Dark blue background with a pale wicker basket containing fresh boysenberries on a pale beige napkin or towel

How To Grow Boysenberry Plants

Updated on Jan 11, 2024
By Baillie Blankenship

Delicious boysenberries are a cross between European raspberry, European blackberry, American dewberry, and American loganberry. Boysenberry plants are hardy in zones 6-9. 


HISTORY

Boysenberry is said to have been rescued from near extinction on the farm of a man named Rudolph Boysen in California in the 1930s. The rare plants were rescued and adopted by the Knott family, who went on to grow a berry-farming empire. The boysenberry enjoyed a solar flare of immense popularity until the 1960s when it fell out of favor due to the fragile fruit which did not stand up to packaging and shipping.

Boysenberry has since been improved to be a hardier and disease resistant plant, but its fruits remain as incredibly flavorful and delicate as the originals.

USES

  • Commonly used in pies, jams, and cobblers
  • Wonderful for eating fresh.

two pots hold small boysenberry plants with serrated leaves and slightly woody stems, with indistinct small coins on a white surface against a pale violet blue background


 

  • For the first year, grow your boysenberry plants in pots.
  • Allow the plants to go dormant in their pots in a protected location over winter.
one boysenberry plant in a decorated clay pot next to stacks of small coins on a greenish-white table with a pale violet blue backgroundone boysenberry plant in a decorated clay pot next to stacks of small coins on a greenish-white table with a pale violet blue background

 

  • In their second spring, around the time of the last spring frost, plant boysenberry plants in their final location.
  • Choose an area in full sun with well-draining, loose, and loamy/sandy soil.
  • Space plants 5-6 feet apart.
  • Plants will fruit in their second year.
fresh boysenberries in a basket lined with a light colored napkin on a dark blue backgroundfresh boysenberries in a basket lined with a light colored napkin on a dark blue background

 

  • Propagate through bare root cuttings or by taking 5-7 inch cuttings from sturdy green primocanes.
  • Plant cuttings in a soil free peat moss and perlite mixture.
  • When propagating from canes, ensure you have 2 growth nodes in the soil and 2 above the soil.
  • Keep moist until rooted.
Two boysenberry plants on a table, removed from their pots, showing the root ball and serrated leavesTwo boysenberry plants on a table, removed from their pots, showing the root ball and serrated leaves