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Wild blackberries grow in forests, on the edges of swamps, where there is not enough sun, where there is no drainage, and the soils can be acidic. And the inhabitants of the surrounding settlements in the second half of July, when blackberries ripen, rush to pick up sour, sometimes small, but such healthy berries, not being afraid to hurt themselves on sharp thorns. Not so long ago, we began to cultivate this plant in our dachas, where it grows and bears fruit in completely different conditions. We feed it, water it, cover it for the winter, and it tries to ripen to our joy – the berries of the garden varietal blackberry are larger, richer in taste, the harvest is larger, and the fruiting period is longer.
When do blackberries begin to bear fruit?
We have known blackberries for a long time, but summer residents began to massively grow it on their plots a couple of decades ago. Moreover, in our country it is distributed mainly by private households, it is very rarely grown on small farms. In Europe (especially in Poland and the UK), farmers have boldly taken up the cultivation of vitamin berries for commercial purposes, but they cannot keep up with the world leaders in production – Mexico, Canada and the United States. By the way, it is from Mexico that this tender berry comes to Europe.
Blackberry belongs to biennial crops – in the first year of life, its shoots grow, and fruit buds are only laid, in the second year of life, flowers appear, then fruits. After that, the fruiting shoots die off, which is why they are cut out in the fall at the root. In parallel with fruit-bearing shoots, replacement shoots grow, on which fruit buds are laid. Of these new shoots, the bush is rationed, removing the extra ones, leaving the strongest ones that will give the next year’s crop. Thus, the owner can plan the development of the bush and harvest.
But there is also a remontant blackberry, which is cultivated as an annual crop. It forms fruits on the shoots of the first year, after which all the shoots are cut off in the fall, and new ones grow the next year, on which flowers will grow, and then fruits. You can not cut the shoots after fruiting, then next year there is a reason to wait for two harvests.
A berry crop is usually planted in spring in an open, well-lit place with prepared (generously fertilized) soil. After planting, the seedling is pruned, leaving shoots no more than 30 cm from the ground. Then they take care of it all season – water it, weed it, loosen the earth around it, save it from pests, and in the fall the shoots are carefully folded and laid under cover, in winter they also throw more snow on them. The following year, these shoots will give the first fruits, which are usually allowed to ripen – they will no longer weaken the bush. After a couple of years, the root system will develop, the bush will mature, fruiting will reach its maximum.
When are blackberries harvested?
The wild progenitor of our garden blackberry usually ripens in the second half of summer. But today, scientists tell the crop when it is best to ripen. The varieties and hybrids created by breeders can be independently selected according to the time of fruit ripening. Just like a thorny shrub, which gives a lot of unpleasant moments to the gardener when caring for it, you can replace it with a thornless one, because a non-thorny garden blackberry has already been created.
There are early, mid-season and late blackberry varieties.
The fruits of early varieties ripen in June. There is an opinion that these are not the most delicious, usually sour and small berries, but this is not entirely true. For example, from the beginning of June, you can pick large cone-shaped berries of the Columbia Star variety. Its thornless creeping shoots are grown on trellises. This variety is undemanding to growing conditions and care, gives a rich harvest of fragrant sweet and sour berries. The very famous variety “Natchez” gives its first ripe berries in June, and the last – in August. This thornless bush forms powerful upright shoots, and its large berries are distinguished by sweetness.
Thornfree, Karaka Black, Loch Tay are all early varieties that are resistant to traditional crop diseases. The only thing you can be afraid of growing early blackberries is spring frosts, if they fall at the beginning of flowering, the crop will be spoiled.
Most blackberry varieties have extended fruiting: flowers bloom in parallel, ovaries form, berries ripen. All this can last from 4 to 6 weeks, for some even longer. Harvest should be in 2-3 days, it is undesirable to leave the berries on the branches after they are fully ripe.
This feature is considered as a virtue if you want to constantly get fresh berries or as a disadvantage if you want to harvest sooner to process it.
July is the ripening time for mid-season blackberry varieties. Among them there are prickly and thornless, large-fruited and not very large. The large-fruited “Black Satin” and “Loch Ness” are well-deservedly popular. “Lauton” is an old variety, its berries are not very large, but fragrant, with a dessert sweet-sour taste, they tolerate transportation well and can be stored for several days without losing their qualities. ‘Lauton’ usually produces an excellent harvest, flowering already when there is no threat of late frost, and ripening under the bright warm sun.
The crop of late blackberries ripens in July – August, sometimes captures September, like “Blackberry”. The most famous varieties are: Chester Thornless, Navajo, Texas, Apache. It is good to get a harvest of delicious vitamin berries at the end of summer, when all the others have long ripened, eaten and forgotten. But with late ripening, there is always a danger of losing part of the crop with the advent of cold weather. The fact is that even the blackberry, which the creators declared frost-resistant, will freeze through our winters without shelter. This means that in the fall, before the onset of cold weather, you need to have time to cut and cover the shoots for the winter, even if not all the berries are ripe.
There is also a remontant blackberry, which is able to produce a crop not only on the shoots of the first year, but can produce two crops: one on the shoots of the second year (if they are not cut), and the other on new shoots. Then the first harvest will take place at the beginning of summer, like raspberries, and the second is able to go into autumn (it can be a problem for him to have time to ripen before frost). There are hybrids of raspberries and blackberries (varieties of the so-called blackberries), which are so not afraid of the cold that they can ripen almost in frost. Remontant varieties are not like that. In protected ground conditions, they give two excellent harvests: in May – June and in September. But in open ground, not all climatic conditions can allow this.
There are so many varieties and hybrids of blackberries that every gardener can choose them not only for the size and taste of the berries, but even for the timing of fruiting.
Video “How to get a record blackberry crop”
From this video you will learn which blackberries to plant on the site and how to care for them in order to get record berry yields from June to September.
