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The canes have no thorns, making tying and picking much more comfortable.
Rubus ‘Black Satin’ 13cm — Care & Tips
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Pick with bare hands and eat with a smile. No scratches, no pain, just fruit 👐
Family: Rosaceae · Pot diameter: 13cm · organically grown · Height: approximately 45cm
Rubus ‘Black Satin’ fills summer with glossy blackberries and asks for no gloves before you enjoy them. Long thornless canes spread neatly over wires and produce generous fruiting laterals for fresh picking, desserts and homemade preserves. With proper support it becomes a striking edible screen that offers shade, privacy and fruit on the same structure.
Long canes show their best outline when spread along horizontal wires. This year’s fresh growth can be trained separately from the canes carrying fruit, keeping the crop visible and easy to reach. A fence then gains seasonal greenery, small pale flowers and, finally, glossy dark blackberries.
‘Black Satin’ combines genuinely thornless canes, a strong semi-erect framework and a long season of black fruit.
The canes have no thorns, making tying and picking much more comfortable.
Long flexible canes readily cover a fence or three wires without severe clipping.
Clusters do not ripen all at once, allowing frequent picking from summer into early autumn.
Why you will love it: It is the blackberry for anyone wanting generous quantities, easy access and an attractive living screen.
Give it 2–3m of length on a strong structure and at least 1.5m from the next plant. Late-afternoon shade helps in very hot regions.
Resilient perennials in the outer zone cover the soil without obstructing annual cane replacement.
Sun or bright partial shade; afternoon shade during heatwaves.
Even moisture through flowering and harvest, without standing water.
Good winter hardiness in a sheltered position; in very cold regions tie canes lower for protection.
Wash fully ripe fruit before eating.
Plant in deep, humus-rich soil that drains freely yet stays cool. The shallow roots respond very well to a 5–7cm organic mulch kept clear of the canes.
Water deeply when the top few centimetres of soil dry. Maintain even moisture from flowering to the end of harvest, as sharp fluctuations affect fruit size and firmness.
Use three strong wires at 60, 120 and 180cm and train by direction: fruiting canes right, new canes left.
In early spring add mature compost and a balanced fruit-plant feed according to its label. Avoid excess nitrogen, which produces soft, overlong canes.
Keep the root zone cool, remove weeds by hand and pick ripe fruit frequently. Light afternoon shade helps during heatwaves.
Remove spent canes promptly, tie new growth with space and pick every two days so overripe fruit does not remain.
It is self-fertile and crops alone. Abundant insect activity helps each fruit fill evenly.
Harvest usually begins during July and continues in waves into September.
Wait until fruit is evenly black, glossy and slightly soft. Lift it upwards without squeezing it.
Stretch netting in front of the row on separate supports and open it like a curtain for daily access.
After planting: keep 3–4 strong canes, train them onto wires and water evenly while the perennial root framework establishes.
Immediately after harvest · tidying in late winter
‘Black Satin’ fruits on laterals carried by previous-year canes. Each cane crops once and is then removed completely, while current thornless canes are tied separately for the following season.
Action: Choose 4–6 strong canes and bend them gradually along the first and second wires without a sharp kink.
Retain: Keep all healthy length and remove only thin surplus shoots.
Action: Place fruiting previous-year canes on one side and new canes on the other. Shorten only overlong laterals obstructing the path.
Retain: Keep flowering canes intact and a clear gap between the two ages.
Action: Trace every brown fruited cane to the crown and cut it 3–5cm above soil. Move green new canes into its place.
Retain: Keep 4–6 young thornless canes in a clear fan.
Use sharp, clean tools suited to the diameter of the wood.
Remove only damaged tips and renew loose ties. Do not cut healthy previous-year canes again.
Do not do this: Do not confuse green new canes with brown fruited ones; cutting both together removes next year’s crop.
Strong green canes rise semi-erect and bend gradually onto wires.
Previous brown canes fill with short flowering laterals along their length.
Large glossy berries hang in waves in front of new green canes.
Long semi-erect canes spread along wires and carry fruiting laterals. Fresh green canes are retained separately for the following year’s crop.
The studies show habit and seasonal development; growth varies with age, climate and cultivation.
What to expect after planting: Strong green canes rise semi-erect and bend gradually onto wires.
Rubus ‘Black Satin’ originated in the USDA’s American thornless-blackberry breeding programme, with work at Beltsville and Carbondale. The programme developed productive selections combining vigorous growth with canes free of prickles, suitable for training in rows.
‘Black Satin’ was released in 1974, alongside ‘Dirksen Thornless’, as part of that generation of semi-erect thornless blackberries. In gardens it retains the characteristic combination of long canes and fruiting laterals. Prickle-free growth makes picking more comfortable, while support brings order to the vigorous stems.
Each small glossy unit of a blackberry is a drupelet with its own seed. Many drupelets develop together from one flower, forming the aggregate fruit that we pick.
Each cane is biennial: in year one it forms nodes and stores carbohydrates; in year two it activates flowering laterals and then dies. The root system remains perennial.
Six practical answers for choosing, growing, harvesting and pruning this exact cultivar.
No. It is self-fertile, though abundant insect activity helps each fruit fill evenly.
Canes reach about 2–3m long and are trained as a screen 1.8–2m high.
Only in a very large container with a firm trellis and strict separation of new and fruiting canes.
From July into September, when fruit is fully black, glossy and slightly soft.
Yes. Long semi-erect canes need three strong wires or a firm fence.
Immediately after harvest cut only the canes that fruited at ground level.