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Blackberry is a culture that has relatively recently “registered” in our gardens. We are all more accustomed to seeing her in the wild – on the edges of forests or along lakes. A few years ago, no one could even imagine that we would grow this berry on our plots. But things are changing, and today blackberries are one of the most popular garden crops that can and should be grown on the site. How to properly plant a blackberry, care for it and how to deal with pests – these are the issues that will be discussed in today’s material.
Selecting a landing site
Blackberries should be planted in a place where the seedlings will have enough sunny color, but always protected from the wind. The fact is that the wind can pretty much interfere with the process of pollination or break the young shoots of plants. You can plant blackberries on the southwestern slopes, which will protect the blackberry seedlings from the cold northern winds. The bush planted on loamy or sandy loamy soil bears fruit best. The soil for blackberries should be well-drained, well supplied with oxygen.
We plant blackberries
Blackberries can be planted in autumn or spring. If you choose the autumn option, then you need to plant the seedlings in early autumn, before the frosts come – the root system of the bush must have time to take root and get a little stronger, otherwise the seedling may not survive the cold. Needless to say, autumn planting is only suitable for winter-hardy varieties.
The blackberry planting scheme is as follows: holes are dug 0,5 x 0,5 m in size, keeping a distance of 1,5 m between the pits, and maintaining row spacing of 2,5 m. About 5 kg of humus, up to 40 g of superphosphate and 20 g of potassium salt. After mixing the nutrients with the top layer of earth from the hole, the pits are covered with the resulting mixture.
Before planting a blackberry, each seedling must be carefully examined: remove damaged or frozen areas, shorten too long sprouts. If you notice that the roots of the seedlings have dried up a little, you can put them in water with the addition of a rooting agent for at least 1 hour.
After all the manipulations are completed, the seedling must be placed in the hole, deepening the root neck by a few centimeters. The young bush is covered with earth, shaking it slightly so that the soil gets between the roots. Next, the earth is well compacted.
After planting, several small holes are made around each bush for watering. An average bucket of water should be used per seedling to properly moisten the soil. After watering, the landing site must be mulched with a protective layer.
Before there is a threat of frost, the seedling must be covered: bent to the ground and fixed at the surface, covered for the winter (any covering material is used for this, sometimes spruce branches, fallen leaves, etc.).
Of course, this method of planting will allow you to harvest the first crop in the next season, but it can be used with certain restrictions: in Ukraine and Our Country, winter planting is possible only in the southern regions.
But much more often, gardeners resort to spring planting: even if you don’t pick berries this season, the bush will get stronger enough before wintering and will generously thank you for next year. Planting is carried out according to the same scheme, however, there are differences: the soil for blackberry beds must be prepared in the fall. To do this, generously fertilize the selected area with humus or compost (10 liters of nutrient mixture per 1 square meter of soil). Having scattered the fertilizer over the site, carefully dig it to the depth of the shovel bayonet and leave it in this form for the winter. By spring, the bed will be completely ready for planting: the fertilizer will overheat and will not be overly aggressive, which means that young seedlings are not threatened with phytodiseases due to overfeeding.
The Ukrainian and climate, although suitable for autumn planting, can still sometimes be unnecessarily aggressive in winter, so spring planting of blackberries is considered more preferable.
Care of seedlings
After the bushes are planted, the active phase in the blackberry patch is completed. Now you only need to loosen the soil around the bushes from time to time, weed the weeds (if the planting sites were not protected by a layer of mulch), and water the blackberries as needed. Some gardeners recommend removing from young plants the few flowers that they can form in the first year of their life: this way you will keep the bush strong for active fruiting next year. The next feeding of the bushes will be needed only in a year, because the soil for planting blackberries was prepared by you.
Formative pruning is done in the fall, when fruiting is complete, and all spent shoots can be removed. As you know, each shoot that bears fruit in the current season will no longer be useful (if it is not removed, it will only take away the vitality of the plant, lowering its yield).
Pests and diseases
Given that blackberries are a close relative of garden raspberries, plant diseases suffer from common diseases. So, garden blackberries, if the seedlings were planted with violations of agricultural technology or the rules of care were not followed, may suffer from powdery mildew, white spot, gray rot, or from banal rust. To prevent this, the plants must be treated with a one percent solution of Bordeaux mixture. In addition, agrotechnical rules must be observed, then you most likely will not have to deal with diseases.
The list of insects that can harm your blackberry beds is somewhat longer: these are spider and raspberry mites, aphids, butterfly caterpillars, and many others. To defeat such enemies, bushes should be treated with Karbofos, Akarin or Fitoverm.
A winning strategy against pests is to carry out preventive treatments of blackberries with one of the indicated preparations in spring (before the buds open) and autumn (after the harvest is fully completed). Do this every year and your brambles will be free from pesky bugs.
That’s all the difficulties of growing this interesting, relatively new culture for us. Now you know how to plant a blackberry to grow it healthy, and then it will surely please you with an excellent harvest.
Video “How to plant blackberries”
From this video you will learn when is the best time and how to plant blackberry seedlings.
