The Blackberries of North America and Europe are a mighty clan of innumerable coinage and hybrids that have taxed the efforts of botanists to classify them . The many species in North America have furnished varieties suitable for cultivation in most of the United States except the cold , dry Great Plains region , and for the milder portions of Canada . One European species , the Cut - leaved Blackberry , Rubus laciniatus , has run wild on the Pacific Coast where it is cultivated .
Blackberry growing begin in the easterly United States about 1850 , when savage choice were brought into cultivation . Blackberries are not grown much now in the East , but Texas , Oklahoma and Arkansas have satisfying acreage in commercial yield .
Ripe blackberry are a delicious fruit and provide home - grown Berry after the Raspberries have finished . If flora of ripe varieties , honest to name , are set and the Tarnished Plant Bug is moderate , blackberry may be produce successfully on suitable stain in many part of North America . The upright , or bush type blackberry are discussed here first ; the dog mixture are treat one by one at the destruction of this intro under a special head .
Blackberries are less hardy than Raspberries , but the hardier variety show may be mature in the milder portions of the northern United States and Canada . Southward there are varieties suited for the milder climate and the long hot summers . Winter combat injury of the Blackberry is mainly from severe cold , rather than from the breaking of quiescence in mild weather , which causes so much later winter or spring - killing of Raspberries .
The site should be protectedfrom the dominate flatus which dry out out the canes in wintertime , a broker in winterkilling . Winds also dry out out the soil in summertime . A sloping site is preferred as it is not so cold in the winter , nor so subject to freeze as low spots surrounded by high ground . Wild Blackberries may harbour Orange Rust Disease , and , in the South , Rosette ( double blossom ) Disease , as well as insect pests . These wild plants should be eliminate near garden , as they may perplex insect and disease control in the cultivated planting .
The ground should be a good farm or garden soil , not extreme in texture , and well supplied with organic matter . Deep , flaxen loam are ideal , but clay loam will do very well if well managed . Good drainage is essential as Blackberries will not tolerate wet foot . The water mesa should not be nearer the open than 3 ft . for more than a day or two during the growing season .
blackberry are propagated from suckers which are produced in big number , and from ascendent cut . The roots are dug in the autumn , cut up in 4 - in . length , stored in moist grit or peat over winter and set out in nursery rows in the fountain . In the downslope they are large plant life ready for planting .
Varietiesof the bush type grown in the North are gravely mixed in the trade so that it is very difficult to getplants of Eldorado and a few others true to name . Plants of known upright performance should be used if available locally .
Eldorado , in the northern state , has long been the standard diverseness . The new varieties Bailey and Hedrick are standardised type that have hope for New York and place with like conditions . Eldorado is resistive to Orange Rust . Snyder is one of the audacious , but the berry are small and not of high timbre .
The Evergreen Blackberry(Black Diamond ) is grown in Oregon , Washington , and New Jersey . The plants are vigorous , semi tracking and productive of lately - ripening fruit . They are usually spring up on a treillage or stake . A spineless sport is available .
Himalayais a very vigorous semitrailing variety of the European Blackberry , Rubus procerus , that grows well in California . Brainerd , a loanblend of Himalaya , does well south of New Jersey and is grow commercially in Arkansas and western Oregon . In Texas and Oklahoma , Dallas , Early Wonder , Lawton and Haupt are popular . McDonald is grow in the Gulf region and Early Harvest by and large in the South . Crandall is the leading miscellany in southerly California .
Blackberries may be set either in the fall or early bound . The plant are set in rows 8 - 9 ft . apart , and 2 - 3 ft . asunder in the row . The soft touch plants will soon take in the quarrel , making a hedgerow which should be kept narrow for ease in maintenance .
Summer careconsists of keeping downweeds by cultivate as shallowly as possible to preventinjury to the root . A summer mulch is splendid , but the suckers will grow through it and must be remove at musical interval or the planting will soon become an unmanageable thicket of Blackberry cane . The hedgerow should be kept about1 ft . wide . After harvest time , or about August 1st , culture should be stop and a covering fire harvest sow between the rows . This is turned under or disced in the next spring .
Blackberries may be expected to respond to a nitrogen-bearing fertiliser . ammonium ion nitrate , or nitrate of soda , to provide about 60 Sudanese pound of nitrogen to the Akka , may be used . This will take about 200 pounds of ammonium ion nitrate or 400 pound of nitrate of sodium carbonate . Other textile to supply the same total of nitrogen may be substituted . unchanging manure , if available , is always splendid , but it should not be used to overabundance or the plants will make too lush a growth and hurt from winter injury . Some judgment must be exercised in fertilization as soils vary greatly in fertility and it is easy to overfertilize .
Blackberry canes of the sturdy temperate zona varieties are biennial ; they originate one season , bear fruit the next and in bit are interchange . The roots live on indefinitely , send up newfangled cane each yr from the crest and from root at a distance from the crown . If not restrained , they will open many feet from the original .
Pruning, How to Do It.
The young shoots are make out off ( crown ) at a height of 3 ft . as before long as that height is attained . The topped shoot grow firm branches , as a final result , rather than turn very tall . The following spring , while still dormant , these lateral are headed back to 18 - 24 in . At this time the weaker and broken cane are removed , leaving a run-in about a foot wide . The cane which have fruit are rationalize out after harvest , or anytime thereafter until the undermentioned spring . On ironical soil the trimmer must reduce the crop by cutting off yield buds , and on moist soils more fruit bud may be leave behind .
The menage nurseryman should let the berries become fully right before picking them . A full advanced Blackberry is a very scrumptious yield . Berries that go to market are peck before they are in full ripe and are sullen and hard . After plunk , they should be moved to a cool , shady spot , as they soon turn red in the sun .
Trailing Blackberries
Trailing Blackberries include the Dewberries as well as the Loganberry , Youngberry , Boysenberry and other late tracking hybrids . Varieties in this group have weak cane that straggle on the ground and are spring up on trellises or Emily Post . They may be disperse by tip layering , whereas the erect blackberry are increase from suckers or root cuttings . The plants are commonly less brave than the hardiest Blackberries , and they are mostly acquire in the south of the latitude of Washington , D. C. , and in the Pacific Coast state of matter , where substantial commercial acreage are set up .
The trailing Blackberries have the same dirt and cultural requirements as the upright Blackberries , which are grapple with originally in this article , but require a warm climate and must be grown on treillage , or posts .
Varieties . TheLoganberry , once wide maturate on the Pacific Coast , is now being replaced by the Boysenberry and Youngberry , which are alike , but superior varieties . Loganberry plants are vigorous and very productive of large , blue - red , tart berry worthy for canning , freezing , and for succus . A spineless mutant is uncommitted .
The Youngberrygrows well south of Washington , D. C. , and west of the Cascade Mountains on the Pacific Coast . The berries are gravid , mystifying wine-colored - blood-red , much sweeter than those of the Boysenberry and Loganberry , and mature 10 days to begin with than the Boysenberry . The thornless variant is considered to be less rich .
The Boysenberryis the most recent of this group and is replacing the others because of its peachy productivity . The plants are vigorous and fat . The berries are very big , dark cerise , soft , tart and suitable for displace , freeze , and for jamming and juice . This berry has been taste in the northern body politic , where it ask wintertime protection , but generally it does not produce much fruit there .
Cascade , Pacific , Chehalein , and Olallieare late new trailing Blackberries of Oregon parentage that are forebode for trial in the Pacific Coast trail Blackberry areas .
Lucretia , usually referred to as a Dewberry , is a vigorous , productive plant that bears large , spirt - black , lemonlike , early - ripening berries . It is grown chiefly in North Carolina and has been grown a piffling in the Hudson Valley of New York and in Michigan . Mayes , another Dewberry of Lucretia type is the leading diverseness in Texas .
onward motion , grown in Florida and southerly California , lie in of a mixture of two clones , and each requires cross - pollenation . The berries are large , very firm , good and very betimes .
The trailing Blackberries are propagatedby layering the tips of the new cane . The tips are inclose vertically in the dirt to a depth of 2 or 3 column inch in late summer and drop . In the spring they are break up from the mother flora , delve and used for field of study planting . Root cuttings are also used for multiplication as with the vertical blackberry . The thornless sports should be propagated by tip layer to perpetuate the spineless eccentric . Plants grown from root cutting of the spineless type will be bristled .
The track blackberry bush are all grown on supports to keep the fruit clean and to aid in harvesting . In North Carolina , the Lucretia variety is grown on 5 - foot . stake set 5 foot . apart each fashion . In North Carolina , all of the cane , new as well as fruiting , are cut back off at primer coat level immediately after harvest time to aid in controlling fungus disease . During the remainder of the growing season enough cane growth is made to raise a craw the following year . In the spring the cane are gathered into a bundle , wound around the wager spirally and tie in 2 or 3 places with soft strand .
In Michigan , Lucretia is determine 21/2 feet aside in rows 7 - 8 foot . apart and the cane are tied to a unmarried wire about 21/2 foot . from the ground .
On the Pacific Coast a two - conducting wire treillage , or sometimes a single - wire trellis , is used . The telegram is about 5 ft . from the ground , and with the two - wire trellis the 2nd wire is 2 ft . below the top telegram .
The flora of Boysenberry , Youngberry and mixed bag of similar heartiness are set 8 - 10 foot . aside in rows 8 - 10 foot . aside , depending upon the tillage machinery to be used . The rows may be closer where a garden tractor or hoe is to be used .
The new canes are trained along the ground under the treillage to keep them out of the way of cultivated land tools and the picker . U - shaped telegram or short interest hold them in place . After glean the canes that carry the harvest are slue out .
In late summer or autumn or in other spring , the canes are trained to the treillage in various ways . With a individual - conducting wire trellis the canes are taken up and twisted along the wire in one or both directions from the plant . With the two - wire treillage the canes are raised to the top wire , twisted around it , brought down to the lower wire and back to the industrial plant . Some tying is done to hold the canes in lieu . In another method the canes are stretch in each direction along the single conducting wire , or along both wire in the case of the two - conducting wire trellis .
