Navaho Blackberry

The Navaho blackberry is a popular, thornless, and upright-growing cultivar developed by the University of Arkansas. Known for its high yield of sweet, firm berries, it is hardy in USDA Zones 6-9, self-pollinating, and matures at 4-6 feet tall. It requires full sun, roughly 800 chill hours, and is highly regarded for home gardening.

Key Characteristics & Care

• Fruit & Harvest: Produces large, glossy black berries in mid-summer (July), with yields of 10-15 pounds per mature plant.
• Thornless & Erect: The canes are completely thornless and grow upright, typically not requiring heavy trellising, though it can help.
• Chilling Requirement: Needs 800 hours of, suitable for cooler areas within zones 6-10.
• Maintenance: Prefers full sun and well-drained soil; relatively low-maintenance with good disease resistance (immune to orange rust).
• Pruning: Fruit grows on second-year canes (floricanes). Cut back to the ground the canes that have already fruited in the fall. 

Why Choose Navaho?

Long-lived: The plants can live for approximately 10 years. 
Excellent Flavor: Considered a high-quality berry for fresh eating and jams.
Easy Harvest: As a Thornless Blackberry, it allows for easy, pain-free harvesting.
Disease Resistance: Highly resistant to many common blackberry diseases.

The information that follows is from https://www.tytyga.com

The Navaho Thornless Blackberry (Rubus fruticosus ‘Navaho’) is an exceptional blackberry variety developed by the University of Arkansas in the 1980s as the first thornless, erect-growing blackberry. Unlike traditional blackberries, the Navaho variety grows in an upright, self-supporting habit, making it easy to maintain and harvest. This high-yielding plant produces incredibly sweet, firm blackberries with an outstanding shelf life. Known for its disease resistance, heat tolerance, and high sugar content, Navaho blackberries are a favorite for home gardeners and commercial growers alike.

USDA Growing Zones & Chill Hours

• Thrives in USDA Zones 5-9, making it ideal for mild to warm climates
• Requires 800-900 chill hours for optimal fruit production

Pollination & Fruit Production

• Self-Pollinating – No additional plants are required, but planting multiple bushes increases yield
• Produces large, firm, and sweet blackberries with a high sugar content
• Ripens mid to late season, typically from late June through August

How to Plant & Grow Navaho Blackberries

Best Planting Location

• Full Sun: Requires at least 6-8 hours of direct sunlight daily for the best yields
• Well-Draining Soil: Prefers loamy, slightly acidic soil (pH 5.5-6.5)
• Spacing: Plant bushes 3-4 feet apart in rows spaced 6-8 feet apart

Ongoing Care & Maintenance

• Watering: Water deeply at least once per week, increasing frequency during fruiting season.
• Pruning: Remove dead or weak canes after harvesting to encourage new growth.
• Fertilizing: Use Nutra-Pro 1st Year Fertilizer Paks for steady nutrients and vigorous root growth.
• Protection: Use Max Growth Berry Shelters to shield young plants from pests and harsh weather.

Fruit Ripening Time, Taste & Uses

• Ripens late June through August
• Produces large, exceptionally sweet blackberries with a firm texture
• Perfect for fresh eating, cobblers, jams, smoothies, and freezing

The information that follows is from https://www.starkbros.com

This variety is self pollinating.

In many cases, you may still want to plant pollinating partners to increase the size of your crops, but with self-pollinating varieties doing so is optional. You’ll get fruit with only one plant!

Fertilizing Blackberry Plants

Fertilizing is an excellent way to replenish the natural nutrients in your plant’s soil. We recommend using Stark® Bro’s Blackberry and Bramble Fertilizer, which is specifically formulated for blackberries and brambles.

Fertilizing Tips

• Fertilizer should be applied each spring when new growth starts, and again just after harvest. 
• Fertilize lightly the first time.
• Do not put fertilizer directly on the plants. 
• Spring cultivation and summer mulching is very beneficial.

Pruning Blackberry Plants

Pruning is an important part of proper edible plant care, but many people find the task overwhelming. It doesn’t have to be! Keep these things in mind: 

• You can have confidence in knowing that not everyone will prune the exact same way (even the experts). 
• There are several reasons to prune: to maintain the size and shape of your plant, stimulate strong growth, and overall fruit quality.

Pruning Tips

• You may want to stake or trellis-train your berry plants to keep them more compact and upright.
• Pruning may vary depending on the blackberry variety you plant. Most berry bushes bear only once on 2-year-old canes. After the canes have produced fruit, you should prune them back to the ground to leave room for the stronger, 1-year-old canes.
• Some pruning should be done every spring to keep the plants from becoming tangled and to improve their ability to bear. Prune trailing blackberries in the spring for good growth habits. Prune each main cane back to 3-4’. Then cut back side branches to about 12”, leaving five or six buds on each. Erect and semi-erect varieties should be tipped or cut back to 3-4’ in midsummer. This forces lateral branches to emerge from buds below this point.
• Later in the fall, after they are dormant, cut back the laterals to 16-18”. Fruit will be borne on these laterals the following summer (after which, the canes should then be removed to make room for next season’s growth).

Additional Notes

• First-year or juvenile canes of erect and semi-erect varieties may be trailing. Let them grow, and they will produce fruit the next year. After the fruit is harvested, prune the canes back to the ground to make room for strong, erect, new canes.
• Everbearers fruit twice on the same cane. These canes will fruit at the tip during the fall and then bear again the following spring farther down the canes. If one large crop is desired, cut the canes back to the ground after the fall crop. This will result in a single, large crop the following fall.
• A good reference book, such as Pruning Made Easy, can answer questions and guide you through the pruning process.

Watering Blackberry Plants

Unless you’re in an area where irrigation is usually needed for normal plant growth, you probably won’t need to water after the first growing year. Until then, follow these guidelines to get your new berry plants off to a great start.

General Guidelines

• If summer brings about an inch of rainfall every 10 days or so, you won’t need to use the hose. But if it gets really dry, you can give your new plant a good, thorough soaking. The best way to do this is to let your garden hose trickle slowly. This gives the water a chance to soak in instead of running off. You can also use a soaker hose to water several plants at once.
• It’s important to note that even if you’re in the midst of a brown-lawn drought, you don’t want to water too much. Once every 10 days or two weeks is plenty. Worse than dry, thirsty roots is waterlogged, drowning roots.
• Although blackberries are drought tolerant, they do need considerable water during fruiting.

Harvesting Blackberry Plants

Are you ready to enjoy delicious homegrown fruit? Harvest is the time to enjoy the results of your hard work. Keep a few things in consideration as you reap the fruits of your labor: the best time to pick the fruit, and how to store your harvest.

When to Harvest

You can expect your first crop in the 2nd season. For the best flavor and texture harvest your blackberries when it is dry and cool. The berry should look plump and have a dark coloring. Grasp the berry gently and twist, if the fruit releases easily then it is ripe. While picking berries try to keep them in the shade and don’t stack them more than a couple inches deep in your containers, otherwise you will squash your berries. 

It is best to harvest every 2 or 3 days, to avoid over ripening or rotting fruit. Blackberries do not keep long after picking, at most 4 or 5 days in the refrigerator.

Annual average yield per plant is around 1 quart.

Storage

Refrigerate your berries immediately after harvesting. Do not wash berries until you are ready to use them. Washing makes them more prone to spoiling. 

If not able to use right away put berries on a cookie sheet in a single layer and freeze until firm and then put them in freezer bags to enjoy all year long.