How to Stake and Wire Boysenberries

Dig a 2-foot deep hole using a post-hole digger. Drive an 8-foot tall 4-by-4-inch pressure-treated wood post 2 feet into the ground. Hold the post in the hole so it stands straight. Fill the hole with ready-mixed cement mixed with water according to the label instructions. Install a second parallel post no farther than 50 feet away. Let the concrete dry completely. If the run is long, drive a metal T-post into the center of the row.

Install a galvanized eye screw 5 feet from the bottom of each post, and a second one 3 to 4 feet from the bottom of each post. Secure a high-tensile wire to the highest eye screw. Run the wire to the next post. Secure it to the highest eye screw tightly. Cut excess wire with wire cutters, leaving 1 foot of slack. Repeat for the lowest eye screws.

Bunch the boysenberry primocanes -- first-year canes -- together by training them up the wires on the left side. Work them in a spiral and secure them to the wires with gardener's tape. Boysenberries will only fruit on floricanes -- the previous year's growth.

Spread out the floricanes to the wire's right side and secure them using gardener's tape. Floricanes are thick and brown, whereas primocanes are green and thin. Primocanes will not fruit, so it's best to separate them from the floricanes.

Cut the floricanes as close as possible to the ground when they die back in the late fall or early winter. Thin out the primocanes to only five or seven. Trim all of the lateral branches on the primocanes to 10 to 12 inches long.