Caring for garden blackberries is easy
At the end of summer, it is nice to see a wild bush in your garden with delicious aromatic black berries. The first blackberry bushes appeared in the USA in the 30s. Garden blackberries are similar to raspberries, but their branches are covered with prickly thorns. Although varieties of shrubs without thorns have already been bred.
Content:
Blackberries contain a huge amount of vitamins and nicotinic acid. Blackberries bloom with small white flowers. Blackberry fruits Before ripening, they turn from green to red, and when they are ripe, they become rich black. Ripe berries weigh 6-7 grams. The berries ripen well both in the sun and in slightly shaded places. Shrubs are drought resistant. The fruits of this berry have anti-inflammatory and antipyretic properties.
Types of blackberries
The largest number of varieties of blackberries are found in Europe and America. The best of the 300 varieties were created by the British. Quite a lot of hybrids are being bred now.
Winter varieties of shrubs are distinguished by long, straight stems. Less winter-tolerant varieties are dewberry. It is distinguished by more curly shoots, which can create impenetrable thickets. But gardeners prefer straight-growing blackberries. In general, blackberry bushes do not require special soil and grow well in any place. There are also semi-creeping varieties that crawl onto supports or spread out along the ground.
Blackberry scam
Unlike other shrubs, blackberries are being planted not in autumn, but in spring: in April or early May. It is better to plant the shrub in places protected from gusts of wind. Since the wind interferes with the dusting of flowers and breaks and injures blackberry leaves and berries. Thornless varieties bear fruit every year and suffer less disease.
It is better to take sprouts for propagation from nurseries. Mineral and organic substances must be added to the soil before planting. Half a bucket of cow manure, 100 grams of superphosphate and 40 grams of potassium fertilizer are poured into the dug hole.
Before planting the bush in the ground, you need to remove the damaged pagons and put them in water for 12 hours. You can plant blackberries in a row. To do this, make holes every 1-1.5 meters. Blackberries are thorny shrubs, and if the bushes are planted very close to each other, picking the berries will be inconvenient. The holes should be deeper than the length of the roots. Compact the soil around the seedling after planting, but do not water it. It is more convenient to plant blackberries near the fence.
Trellis method Growing blackberries is the most convenient for gardeners. The shoots rise, and the uniform influence of sunlight contributes to the rapid ripening of the fruit. Blackberries grow on two-year-old branches, which then die. Dry and undeveloped branches are cut and burned, 12-15 healthy shoots are left per 1 m2, and newly grown shoots are removed.
Shrub growth care
Good care of blackberry bushes results in healthy berries and a large harvest. Blackberry bushes do not like hard soil and weeds. For a larger harvest, cut off the top of the shoot. This increases the number of lateral branches. With more prunings, the size of the berries increases.
The first year of development, blackberries will not bloom and will not produce a harvest.For the perfect cultivation of straight-growing blackberries, you need timely pinching of young shoots. After reaching a height of 100 - 120 cm, the tops need to be cut off by 10 cm. And when the side branches grow, the main ones are shortened again by 50 cm. Thus, the bush looks compact, but the yield does not decrease. It is worth tying up shoots that grow back and removing weak and unnecessary ones.
After the blackberries bloom, you need fertilize the soil. It will add usefulness and nutrients. But you shouldn’t overdo it with fertilizing, so as not to lead the bush to disease. During the period of flowering and fruit ripening, it is especially important to moisten the soil and weed out weeds.
Periodically, the soil needs to be loosened and watered. The necessary fertilizers must be applied once a year. Peat, cow manure, ashes are suitable for this, and bird droppings can be added regularly. A blackberry bush in one place can grow up to 15 years.
In autumn, you need to prune weak branches and those that have stretched out. Despite the fact that blackberries are frost-resistant, young shoots must be protected. In late autumn, the bushes are covered for the winter so that they do not freeze. To do this, the branches are carefully tilted to the ground and fixed, and also covered with insulation, garden leaves or spruce branches.
Storage and use
The most delicious fresh blackberries. It can also be frozen and used to make jams, preserves or compotes for the winter. Or add it as a filling when baking pies and rolls.
These berries suffer little from pests and diseases. But raspberry beetles They also attack blackberries. Collect ripe fruits on time.
Give the blackberry bushes in your garden the necessary care and then you will enjoy delicious, vitamin-rich berries all year round.
