How to plant blackberries correctly?

Blackberries are not yet as popular among gardeners as their closest relative, raspberries. However beneficial properties of this berry gardeners deserve to pay attention to it. The key to a rich blackberry harvest is proper planting and care of the bush.

Content:

• Choosing a landing site
• Planting blackberries
• Seedling care

Choosing a landing site

When choosing a place for planting blackberries First of all, you need to be guided by the characteristic features of this culture.

• Firstly, blackberries are a light-loving plant. In the sun or partial shade it will bear fruit well. A significant lack of sunlight will lead to crushing of the berries and a deterioration in their taste. Young shoots under these conditions will stretch upward strongly, shading the fruiting branches. Shoot formation can last until late autumn, and, as a result, frost resistance will decrease.
• Secondly, this crop does not tolerate waterlogged soils, so areas constantly flooded by storm or melt water are not suitable for it. The depth of groundwater in the place where blackberries are planted should be more than 1 meter, otherwise the plant may simply die. In addition, the growth period of shoots in waterlogged conditions will be prolonged, which means they will not have time to prepare for winter.
• Thirdly, when choosing a location, you should take into account the low winter hardiness of blackberries. This means that the planting area must be well heated and protected from cold winds.

It should also be added that blackberries prefer loamy soils and do not tolerate carbonate ones. But this fact is unlikely to affect choosing a landing site, since taking into account the small area of ​​the dacha plot, we can safely say that the composition of the soil is identical at all its points.

Thus, when choosing a place to plant blackberries, you should give preference to well-lit, dry areas, protected from sharp gusts of wind. You can plant shrubs in small islands in the center of the site, but most gardeners prefer to place them along the fence. It is better to step back from the fence by 0.5-1.0 meters: the bushes will be shaded less, and it will become more convenient for you to pick berries. For the same reason, the width of the strip should not exceed a meter. Access to the bushes on both sides will facilitate not only the harvesting process, when you want to reach every berry, but also caring for the plants.

Planting blackberries

It is better to plant blackberries in early spring. However, you can postpone this procedure until the fall, but in this case, to prevent young plants from freezing, the above-ground part must be shortened to 20-30 cm and well covered for the winter.

And here prepare the ground For spring planting it is better in the fall. Dig up the area allocated for blackberries to a depth of 50 cm and apply organic and mineral fertilizers. For 1 square meter you will need 50 g of potassium fertilizers, 100 g of superphosphate, 10 kg of humus. If the soil in the area is clayey, add a little sand and peat.

Like raspberries, blackberries are planted in holes or trenches. The size of the planting holes is 40x40x40 cm. The distance between them is from 0.5 to 1 meter, depending on the shoot-forming ability of the variety. Fill the holes two-thirds with fertile soil.If you have not pre-prepared the soil in the fall, you need to do it now. Fertilizers added to each hole should be thoroughly mixed with the soil to prevent direct contact with the roots of the seedlings.

When covering the roots of the seedling with soil, make sure that the growth bud located at the base of the stem is buried no more than 2-3 cm. If it is at a greater depth, fruiting may be delayed by a year until new buds are formed closer to the surface.

To better capture rain and irrigation water, make holes around the bushes. Mulch the soil by adding a small layer of humus, rotted sawdust or a mixture of sawdust and peat. Don't forget to do this every spring.

When planting blackberries, you should remember that this shrub strives to conquer areas that were not originally intended for it. To avoid this, dig slate sheets along the entire planting strip. Moreover, this needs to be done not only from the side of your plot, but also from the side of the fence - in case your neighbors’ plans did not include cultivation of this crop.

Blackberry shoots grow quite tall and there are a lot of fruits, so the bushes need support. The easiest way is to drive a peg near each bush and tie branches to it. But if you use a row planting method, it will be better to install a trellis: dig posts (thick wooden stakes, metal tubes) along the edges of the row and stretch three wires at a height of 0.5 m, 1 m and 1.5 m from the ground. Blackberry stems are either twisted, passed between the wires, or tied to them.

Seedling care

If the next year after planting you cut off the inflorescences that have appeared, you will give the plant the opportunity to spend all its energy not on fruiting, but on the formation of the root system.Next season it will thank you with a bountiful harvest.

Fertilize planted blackberries will be required no earlier than the third year. Before this, you can feed the plant with bird droppings diluted with water.

The rest of the care comes down to weeding and loosening the soil. And, of course, do not forget to water the bushes; during the period of active formation and growth of shoots, this should be done more often.

In autumn, it is necessary to prune overly elongated and weak branches. For those who have experience growing raspberries, this procedure is familiar. When preparing the plant for wintering, the branches should be untied from the trellises and bent to the ground. Even if you belong to the category of not the most hardworking gardeners, this must be done in the first autumn so that young and still weak bushes have a chance to survive winter frosts and winds.

As you can see, the technology for planting blackberries does not present any particular difficulties. And if you plant this plant on your plot this coming spring, within a year you will be able to please yourself and your loved ones with delicious fresh berries or aromatic blackberry jam.