I was wondering if anyone has experiences to share about growing blackberries.  Not the massive barbed-wire-like blood letting Himalayan Blackberries that infest the landscape and take over everything, but well mannered home garden type, preferably thornless blackberries, preferable less rampant.

So far my experience with horticultural blackberries is very limited.  Here is what I'm starting with, and what I learned so far -

Prime Ark Freedom - about Feb 2016 I bought 6 tissue culture plants mail order.  Five grew, rabbits ate a couple of those, and deer ate off the tops of a couple that did well.  I did taste one blackberry, and it was good, but that's not much.  I moved them to a protected enclosure, but none of the floricanes survived last winter.  This year, one plant grew a robust primocane, one grew a less vigorous cane, and possibly 2 are coming up from the roots, tiny, - or those could be some sprouting Himalayans.  If there are thorns, I'll pull them up.  Prime Ark Freedom has no thorns at all.

Ebony King.  I bought three plants on whim at Lowes in early 2016.  These are more a reduced-thorn, not completely thornless, but so far the thorns look liike not much to worry about.  Deer ate off the growing tops of all three plants last year, but I got some regrowth.  I moved them to a protected enclosure during the winter, and the remaining tops survived the winter.  This year, I have one with a robust new primocane, one that started to but it was also eaten by rabbits and now growing pretty well, protected, and one has last year's cane but no new primocanes yet.  The most robust floricane had 6 bunches of flowers, set about 9 fruit per bunch, expect a taste in a month.

Columbia Star.  There's a trend here.  It grew pretty robust cane, deer pulled it up and ate much of it.  I replanted it in an enclosure too, now growing 2 new thornless.  The part that remained last year was 3 feet tall, but only the bottom foot survived the winter.  Interesting, that bottom foot bloomed and might set a few berries.

Arapaho.  Bought 2 bare root plants last month at Lowes.  They have taken root, one has a small new primocane and both have new leaves on the purchased floricane.  Totally thornless.

Triple Crown.  Last week I found some containerized plants at Tsugawa.  Most of their Triple Crown looked sun-killed but the plant that I found was healthy looking, blooming at one foot tall.  I'll let those berries develop, if they can, even though I shouldn't.  My readings suggested that Triple Crown is a good variety for vigor, totally thornless, productive.  We'll see next year.

My lessons so far based on this very limited experience:

1.  Overwintering canes of Prime Ark Freedom and Columbia Star might not survive the worst winters here, based on the little information above.

2.  Deer and rabbits both love eating the succulent new growth of thornless blackberries.  I wondered if they would, and confirmed that unintentionally, with 3 varieties.  Now they are in enclosures to deter both herbivore species.

3.  It probably takes 3 years to get the first significant fruits, although I got a taste of one Prime Ark Freedom berry the first year, and may get a handful from floricane of Ebony King and maybe a couple others, this summer.

Tipping.  I just learned from reading a couple of weeks ago, the top of new growing upright-variety canes should be snapped off (tipped) at about 3 feet tall.  That promotes a stockier, stronger cane, and more branches, resulting in more berries.  Tipping is recommended for primocane-bearing varieties like Prime-Ark Freedom, as well as more typical floricane cultivars like Triple Crown.  I tipped mine last week.  Trailing types, like Columbia Star, should not be tipped, they don't branch. 

I was at a couple of nurseries, and found a new type called "BabyCakes".  Looks like this variety is another primocane thornless type from the Arkansas program that gave us Prime-Ark varieties and a number of thornless types.  I was unable to find information about the berry quality, production, and flavor, which makes me wonder if BabyCakes is just a nursery novelty and might not be worth growing?  It's possible I didn't search long enough.  I'm getting more wary of heavily promoted nursery plants, and did not buy any BabyCakes.

That's about all I know so far.  I am interested in experiences of others, and might put in a couple more plants this coming winter.  For eating out of hand, is one plant enough?  Better to have more?  What cultivars do well around here?   HOS members have such a wealth of fruit growing experience for many fruits, maybe there is much more information to learn and share here that would help me and others with our choices and methods.