Blackberry cultivation

The delicious blackberry comes from the wild. Breeders have bred many cultivars, but they do not grow crops on an industrial scale in the expanses. The plant settled in the backyards of summer residents and in private gardens. The process of growing blackberries is simple, under the power of a novice gardener.

Growing blackberries in the country

The garden blackberry in the wild is a thorny shrub with long stems and black, raspberry-shaped berries. Breeders have bred many cultural varieties. A thornless and remontant blackberry appeared with a creeping, as well as an upright type of bush.

The taste of cultivated berries was quickly appreciated by summer residents. Blackberries began to be grown in suburban areas. Supports are installed for the plant, which simplifies harvesting and caring for the bush. Summer residents propagate culture with purchased seedlings. More experienced gardeners have learned how to get new plants from cuttings. It can be propagated by seeds, but the process is complex and does not always bring results.

How to grow garden blackberries

The right choice of a place for growing blackberries is the key to a rich harvest. The plant loves space. The lashes grow long, the root is branched, going deep into the ground. Thanks to this structure of the root system, blackberries can do without watering for a long time, extracting moisture from the ground.

The site for cultivation is chosen according to the number of bushes. Depending on the variety, a gap of up to 2 m is maintained between plants. An important condition for growing a crop is the illumination of the site by the sun. According to the structure of the bush, culture is divided into two types:

• Kumanika – bush variety;
• evening primrose is a weaving variety.

The bush variety is considered the most fastidious in care. Kumanika loves fertile loamy soil or sandy loam. The dewberry is able to bear fruit well on heavy soils. The plant does not like only stagnant moisture. The low content of nutrients in the soil will affect the poor harvest and growth of the shrub. You need to feed the plant annually.

In the neighborhood, you can grow blackberries with an apple tree. A plant cannot be placed near strawberries and strawberries. Raspberries are considered a good neighbor, but both crops have the same pests and diseases. Here the gardener himself must make a decision. If there is not enough space on the site, then you can plant blackberries next to raspberries.

You can visually determine the quality of the soil by plants growing on the site. The presence of moss, sorrel or horsetail indicates high acidity. 1 m into the ground² you need to add about 500 g of dolomite flour.

The nuances of growing blackberries in the Urals

To grow blackberries in the Urals, it is necessary to have specially bred cold-resistant varieties. The most popular are:

• Polar. An ideal variety for growing beginners. With a minimum of care, the plant will thank you with a bountiful harvest. The bush grows up to 2,5 m. The yield per plant reaches 7 kg.
• Loch Tay. The thornless blackberry produces large berries. The variety is high yielding. Powerful bushes with long shoots need support.
• Ruben. The new variety is characterized by a compact bush. Elastic branches grow without thorns, do not break from strong gusts of wind. Fruiting lasts until frost.
• Agavam. Winter-hardy American variety withstands frosts down to -40^оC. A bush brings up to 4 kg of berries weighing 3 g per season.
• Darrow. The frost-resistant variety brings more than 3 kg of berries from the bush per season. Cone-shaped fruits weigh 3 g.

Cultivation in the Urals takes place according to standard rules. Only the timing of planting seedlings differ. The procedure is started after the soil warms up around mid-May.

Growing blackberries in Siberia

In Siberia, you can grow blackberry varieties suitable for the Urals. However, there are varieties that are more adapted to cold climates. The following varieties are considered the most popular:

• Black Satin. An unpretentious plant is able to take root in the conditions of Siberia on any land. The shrub is distinguished by the growth of long stems up to 7 m. The berries are large, weigh about 7 g. On the branches, the fruits are formed by brushes of 15 pieces. A thornless variety from 1 bush brings up to 20 kg of yield.
• Tronfri. The thornless variety produces more than 100 berries on each shoot. The lashes grow over 5 m long. The weight of the berry is about 6 g. The ripe berries are harvested in August.
• Abundant. The shrub has long creeping lashes without thorns. The roots grow strictly vertically, which allows maintaining a small distance between the bushes. The mass of one berry reaches 7 g.

Seedlings in Siberia are planted from mid-May. During the summer, the plant has time to take root. The first harvest can be expected next year.

How to properly propagate blackberries

Blackberries can be propagated in many ways, but each variety has its own preferences. Upright bushes let out a lot of root offspring. They are propagated by the top or side shoots. Bush remontant varieties prefer dividing the bush. Reproduction occurs by root buds.

Propagation of blackberries by layering

A weaving bush from layering allows you to get many new seedlings. The breeding process includes the following steps:

• In early August, the annual stems of the plant are bent to the ground.
• The branches are covered with soil in grooves 20 cm deep. Only the top remains on the surface.
• After two months, the layering will take root, and shoots will break out of the ground. Seedlings can be immediately cut off from the mother bush, but it is better to do this next spring.

Up to 5 new seedlings grow from one layer.

Propagation of garden blackberries by cuttings

Any variety of blackberry can be propagated by cuttings. The method is considered universal. It consists of the following:

• In autumn, annual lignified branches are cut off on an adult bush. Cuttings 40 cm long are cut from them.
• The twigs are dug in the garden until next spring. The depth of backfilling with earth is about 20 cm.
• With the onset of spring, the cuttings are dug out of the ground. At twigs on both sides, sections are updated with secateurs. The cuttings are laid out in a row in a groove at a distance of 10 cm and again covered with soil.
• Before germination, the cuttings are watered. To speed up the process, arcs are installed and a greenhouse is pulled from the film.
• After the emergence of seedlings, when 3 full-fledged leaves grow on the plants, the cuttings are dug out of the ground. Each twig will have 2 or 3 plants with their own roots. They are separated by secateurs and planted in separate containers for further cultivation.
• When new leaves appear on the seedlings and stems grow, the plants are planted in a permanent place.

You can get blackberry seedlings from cuttings cut in spring. This must be done before the buds open.

Green (stem) cuttings

Even green cuttings cut from a bush in summer are suitable for blackberry propagation:

• The tops of the branches are cut with a pruner from a bush in July. The stem is about 20 cm long.
  ​Attention! Cuttings cannot be cut parallel to the petiole of the underlying leaf. The optimal cutting angle is 45o.
• The top of the plant itself is not used for propagation. A piece of cuttings with two leaves is cut off from the twig.
• On the handle, the bottom sheet is cut off, leaving a part of the hemp on the twig. Cut off half of the top leaf.
• Prepared green cuttings are dipped in Kornevin’s solution, planted in separate pots with soil or peat. Above the plants, a greenhouse is made of film to maintain 96% humidity. Optimum air temperature +30^оC.
• Part of the green cuttings will surely disappear, but the established plants will remain. After the appearance of new leaves, the greenhouse gradually begins to ventilate.

Propagation of blackberries by green cuttings is considered a complex process. About 10% of seedlings grow out of the total amount.

Root

The method of propagation of blackberries by root cuttings allows you to get up to 70% of seedlings with a guarantee. You can do the procedure in spring and autumn. Root cuttings are cut 10 cm long, 1,5 mm thick.

An adult bush is dug up from different sides. After separation of the root cuttings, the pits are buried. In the spring, pieces of roots are laid out on the ground, covered with fertile loose soil up to 3 cm thick, watered. After germination, young seedlings are planted in a permanent place.

If root cuttings have been harvested since autumn, they are put in a bag. Storage takes place in a refrigerator or cellar at a temperature of +2 to +5^оC. Sprouting cuttings begin in February in flower pots.

The video shows the process of propagation of blackberries by root cuttings:

Offspring

Benefits can be found from young blackberry shoots. Reproduction by offspring can be done until July. Usually, the shoot grows at a distance of 30 cm from the bush. When the offspring grows at least 10 cm high, they dig it out together with a clod of earth and plant it in another place.

Apical shoots

The propagation method is well suited for weaving varieties. The long lashes of the plant practically take root themselves in the place where they come into contact with the ground. For forced rooting, starting from the third decade of July and ending with the first decade of August, the tops of the annual lashes of the bush are bent to the ground, spudding the top 15 cm. In a month, roots will appear, new young shoots will grow. For the winter they are covered with spruce branches, and in the spring they are separated from the bush and planted in another place.

The method of propagation of blackberries with tops is shown in the video:

Growing blackberries from seeds

The blackberry seed is very small. If you look at it in section under a microscope, you can see the structure of the nut. Due to the dense shell, the seeds germinate poorly. In production, to destroy the shell of the grain, they are subjected to scarification or soaked for 20 minutes in sulfuric acid.

At home, you can try to get blackberry seedlings from seeds as follows:

• grains are immersed in melt water for three days;
• soaked seeds are mixed with moist soil in approximately a ratio of 1: 3, put in the refrigerator for 60 days;
• after about 10 days, the crops are moistened from the sprayer;
• after a two-month stay in the refrigerator, the mixture of seeds and soil is sown in boxes filled with earth to a depth of 8 cm, and placed in a warm room, where the air temperature is maintained at +20^оWITH;
• thick seedlings are thinned out, leaving a free space of about 3 cm for each sprout²;

After the blackberry seedlings have four leaves, the plants are planted in the garden.

How to propagate blackberries without thorns

The considered methods are suitable for propagation of thornless blackberries: seeds, tops, green or lignified cuttings. However, there is another way – air layering. On an adult bush, the vaccination site is wrapped with a film. There should be ground under the bandage. Soil moistening is done with a syringe, piercing the film. A month after the appearance of cuttings with roots, they are separated from the blackberry bush and planted in a permanent place.

Growing and caring for blackberries, bush formation

Blackberry care involves watering. This is done infrequently, as the soil dries. Young bushes are watered with 7 liters of water. It is advisable to do mulching with peat.

At least 1 time per season, the plant is fed with mineral complexes. When using fertilizers separately, adhere to the following dosage:

• nitrogen – 20 g/m²;
• potassium – 40 g / m²;
• phosphate – 50 g/m².

From organic fertilizers for plants, dry mullein is used as mulch. Manure or compost will do.

Plant care involves the installation of a trellis. The design consists of two-meter pillars, between which 3-4 rows of wire are stretched.

To form a blackberry bush, fruiting shoots that have reached a length of 1,2 m are shortened by 10 cm. The side shoots of the plant are cut off when they reach a length of 50 cm.

On hot sunny days, blackberry plantations shade. For the winter, after pruning, the bushes are bent to the ground, covered with spruce branches or non-woven material.

The main pruning of an adult blackberry bush is done in the fall. Remove all fruiting branches from the plant. 6-8 shoots of the current year are left on the bush. They will bear fruit next season. Re-pruning of the bush is carried out in the spring, removing all damaged and weak stems.

Conclusion

The process of growing blackberries in the country is very exciting. In addition, with a good result, the gardener gets a large harvest of healthy and tasty berries.