries Can Be Weeds
You might think that having wild dewberries and blackberries is a good thing. It is, in moderation. As with most things, however, too much of a good thing can be a real problem. These plants will cover a pasture in an impenetrable carpet of thorny canes that chokes out everything else. Animals cannot penetrate it, the canes choke out other plants that are needed for food, and it becomes a fairly sterile area. Even deer can’t do much damage.
Hard to Kill
The plants are surprisingly hard to kill. Farmers and ranchers have to spend a lot of money getting rid of these plants or at least controlling them. The chemicals they use require a pesticide license and a sprayer to apply. Consumers have to get professional help to control a pasture or yard overrun by these thorny plants. Mowing them down just encourages new growth. Digging them up works, but is a lot of effort.
Choose Blackberries
Blackberries can be trained to grow on wires like grapevines. This makes it easier to pick them and you are less likely to have an impenetrable thicket. It also reduces the chance you will go to pick a berry and find a copperhead snake with the same idea. They love blackberries and dewberries. If you fertilize your blackberry vine the berries will grow bigger and be more abundant. Get a soil test and use that to guide the fertilizer you put down.
Want to learn to garden? My first attempt at gardening ended up in failure. The weeds took over and squeezed the vegetables out. I was very frustrated by this waste of good seed, time, and money. So I became a master gardener and spent a lot of time helping other people avoid or overcome problems in their garden.
In order to help others garden successfully, I have written a book, Vegetable Gardening from the Ground Up, available in an ebook or a paperback from Amazon. It is also in Kindle Unlimited.
