blackberry training

[the big lebowski]

hi all last year i bought 2 thornless blackberrys and planted them inbetween posts with horizontal wires running through them its now time to do some winter pruning and i was wondering how is the best way to do this ? the plant has a main stem which is about 8 foot long and has been tied in vertically would i be best cutting this at the top wire ? hoping that growth will come off the main stem and be trained along the wires or should i bend down the main stem and train that horizontally ? any thoughts welcome cheers

[Teabag]

I have some in a large pot but wondering whether to cut them back or bend them down too, they seem to have grown some bits coming off the main stem.

[the big lebowski]

yes mine did have some coming off the main stem too ,i was leaning more towards the putting the main stem horizontal and training it along the wires but i thought id ask on here and see what others thought

[BUFFS]

I don't have a lot of knowledge of blackberry training but the first thought reading the title was of an old lady commanding "SIT", I suppose it just shows my age remembering was it Barbara Woodhouse?..,I wonder what can be done with blackberries?..

[DannyK]

My Waldo trained horizontally on wires.

[Mr Bones]

I have a thornless blackberry. AFAIK branches are supposed to fruit in their second year then you chop them off in winter. So you train new growth out to the left this year and new stuff out to the right next year, that way you know which ones need to be cut.
Mines all over the place, new branches grow left or right and in winter I just cut off the dead stuff (which are obvious because they're brown).
It fruits really well but the berries need to be properly ripe for the best flavour. The BIG, BIG benefit though is not having to battle vicious thorns every time you go near it, my old blackberry had thorns big enough to gag a giraffe.

PS new shoots should also grow from the crown so just bend the main stems over.