How to propagate garden blackberries: in autumn, spring, without thorns, climbing, bush, seeds

Blackberry propagation can be done in several ways throughout the warm season. To choose the most convenient and effective method, you should study all the existing options.

Features of reproduction in different seasons

The best time for shrub propagation is early spring and autumn. Like any plant, during these periods, the blackberry quickly builds up the root system, since it does not spend resources on the development of green mass. However, there are ways to increase the crop population on the site, even in the height of summer.

How to propagate blackberries in spring

The spring period is optimal for planting blackberries with an existing root system. You can propagate culture:

• seedlings;
• stem and root cuttings with regrown underground rods;
• root suckers;
• division of the bush.

In all cases, for planting, you need to choose a dry and warm, but cloudy day. The soil should be thawed by the time of the procedure.

Reproduction should be carried out in the spring after temperatures around 10 ° C are established.

How to propagate blackberries in summer

In summer, rooting of green and lignified cuttings, as well as horizontal and apical layering, is most often carried out. Until autumn, parts of the plant have enough time to build up the root system. Breeding is usually carried out on a cloudy dry day, the weather is chosen as cool as possible.

The main danger of summer rooting is that cuttings and seedlings do not tolerate drought well and may not take root in the heat. In order for reproduction to be successful, it is necessary to regularly water the blackberries until autumn as the soil dries up. The soil around the seedlings and cuttings is mulched with a material that prevents the rapid evaporation of moisture.

How to propagate blackberries in the fall

It is most convenient to propagate blackberries from a bush in autumn by dividing, planting germinated cuttings and rooting horizontal and apical layering. If the procedures are carried out a few weeks before the cold weather, the culture will have time to safely take root in a new place and, with the onset of spring, will start to grow.

In addition, in the fall it is customary to harvest lignified cuttings and root offspring. The culture tolerates the separation of shoots well before the onset of winter – the sections quickly overgrow and rarely begin to rot.

Ways to propagate blackberry garden

Blackberries on the site can be propagated by seeds and numerous vegetative methods. Each of the methods has its own advantages.

By dividing the bush

By division, upright blackberries are most often propagated, which do not give offspring and at the same time do not allow young shoots to be bent to the ground. The method is optimally suited for well-developed shrubs over 4-5 years old, with a strong root system and numerous stems.

The breeding process looks like this:

1. A healthy and strong blackberry bush is dug out of the ground, trying not to damage the roots. The plant should be well watered beforehand, in which case it will be easier to remove it from the old place.
2. With a sharply sharpened and clean shovel or ax, the blackberry rhizome is divided into several parts. Each of them should have at least two strong above-ground shoots and one underground bud.
3. Delenki carefully inspect and remove damaged, dry or rotten parts of the roots. All cuts are treated with wood ash, crushed coal or potassium permanganate solution to avoid infection.
4. The resulting seedlings are immediately transferred to the prepared holes. Depressions in the soil for blackberries should be about twice the size of the roots of the seedlings.

After planting, the delenki are watered abundantly, mulched in a circle, and over the next weeks they monitor the condition of the soil, not allowing it to dry out.

Reproduction by dividing the bush is recommended a month before the first frost.

Apical layering

Apical cuttings are usually used to propagate varietal blackberries of creeping varieties; in such plants, shoots can be easily bent to the ground. The procedure is best carried out in August and September, so that the culture has time to give new roots before the cold weather.

The selected blackberry shoot must be cleaned of leaves and pinched off the growth point on it. After that, the branch is tilted and dropped into the ground up to 10 cm with the upper part. It is better to separate the apical layers from the mother plant with the onset of spring.

Until the end of the season, top layers need to be moistened weekly.

Horizontal layers

Propagation of garden blackberries by horizontal layers is also used mainly for creeping varieties. It is necessary to choose a young flexible shoot, tilt it to the ground and deepen it to 20 cm so that the base and top protrude from the soil.

With regular watering, after 1-2 months, the layering forms new roots in the buried part. In autumn or spring, it can be separated from the main plant.

The top of the horizontal layer must be cut off, otherwise the shoot will not give new shoots.

Root offspring

Many varieties of blackberries produce offspring – shoots that grow at a short distance from the mother bush from segments of the roots. Usually they have to be fought to prevent thickening. But if necessary, offspring can be used for their own purposes.

Reproduction of bush blackberries is carried out as follows:

1. At the end of May or at the end of August, several strong, not twisted offspring are found on the plant with a shoot thickness of at least 8 mm.
2. Carefully dig up the blackberry root system and select those stems in which the underground part has the longest shoots up to 20 cm and a powerful lobe.
3. With a sharply sharpened tool, the offspring is separated from the mother bush and immediately transferred to a new place according to the same algorithm as an ordinary seedling.

With this method of reproduction, blackberries can bloom as early as the second year after planting. However, it is recommended to remove the buds so that the plant can focus on root development and give a more abundant harvest next season. It is convenient to propagate upright varieties with root offspring.

Root cuttings

Blackberry root cuttings differ from offspring in that they do not have a well-developed aerial part, they only have non-sprouted buds. But such material is also well suited for reproduction:

1. In October or November, the near-stem circle of the blackberry is slightly dug up and parts of the roots are cut at least 10 cm in length with a diameter of up to 4 cm.
2. For the winter, offspring in wet sand are cleaned in a dark, cool place, for example, in a cellar. It is necessary to save planting material so that it does not start growing until the next season.
3. With the onset of spring, the offspring are buried in the selected area to a depth of about 5 cm. They must be placed horizontally.
4. Planting material is regularly watered until new shoots appear.

When planted in spring, root cuttings have time to give 2-3 well-developed shoots per season.

Odrevesnevshimi cuttings

Lignified cuttings are the most unreliable way to propagate blackberries. However, the method is used if the time for preparing green shoots has already been missed, and there is no opportunity to use offspring and layering.

In mid-autumn, sections of lignified branches up to 30 cm long are cut. Until spring, they are kept in the cold, and with the onset of heat, cuts are renewed and laid out in rows, sprinkled with earth on top. Cuttings need to be watered and weeded from time to time, to speed up the process, you can stretch a plastic film from above. After the formation of young shoots with leaves and roots, the planting material will need to be dug up and distributed in pots or transferred to temporary beds.

In a permanent place, shoots from lignified cuttings are planted when a pair of true leaves appear.

Green cuttings

For propagation by green cuttings, young shoots of the current year are used. In June and July, flexible stems with several internodes are cut, the lower leaves are removed, and the upper ones are shortened by half. The cuttings are dipped in a growth stimulator, and then planted on a temporary bed or in pots and covered with a jar on top to create greenhouse conditions. After about 3-4 weeks, rooted shoots are transferred to a permanent place.

The upper two buds of green cuttings are cut off before propagation.

Propagation of blackberries by seeds at home

Vegetative methods can be used to rapidly increase the shrub population. But it is also realistic to propagate blackberries at home from seeds – with your own collection, germination reaches 80%.

To obtain planting material, it is necessary to take healthy overripe berries, gently crush them and rinse in water. At the same time, good large seeds will settle to the bottom of the container, and they must be used for reproduction.

The germination algorithm looks like this:

1. The washed seeds are dried on a towel, and then put in the refrigerator for three months in wet sand. Stratification allows you to increase the germination of the material and strengthen the endurance of blackberries.
2. In early March, the seeds are removed from the refrigerator and sown in shallow but wide containers in a nutrient substrate consisting of sand, peat and garden soil. It is necessary to immerse the grains up to 5 mm.
3. From above, the seeds are abundantly sprayed with water and cover the container with a transparent film. For several weeks, the container is placed under a special fitolamp at room temperature, not forgetting to moisten the soil every five days.
4. After the appearance of four true leaves, the seedlings are transferred to a temporary open bed, leaving a distance of about 15 cm between individual seedlings.
5. During the summer, blackberries from seeds are regularly watered and complex fertilizers are applied, as well as weeding the soil from weeds.

Before the onset of winter, the roots of seedlings are covered with peat, sawdust or humus for insulation. Blackberries are transferred to a permanent place for the next year, when the plants finally get stronger.

The upper two buds of green cuttings are cut off before propagation.

sleeping kidney

An unusual way of winter propagation of blackberries suggests using dormant buds for germination. The schema looks like this:

1. In October, annual cuttings about 15 cm long with several buds are cut from the plant.
2. The shoots are cleaned of leaves and put away for storage for the winter in a cellar or refrigerator.
3. At the end of February, the cuttings are removed and immersed with the upper bud down in a jar of water.
4. The container is placed on a lighted windowsill and the liquid is periodically added as it evaporates.
5. After the kidney gives a sprout with roots, it is cut off and transferred to a pot with soil for growing.

In this way, you can wake up all the kidneys on the prepared cutting. But it is important to immerse them in water in turn.

Reproduction by a dormant bud is more effective than the usual germination of shoots

How to propagate thornless blackberries

It is convenient to propagate thornless blackberries using vegetative methods. Namely:

• green cuttings;
• apical and horizontal layering;
• division of the bush.

The offspring of garden blackberries without thorns rarely reproduces, since most varieties, in principle, do not have basal shoots. As for growing from seed, the unique characteristics of hybrids are often lost when using it, in particular, bushes can grow thorny.

How to propagate climbing blackberries

For climbing varieties of shrubs, propagation by horizontal and vertical layering is well suited. The shoots of such plants are thin and flexible, they are easy to tilt to the ground and fix so that they do not straighten. Root cuttings and offspring, as well as seeds, can be used, but this is less convenient.

Conclusion

Propagating blackberries is a fairly simple task that can be done in several ways. If there is at least one adult plant bush on the site, then to increase the population of the crop, you will not have to buy seedlings in nurseries.

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