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The favorite of gardeners and the dream of summer residents, the unchanging star of the last agricultural seasons is Ruben blackberry. What is this miracle? Is the description of the variety from the brochures really true, and is it really a real find that does not require shelter and special care. Let’s look for answers to these questions together.
Variety description
These berry bushes have the ability to bring harvest twice a year: young shoots give fruit already in June, and last year’s lashes will please with a harvest closer to September. Immediately after appearing on the market, the variety made a real sensation: still, there is no need to build a winter shelter, the whips can simply be cut. But this is not always the case.
The description of the variety includes the following features:
- two-time fruiting in one agricultural season;
- upright bush, not prone to weaving, well thorned;
- blackberry forms shoots up to 2,5 m high, the bush is compact, but quite powerful;
- the flowers are white, quite large, reaching a diameter of 6 cm. Flowering begins already in April (if the bushes were planted in closed ground conditions), or closer to July (in open areas);
- an important characteristic is low frost resistance (only a covering method of cultivation is acceptable).
Advantages and disadvantages
Although this variety does not yet have a rich history, given its novelty, its main advantages are already clearly visible:
- exceptionally high yield – up to 6 kg of berries are harvested from one bush (with normal indicators of 3-4 kg);
- this remontant blackberry tolerates winters well, if you organize a decent shelter for it, or simply cut off the entire above-ground part of the bush, leaving only the roots;
- as already mentioned, this variety bears fruit twice during the agricultural season.
But, despite the visible and objective advantages, the Ruben blackberry also has weaknesses:
- this blackberry is characterized by problems with pollination of flowers: if dry, arid weather persists for a long time, volumes of the second crop may suffer;
- the second fruiting can be very delayed – until mid-November. But with the arrival of the first frosts, the ability of the berries to develop freezes, and as a result, part of the crop is buried under a layer of the first snow.
Features of care
Blackberries of this variety should be planted in shady places so that the rays of the sun only slightly illuminate the bushes. The plant is not picky in matters of soil composition – planting can be carried out in any suitable place on your site.
If the plant is properly cared for, you can easily get large berries, weighing up to 15 grams each. Blackberry Ruben needs regular and sufficient, but in no case excessive, watering. The ideal option would be to organize blackberries with drip irrigation.
After fruiting is over, the Ruben bushes should be cut, removing all shoots, leaving only the root system in the soil. Breeders claim that a plant treated in this way is able to survive the winter even without any shelter, just under the snow. However, for additional protection, it is still better to protect the roots from severe frosts.
“Ruben” needs top dressing: in the spring, about 7 kg of humus and 50 grams of ammonium nitrate should be added under each bush. This amount of fertilizer will be enough for the plant to develop successfully for a whole season.
Diseases and pests
The Ruben variety practically does not suffer from disease damage. Occasionally, you can find individual berries, slightly touched by traces of gray rot. This happens on those fruits that have been in contact with the soil for a long time. Basically, blackberries growing on the powerful straight shoots of Ruben are clean and of exceptional quality.
If we talk about insects, then sometimes you can see traces of leaf aphids.
In the event of the appearance of pests, the bushes are sprayed with a weak solution of tobacco dust (200 g of dust is infused in 10 liters of water for 2 days). The resulting infusion is carefully filtered, 50 grams of laundry soap are added and the bushes are sprayed with the resulting product.
Those shoots that are severely affected by insects are cut off and, without wasting time, burned.
And even if “Ruben” is a recent guest in the garden plots of s, many gardeners have already fallen in love with this blackberry, for its unpretentiousness and high yield. Try and you grow such a bush at your dacha, perhaps it is you who will be able to get the largest berries ever seen in our area.
Video “Blackberry variety Ruben”
