How to Cultivate Wild Blackberries
Growing your own wild blackberry bushes will provide you with plenty of fresh fruit for baking, canning, or freezing. You will not need to scour the forest for an available patch of fresh berries, nor get a landowner's permission to pick them. Growing wild blackberries is an easy task for even a beginning grower, and you will enjoy the fruit of your labor long after your original planting is done. Does this Spark an idea?
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Instructions
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Plant your blackberry bushes in an area that is mostly sunny. The Himalayan Blackberry is one wild variety that works well when cultivated in a backyard garden. Dig a hole that is approximately 6 inches deep and 4 inches wide. Place the bush into the hole and fill lightly with potting soil. Plant bushes 2 feet apart, with rows being 6 to 8 feet apart. Add some mulch or pine straw to the rows to fertilize the soil and aid with moisture retention.
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Place a trellis near your berries for support and ease of picking. The trellis should ideally be 5 to 6 feet tall. A fence-type trellis will work will as it will allow the bushes to spread and provide support for new shoots. A rose trellis will work well also. If you plant your berries near an existing fence or building, this will probably provide adequate support. A trellis will also help to ensure that your berry bushes do not spread out of control and become too unruly to manage.
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Water your blackberries thoroughly. Continue to water at least once a week especially during the heat of summer. Blackberries are a fairly drought-hardy fruit, however keeping them well watered will increase the amount and size of fruit the bushes bear.
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Watch your new bushes for signs of new canes. Pruning these canes early will help produce new growth. When these canes are around 3 to 4 feet long, clip off around 6 inches of the cane. This will allow side shoots to grow from the cane, increasing the fruit yield. Be sure to support the new side shoots as they grow and prune to shape them so they do not become unruly.
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Harvest your fruit when it is a nice, glossy black color. A berry that is at peak ripeness will be very easy to pluck from the vine. If a berry does not come off easily, you should probably wait 3 or 4 more days before trying to pick. Only pick berries that are all black with no red on them. Berries will not ripen after picking.
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Prune last year's canes during late spring to early summer. Old canes will die off after producing fruit, so pruning these canes back will allow for new cane growth and keep the old canes from absorbing energy that your bush can use to produce a more bountiful harvest.
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Tips & Warnings
Wear gloves when picking blackberries to avoid being scratched by the thorns.
Do not spray your berries with insecticide because this will affect the flavor.
