Contents: Thepruning which is not difficult. Blackberries are rich in nutrients and vitamins, surpasses raspberries to taste, more often it is grown as a hedge. There are varieties with sharp spikes, but some blackberry varieties do not have them and are called studless.
Growing Blackberry
To get a crop of delicious berries, you need to learn how to properly grow, multiply, cut and care for blackberries. Not the last place in the care of the berry is the correct preparation of the shrub for the cold period. It is necessary to carry out the autumn and spring pruning, after mulching the soil around the root system using sawdust and peat, or any of them separately. To protect the plant from diseases, blackberry branches and the soil under it should be treated with copper sulphate. Prevent the appearance of pests will help processing aktellikom.
In order for the blackberry not to die in the winter and the next year to bear fruit abundantly, it should be carefully prepared for the cold weather, creating shelter from the bitter cold.
If in the growing region the temperature in winter drops to - 10 degrees and below, berry bushes need to be covered, but this is not necessary for frost-resistant varieties. If there are frosts in the region from - 20 degrees and lower, you will have to wrap any varieties for the winter, because plants can not tolerate this temperature. 
How to reproduce blackberries
In Russia, there are mainly two types of blackberries:
- upright or kumanika propagated by root layers;
- creeping or rosyanika, for its reproduction use horizontal cuttings or apical.
It is advisable to use the method of green grafting in cases when there are not enough brood bushes, or it is necessary to multiply the bushes on an urgent basis.
The main methods of reproduction of blackberry:
- cuttings in the spring;
- root suckers;
- top tips;
- green cuttings;
- vegetatively;
- seed method.
In order to propagate the blackberry with the root layer, you need to find the strongest upright shrub. Wait until autumn, when the young shoots will have their own root system, then dig them together with the ground. If you need to propagate the blackberry by layering, then this should be done in the spring.
Reproduction of blackberry with
layering. For reproduction of blackberry with the tips of cuttings on the upper part( approximately 30 or 35 cm from the end), the bark is shallowly cut by the ring, under the kidneys. Bend down to the ground each, pressed into a pre-prepared trench from 4 to 5 cm deep, fixed and added dropwise with earth.
The ground level and its humidity are monitored, watered and added in time. Before the onset of frost, cover with sawdust or peat. By the next spring, the cuttings will take root, they will have to be cut off from the mother plant, dug out and planted in a place where they will constantly grow.
After the appearance of shoots on which there are 2-3 leaves, blackberry can be propagated with green cuttings. To do this, they are cut under the ground at a depth of 3-4 cm under the ground, transferred to the greenhouse and planted there under the film so that the moisture level is always high. A year later, in the fall, you need to plant where a permanent place will be prepared.
Vegetative and seed propagation methods
At the end of summer or early autumn, the blackberry is propagated in a vegetative manner. To do this, dig up a bush, divide the branches at the root, so that each piece is 15 centimeters, or slightly less, in length, half a centimeter thick. They are planted, and wrapped before wintering. If it is impossible to land right away, the prepared material is laid in the grooves to a depth of about 10 cm, after which the earth is poured into them, poured over, and the soil is compacted.
To grow a blackberry, you need to learn. Reproduction, pruning and care require skills, so the method of seed reproduction is used infrequently due to poor germination. At the same time the culture does not lose its properties.
In order to improve germination, the hard seed coat should be damaged.
To filter out in river sand, previously watered, to deepen by 6 cm, plus or minus 1 cm. When a couple of leaflets appear, dive plants in pots, you can land on their places. In winter, young shoots will have to cover. The first berries will appear only after 3 or 4 years.
Cutting blackberries
How to cut blackberries in the spring, you can learn from the video, to do it is troublesome, but necessary. The plant is trimmed with shears at any time of the year, except for winter. The height of the cumanica is about 3 meters, it can be higher, it is similar to raspberry, it gives a lot of shoots. In straight-growing blackberries - Cumanías, biennial shoots bear fruit.
When the snow melts, the question of whether to cut the blackberry in the spring, does not occur, the answer is obvious, you need. Until the buds are awakened, dry and injured shoots are harvested, one-year-old shoots are pruned twice to enhance the growth of the lateral processes. This is done in May, when about 6 cm of tops are cut off, and shoots that have grown over a length of more than half a meter are shortened in July by 7-10.Pieces 6 or 8, the most powerful, leave, others cut out. Pruning blackberries in the fall is carried out after harvest, in fact, it is sanitization.
When pruning blackberries in the spring on the video scheme, it is clear that not only the branches affected by frost from the winter, but also the broken, weak ones are removed from mature plants. Leave a few pieces, from 4 to 10, the most powerful. Side shoots are shortened to a length of 20-40 cm, leaving from 8 to 12 good buds on each. To get a great harvest, you need to know how to properly trim the blackberry in the spring, how to remove excess shoots from the sides of the bush in the summer, leaving spring shoots.
Just they will be pleased with a bountiful harvest, because the growth in the first year does not bear fruit. Pruning blackberries in the spring for novice gardeners will not be difficult, if you look at the video, how to do it right.
