Cloning a blackberry branch

Has anyone ever tried to clone a blackberry vine? Any tips would be appreciated. I recently came across a cutting last week, and have been waiting around for it to produce roots. This stem is a little on the woody side, and i have read woody plants can only be cloned via grafting. Am i wasting my time? My branch is in great shape still, its about 8 inches tall and all the leafs are still green; its been sitting in plain tap for over a week now. My setup is borderline ghetto, but it works. I got it in a soda can sitting on my window sill, and am keeping the water aerated by hand (with mini turkey baster, more like a humming bird baster). All ive noticed so far is the bottom of the stem, where it was cut, is turning dark brown and brown veins are making their way up from there. Will be getting my hands on some rooting powder tomorrow and maybe will post some pics to get a diary going.

Me thinks that you need root stock to do Blackberries, if it works out for you, please let me know.

I never had any success getting cuts to root off the vine. I peg the vine down and bury a growing tip 6" in the dirt, wait a month for it to take root then cut it off and dig it up.

air layering...here's a wiki picture so you get the idea

you could try cloning it indoor using a Aero Cloner or use the soil cloning method

Are you talking about the Himalayan blackberry?

Because up here in the Pacific Northwest, they are considered to be a major problem by landowners. Damned stuff grows explosively fast and is really, really difficult to remove, and can cover an acre in a couple of years if left undisturbed.

Mind you, the berries are really good, but the hassle of dealing with it's agressive growth is most definitely not worth it. Check your state laws, it may not be legal to import it to your area.

Dannyboys idea is really the easiest way to do it.

You plant the entire cane, or "plant" from the roots up. Berries are not cloned as they spread underground from runners.

No further adue... One month later... The branch finally rooted! Though Its in bad shape; the main shoot dried up, and most of the leaves tips got burnt, maybe because i starting to mix in a tiny bit of mg all purpose 20-20-20 strength nutes into the water during the last week of hydro. It was in a soda can till 3 weeks soaking in water and i gave it three treatments with rooting powder once a week. All while aerating with my disposable pippet.

Well, last week i finally decided to put it into dirt in a baby pot and gave it a last root powder treatment and buried 4 inches deep. Today i finally gave up on it and decided to see if there was a root, if not i was going to trash it. I pulled it out of the soil, thinking my efforts were in vain, but to my surprise there was a white root sticking out about an inch from where i ripped off the bottom most stem leaf.

Good thing i didnt buy a already grown blackberry plant from homedepot, they cost ten bucks, just came back from there earlier. Atomizer and Dannyboy did have a good idea but the mother blackberry was not mine and i didnt want my friend labouring for my benefit so we just chopped off the tippy top of a vine and i took it home in the same soda can i stayed in for most of the time. Ill post some pics asap since im going to transplant the my clone into a bigger pot. Stay tuned!

Heres a couple of pics, root and all, the 2nd pic shows the root a little clearer. In conclusion patience was the key, as it takes about a month, give or take, for this plant to root. Best technique imo involves both hydro and soil, and goes something like this: cut a 8-10 inch vine a half inch below a stem leaf, and rip that leaf off, stem and all. Keep it soaked in plain tap water for three weeks, in a light proof container, and treating it with a rooting solution once a week. On the forth week bury the vine and keep the soil well watered. Before you know youll have roots. Hoping this plant regenerates a new shoot because the original main shoot dried up. Well see...

blimey. it has a root. who knew?