Today the assortment of blackberry seedlings in nurseries is very large. Among modern varieties, you can meet all the wonders of breeding - both remontant, and of different colors, and with orange or apple flavor, and unless they do not plant themselves. But not all gardeners rush to change the old tested varieties. One of them is the blackberry variety Agavam.
Table of contents
- Characteristics of the variety
- Cultivation of blackberry Agavam
- Trimming
- Diseases and pests
Characteristics of the variety
Let's start with the description of the blackberry Agavam variety. Perhaps it is with the ancient Agavam variety that the birth of the proverb is associated: "There are only two problems with the blackberry: first, to start, then to bring out." This age-old "grandfather" inherited from his ancestors-wild-races an amazing will to live and the ability to aggressively seize adjacent territories.
Like many other varieties of blackberries, Agawam comes from North America. There is no more precise information about the history of its appearance, since this is a sort of folk selection.
According to the form Agavam refers to kumanykam - blackberries with erect shoots.Its varietal characteristics:| Habit | The bush is powerful, high, from, up to 3 meters high. Strongly expanding, giving a lot of root offspring. |
| Shoots | Thick - erect, with drooping tops, thin can grow horizontally. Non-mature annual shoots of green color, ripening - reddish-violet, with glandular pubescence. Two-year-olds are red-brown, pentahedral. Spines large, curved. The leaf is complex, pinned over the veins. Characteristic for Agavam trait - all sheet leaf plates come out of one point. The leaves do not shed for a long time, they can leave with leaves under the snow. |
| Bloom | Large white flowers in racemose inflorescences. Flower buds form on wintering two-year shoots. Flowering in May. |
| Fruiting | Abundant, for 15-20 berries in each brush. Fruits are black, shiny, medium in size, conical, 3-4 grams. The middle-ripening variety, berries are poured by the end of August. The taste is classic, blackberry, sweet. The duration of fruiting is up to 15 years under favorable conditions. |
| Sustainability | Record frost resistance. Do not freeze when the temperature drops to -30⁰. Resistant to drought, in the absence of watering a little berries berries. Simultaneously - is not afraid of wet soils. The bushes do not fall out because of the spring slops. Shadow-tolerant. Resistant to rust, stem cancer, anthracnose. |
| Productivity | With different conditions - from 5 to 15 kg from the bush. |
| Appointment of fruit | For consumption in fresh form, processing for jam, jams, juices. Berries are suitable for freezing and drying. |
| Transportability and longevity | In fresh form it is stored not for long, like raspberry. For transportation, the fruit needs to be removed in a phase of incomplete maturity. |
These data allow us to draw conclusions about the shortcomings and advantages of the blackberry variety Agavam. The advantages include:
- excellent winter hardiness;
- drought resistance;
- shade tolerance;
- resistance to wetting, which allows to plant blackberry Agavam in the lowlands;
- resistance to diseases;
- productivity;
- good fruit taste and versatility of use;
- transportability of fruits;
- long fruiting.
Of the shortcomings can be noted only the strong spiny of shoots,which makes care difficult. As for the inclination of the blackberry Agavam to "run up" around the site, it can be treated in two ways. On the one hand, this complicates the care of planting and requires constant monitoring. On the other hand, it makes it easy to reproduce the blackberry. From one bush it is possible to breed a whole blackberry plantation for several years.
Cultivation of blackberry Agavam
Blackberry saplings Agavam is best planted in spring, so that the young plant could take root. If you do this in the fall, it is better to put the seedling in the pit "lying down" and hide it. Otherwise, there is a risk of sprouting of shoots.
Ideal soil - light sandy loam, with a neutral reaction. If the soil is acidified, liming will be required. The plot is better to choose sunny. Despite the shade tolerance of the variety, it is more productive in the sun, and in cold regions in the dense shade may not have time to ripen before the winter shoots-yearlings.
A mullein is introduced into the planting pit, it is filled with humus, 150 grams of superphosphate, 40 grams of potassium fertilizers are added. From above everything is covered with a layer of humus to half the volume of the pit and watered. Thus, the prepared landing pit will provide the plant with food for the next three years.After that, in spring, under each bush, it will be necessary to seal up a bucket of well-rotted manure or mature compost.
The seedlings are immediately cut off after landing at a height of 20-25 cm from the surface of the earth. It is useful to grill the whiplash circle. It retains moisture in the soil and protects against weeds. As a mulch, the blackberry loves a forest litter with inclusions of bark and needles.
Blackberry can be planted according to two schemes: rows or separate bushes. If there is no task to dilute the bramble, under the bush it is necessary to separate the area 2 * 2 meters. The scheme of planting in rows along the border of the site is more interesting:
.- From the border retreat 1 meter and place the seedlings with an interval of 1 meter from each other.
- At both ends of the row, sturdy racks (from a bar or thick reinforcement) are piled in.
- Between them stretch three rows of wire: at a height of 40, 120 and 170 cm.
So the trellis is formed. In the summer shoots are tied to the upper and middle wire - each separately, fan, with an interval of about 25 cm. This method, first, allows all the vines to get enough sunlight and facilitates harvesting. Secondly, this creates a prickly green hedge on the plot.
In the autumn, the two-year-old branches are carved, and the young ones are bundled, bent to the bottom wire and tied.Perform this procedure until the cold weather, until the shoots are not lignified and still flexible enough.
Blackberry Agavam is quite capable of hibernating without shelter. In severe frosts (-25 ° C and below), you only need to sketch a bunch of snow on the bushes.
If, for some reason, there is no certainty that the wintering season will go well, you can make a shield shelter: two rows of board boards 80 cm high are installed above the bushes in the form of a hut and covered film. From the ends the construction closes after the onset of frost.
Trimming
In the early years of the blackberry Agavam does not require much effort to form. But having entered into force, this variety begins to drive out too long vines, which can turn a plantation into a jungle. Therefore, beginning with the fourth year of life, Agavam should be regularly cut.
Except for the autumn removal of the embryo-bearing branches, Agavam is cut twice a season. The first pruning is carried out in the spring. Letting go of the overwintered vines, they are carefully examined. Live shoots have a shiny brown bark, they are firm and strong, not fragile. Frozen need to immediately cut. 4-6 branches are enough for a good harvest.
The second pruning is performed in July on the seasonal shoots-substitutes by the method of pinching- pinching the tip at 7-10 cm. For kumanykas this is a must, stimulating fruiting for the next year. On second-order shoots, when they grow back, the procedure is repeated.
Diseases and pests
According to the owners of this variety, the blackberry Agavam is not affected by infectious diseases, but problems of non-infectious nature may appear. With improper care, violation of the regime of fertilizing, the emergence of a deficit or excess of some substances in the soil, the blackberry can get sick.
| Battery | Deficiency Symptoms | Symptoms in excess |
| Nitrogen | Weak growth of shoots, pale foliage, which the bush sheds in the middle of summer, poor flowering and grinding of berries. | Brown spots on the leaf plates, which can begin to fold and fall off. |
| Phosphorus | The leaves are dull, with a bronze outflow, turning black and falling off. Flowering and ripening of berries - with a delay. | Leaves first brightens, then necrosis develops, and they fall off. |
| Bor | Decolorization of leaves (chlorosis), death of the apical bud, hollows and tissue provocation on berries. | Chlorosis between veins and on the edges of leaf plates, which are twisted and fall. |
| Magnesium | The leaf plate blushes, retaining the green color of the veins. Premature fall of the foliage, starting from the bottom of the shoot. | Dark, wrinkled, unnaturally stretched leaves that die quickly. |
| Calcium | Dryness of shoots, young leaves - yellow-green, old - green. | Close internodes, the leaves grow out of the fan, the gradual withering away of the shoots. |
| Zinc | Small bronze leaves on the tops, an asymmetric sheet plate, small ugly fruits. | Death of the apical kidney, blackening of the veins, the appearance of transparent areas on the sheet. |
Blackberry Agavam can suffer from pests of roots - the bear, the May beetles and their larvae, which often bite the roots of the seedlings near the root neck. In general, Agavam is a strong plant resistant to common pests of blackberries and raspberries.
Blackberry Agavam attitude is ambiguous. Someone likes this sort, someone categorically does not want to start it on their site. Nevertheless, Agavam requires no more supervision than raspberries or many other varieties of blackberries. And abundant regular harvests can compensate for efforts to grow this old variety.
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