In summer cottages, you can find a variety of bushes that bear fruit with berries. Most often you can see raspberry bushes, but for some reason summer residents do not particularly like his fellow blackberry. This plant is not inferior to raspberries in taste, beauty, or even complexity of care. Blackberries are great for canning, making jam, or just for eating.
Blackberry bushes are small compared to raspberries, and the presence of thorns in small quantities, but it still complicates the harvest. In all other respects, this plant is completely identical to raspberries in care and pruning. It should be noted that blackberries have one peculiarity. It can bear fruit even during periods of drought or if the bushes are completely left without attention and care, but the amount of harvest will decrease. Ripening of berries occurs in different areas, regardless of the amount of sunlight. The berries can be considered ripe as soon as they turn black.
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Planting blackberries
Blackberry shrubs, although they do not need strict care, a lot of moisture and sunlight, can still help increase the fruiting of shrubs. For example, when planting a plant, you need to calculate the place so that the blackberry ends up was protected from blowing... This, in turn, will not only increase the quantity of the crop and its quality, but also help in winter the shrubs simply do not die at low temperatures. In the area where there is no wind, snow will not fall from the bushes, which means that they will be covered with snow all winter.
In addition, blackberries, like any other plant, must be pollinated, and in a strong wind, bees cannot fly up and do their job. Gusts of wind can even break the fragile branches of blackberries, especially after the winter period, when the plant has not yet gained its full strength.
As mentioned above, when planting blackberries, you can not attach importance to the amount of sunlight. Fruiting occurs equally well both in a darkened place and in an open area, but it is impossible to plant in complete darkness. If sunlight stops getting on the plant, over time the berries will become smaller, and this will negatively affect the quality and taste of the crop.
Planting blackberries in the garden is best produce in spring... In the southern parts of the country, I also practice planting in the autumn period of the year, but still the best performance is achieved in the bushes that were planted in the spring. In this case, cuttings take root better, and the likelihood of plant death when the cold period begins.
Soil is the very element that does not play any role in growing blackberries. Usually, planting is carried out near the fence, in order not only to increase the convenience of harvesting, but also to further refine this part of the garden plot, hiding the fence.
Step-by-step procedure for planting blackberries
The whole procedure for planting blackberry bushes can be split into several stages, in order to subsequently achieve high results during plant engraftment.
Before you start planting the plant, you need to clean the cuttings from the dry crust and put in water for one night.- On the garden plot, you first need to prepare a place for planting blackberry bushes. The pits should be of the optimal size, but this is not the main thing. Basically, you need to look at the distance between the holes. During growth, shrubs can grow to colossal sizes, so you need to leave a distance between the pits, which will be about 80 cm. This distance is necessary so that the blackberry bushes do not intertwine and interfere with each other. In addition, the passage between the plants will make harvesting easier.
- It is best to fertilize the soil before planting. The selection of fertilizers is more symbolic, so you can take ordinary humus and potash fertilizing. The humus should be stirred in equal proportions with the soil and introduced into the hole even before the bushes are planted. Next, you need to add potash fertilizers in the amount of 40 grams. Good feeding can guarantee quick survival of shrubs in a new place.
- After fertilizing the soil, you can place the cuttings in the hole and bury them with the rest of the earth, which was previously mixed with humus. The ground around the shrub is compacted, but it will be possible to water it only after a few days.
Best for growing in a garden blackberry is suitable... The most popular varieties include:
- agave;
- abundant;
- darrow.
These varieties are great for courting at their summer cottage. Lack of thornc simplifies harvesting, and if the plant is no longer taken care of, then it will not grow as much as other blackberry varieties.
Basic tips for caring for blackberries
Although blackberries can grow on their own, the first year is the most difficult for them. At this time, you need to take all the necessary measures for the plant to take root in a new place. This includes all basic maintenance, pruning and watering activities. The entire growing procedure must be especially carefully observed in the first year, and then after the growth of the bushes, some stages of the procedure can be omitted.
First of all you need pay enough attention to watering... In the first year, it simply does not make sense to expect a harvest, but you should not give up watering the blackberry, because just at this time the crown and the strength of the root branches are formed. As a result, proper watering in the first year can significantly increase yields in subsequent years. Massive roots ultimately help the plant to feel comfortable in dry weather. Raspberries cannot boast of such quality.
Watering in the early stages of berry bushes should be abundant, but still do not overdo it. It is necessary to increase the amount of moisture as the blackberry germinates and during the beginning of the ripening of the crop. In addition, moisture should freely flow to the root system, so before this procedure, it is better to loosen the bud first. Blackberry bushes do not like it very much when the soil is compacted too much. In addition, with dense soil layers, moisture simply does not reach the root system, but disperses in different directions from the shrub. Fertilizing before watering is carried out exclusively in the first year after planting, and then in the summer you can do without feeding the plant.
To increase the activity of blackberry growth, fertilizers may be needed only in the spring season. Apply top dressing needed once. For this it is best to use components such as:
- mullein;
- ash;
- peat;
- humus;
- bird droppings.
Phosphorus, nitrogen and potash fertilizers can be used as additional fertilizers, but there is no particular need for them.Shrubs do not require a large amount of minerals, and they receive all the main components exclusively from the soil.
The main stages of pruning blackberries
Pruning blackberries is an important stage, which ultimately determines how strongly and evenly the shrub will germinate, and already from these conditions the amount of harvest will flow and ease of picking berries... If you do not prune, then you can get an impenetrable jungle at your summer cottage. In order to avoid such problems, it is necessary to undertake pruning of the stems about 3-4 times during the period of active growth. Pruning should be done very often, because the growth of branches in blackberries is fast. If you don't want to spend too much time pruning, then it is best to plant thornless bushes.
The first pruning begins after the end of winter, as soon as the temperature exceeds the beginning of the growing season. You can determine this time by the presence of buds that only appear on the stems of plants. You need to cut off all stems that have been damaged during the winter or have dried out. Usually, no more than 15 shoots or 8 shoots on one of the shrubs are left per square meter. Throughout the rest of the year, new shoots need to be pruned so they don't weaken the plant.
Re-pruning shoots called pinching. It is produced at a time when the shoots have already grown. Usually, each of them needs to be shortened by no more than 15 cm, but if there is no time for constant care of the bushes, then 20 cm of the shoot can be removed. Such pruning is especially important for summer residents who want to significantly increase the amount of harvest on blackberry bushes. Pinching contributes to the formation of new branches, which in the future will give an additional harvest of berries. When pruning shoots, you need to leave only the strongest, and cut off all weak branches so that they do not take all the strength from the bush.
The last pruning is done in the fall before winter. All weak and dry shoots are removed. Particular attention should be paid to branches that show signs of disease. On the contrary, it is better to leave the shoots before the beginning of winter, because at the expense of it, in the spring you can see a formed and strong crown.
Blackberry propagation
The question of how to care for a blackberry is not too difficult to understand, unlike the reproduction of this bush. There are many ways of propagation using seeds, seedlings or techniques that, in the initial stages, do not even require cutting the stem of the blackberry. The most popular method of blackberry propagation among gardeners is planting a sprouting stem... This method can help to propagate blackberries from just one shrub.
To propagate blackberries, you will need a stem about 3 meters long from a nearby bush. A hole 30 centimeters deep is dug and sprinkled with humus. The end of the stem is placed in the hole in a semicircle or in a full circle and sprinkled with a little earth. Immediately after this, you need to make the first watering and wait until the water is absorbed into the ground. The rest of the soil completely covers the hole.
With this breeding technique, it is important that the stem is buried in early August, and at the end of the autumn period it can be cut off from a nearby bush. In this case, the length of the sapling should be no more than one meter above the ground... This is the easiest method of propagation, which requires the least amount of effort, and does not require the purchase of additional seedlings.
Conclusion
Blackberries, along with raspberries, are considered the most delicious berry. It can be grown by any summer resident, even without much experience, the main thing is to follow the basic recommendations. The main advantages of this variety of berry bushes are the minimum need for maintenance, high yield, as well as a way to increase the aesthetic appearance of the landscape in the garden area.
