The delicious blackberries are one of the most popular summer fruits. Fortunately, growing from seeds and cuttings is incredibly easy. Through seeds or cuttings: find out how to propagate blackberries. We give useful tips and explain exactly how to do it.
Multiply blackberries: the most important things at a glance
First, we answer the most important questions about blackberry propagation.
When is the right time to propagate blackberries?
- Climbing plants and creeping varietiescan be brought forward by cuttings and sinkers in August - September.
- Blackberry bushes with an upright habit are grown over runners. The right time for this is October - November or February - March.
- All blackberries can be propagated by seeds. Propagation by seeds is not complicated, but you need patience and you shouldn't be disappointed if all attempts fail at the beginning.
Propagate blackberries by seeds in water
We'll start with the most time-consuming option: propagating blackberries by seeds. Only select completely ripe fruit, fill a jam jar with water and place the fruit in the water. Leave them there for several days until the seeds loosen. Carefully pour off the water and collect the seeds. Line a windowsill with newspaper and let the seeds dry there overnight. The next morning, fill a propagation tray with potting soil. The blackberries are light germinators, so you only have to lightly press the seeds into the soil. The berries need between 8 and 16 weeks before they sprout and the young plants appear. During this time you should pay attention to the humidity in the box - it should remain as constant as possible. Water the soil regularly and never let it dry out. Then you should place the propagation box in a warm and sunny place. When the young plants are around 24 cm high and have at least two leaves formed, they can be transplanted into a container or into the garden.
Propagate the blackberries through cuttings
Propagation by cuttings takes place in late summer. In August, mark the young shoots that have just borne fruit for the first time. After harvesting, cut off one to three young shoots from each bush. Then cut each shoot into several 8cm long pieces. All should have at least 2 leaves. Then fill a seed pot with soil and stick the pieces into the soil. Cover the pots with transparent plastic bags. Remove the plastic bag at least twice a day to ventilate the plants and prevent rot formation. After the cuttings form roots (ffor root formationIf you need about a month, they will produce new leaves. Now patience is required: Remove the plastic bag and care for the young plants until spring, when they are repotted individually. The blackberries can spend the warm season outdoors, but you can only transplant them into the garden in September.
Propagate thornless blackberries: instructions
An exception are the thornless (stingless) blackberry varieties that can be found in garden centers. Propagation by seeds and cuttings is rarely successful. It is much better to stick a young shoot in the lower part of the plant 30 cm deep into the soil in February - March, after the end of the permanent frost. Do not cut the shoot, but only stick the top 30 cm of the shoot into the soil. Over the next 5 to 6 months, the shoot will become firmly rooted in the ground and can then be cut off from the old blackberry bush in September. You can transplant the young plant immediately after cutting.
When do the young plants bear fruit?
The blackberries bear fruit on the wood from last year. So if you repot a young plant or plant it in the garden, it will not bear fruit until next year.
Exception: Remove wild blackberries or limit propagation with root barriers
Wild blackberries are an exception. The bushes can quickly growSpread the gardenand become a real problem. If you have wild blackberries in your garden, you should prune them regularly and remove or dig up and transplant new plants immediately. Things get a little more complicated if you buy an overgrown plot of land and want to plant it. If the creeping wild blackberries have spread, this can become a real challenge. As a rule, the bushes are planted at the beginning of autumn, after the end of theBird breeding season, first cut back to the ground and then dug up. If your neighbors have wild blackberries in their garden and they are growing into their property, you can put a root barrier in the ground in front of the garden fence.
