Plant, care and harvest boysenberries

The boysenberry is a rather unknown cross of different species, but is ideal for the home and snack garden. With us you can find out everything about the unusual boysenberry as well as its requirements in terms of location and care.

The aromatic boysenberry is a descendant of many different RubusSpecies and thus combines, among other things, the growth and fruit color of the blackberry and the shape of the loganberry. We will introduce you to the unusual hybrid and give you tips on growing boysenberries in your own garden.

Boysenberry: origin, flowering time and characteristics

The boysenberry (Rubus ursinus x idaeus) originated in California in the 1920s. From a cross of Loganberry (Rubus x loganobaccus

) with a progeny of a multiple cross raspberry (Rubus idaeus), blackberry (Rubus fruticosus) and American dewberry (Rubus arboriginum) it should have emerged. It bears the name of the breeder Rudolf Boysen and was marketed as a promising new blackberry alternative in the USA and later also in New Zealand from the mid-1930s. Nowadays New Zealand is considered to be the largest boysenberry producer in the world, in Europe it is Rubus-Art, however, remained largely unknown.

As an upright to overhanging, blackberry-like shrub, the boysenberry reaches a stature height of 100 to 180 cm. Numerous thin shoots tend to grow along the ground and can thus form thickets. The leaves are threefold, toothed and fresh green in color until autumn. There are thorny and thornless varieties among the boysenberries, in general they are medium-thick with thorns. The flowering time of the white, five-fold flowers begins in June and lasts into August. Insects like bumblebees (Bomb) and bees (Apis) like to pollinate the flowers because they provide nectar and pollen. As a result, the roughly 3 cm long, oblong to cylindrical drupes of the boysenberry ripen from mid-July to September and change color from red to dark purple and black. The taste of boysenberries can be described as sweet and slightly sour, fruity and fresh.

Plant boysenberries: timing, location and procedure

Boysenberries prefer a rather fresh, humus-rich and deep soil. The location should be sunny to partially shaded. At the beginning, the plants can be put in pots with a permeable, nutrient-rich substrate - like ours - with a volume of at least 15 liters of soil Plantura organic tomato & vegetable soil - be set. The plants should be supported in the pot as well as in the bed and provided with a climbing aid. The optimal time for planting boysenberries is in late autumn between October and the end of November or March. A planting distance of at least 100 to 120 cm between the plants should be maintained.

Before planting, the boysenberries benefit from an enrichment of the soil with organic matter such as ripe compost or one Soil activator. If the soil at the future location is well loosened, it is time to dig the planting hole. This should be at least twice the volume of the plant's root ball. Then place your boysenberry bush in the planting hole, fill in with soil and slightly compact the planting hole all around. Finally, the berry bush should be watered extensively.

The most important maintenance measures

Caring for the boysenberry is not particularly laborious and the plants generally turn out to be robust and adaptable. Once the plants have grown well, watering is only necessary in longer dry periods. The numerous long tendrils of the shrubs should be reduced to 8 to 12 shoots if there is limited space and attached to a trellis or wire frame. This also makes harvesting easier and prevents fruit from resting on the ground. The boysenberry only bears fruit once per shoot - this is why the branches are cut off completely and close to the ground after the harvest in autumn.

Boysenberries benefit from fertilization in spring. Here you can choose between ripe compost or a long-term fertilizer like ours Plantura organic universal fertilizerto be incorporated superficially around the bushes. After two to three years, plants in pots should be moved to a larger pot with fresh potting soil are implemented and are also given a dose of slow release fertilizer when repotting in the fresh Substrate.

Boysenberries are hardy to around -12 ° C, which is why the rods should be protected from severe freezing temperatures in cold and frost-prone areas. Covering the plant base with leaves and the rods with jute, fleece or coniferous branches has an isolating effect and significantly reduces the risk of frost damage. Boysenberries in pots should overwinter frost-free or only spend the winter outdoors with well-protected roots.

Harvest and use of the boysenberry

The high-yielding boysenberry bushes can be harvested between mid-July and September. You can recognize the ripeness by the color change of the fruits from red to a dark purple to black color. The fruity aroma of the boysenberry is only fully developed when it is fully ripe. The fruits are picked by hand and should be eaten within a few hours. The fruits can be kept in the refrigerator for a few days, but they lose their taste in the process. The fruits are therefore consumed fresh or processed into aromatic jams and boysenberry jams. Cake toppings, fruit wine, syrups and liqueurs can also be made from boysenberries.

A particularly aromatic cross between blackberries and raspberries is that Tayberry (Rubus fruticosus x idaeus). We introduce you to the hybrid berries and give you tips on planting, care and harvesting.