Blackberries are undemanding woody plants and can grow almost anywhere. However, only in locations where optimal conditions prevail do they develop considerable heights of several meters and bear a lot of fruit.
Exposure to sunlight
Contrary to popular belief that blackberries like shady locations, they tend to prefer sunny locations. You can only plant the bushes in partial shade, but there you have to expect yield losses. For example, locations on a south-facing house wall are ideal. However, shading the soil is advantageous, as this prevents the soil from drying out too much and the yield from suffering from the lack of water.
The following plants are suitable as ground cover in the vicinity of blackberries:
- Evergreen (Vinca)
- yarrow (Achillea millefolium)
- forget Me Not(Myosotis)
- Lemon balm (Melissa officinalis)
Lemon balm and forget-me-nots can even have positive effects on plant health.
Plant spacing
The location of the blackberries should be chosen so that several plants do not get in each other's way. There are varieties of blackberries that have a strong and a weak growth.
Slowly growing varieties like Silvan have little space requirements and are 100-150 cm from the nearest neighbor. Varieties such as Black Satin or Navaho, on the other hand, require a planting distance of at least 300 - 400 cm. The correct planting distance is not only important so that the plants can develop well, but also so that the harvest is easier or easier. the plants are more easily attached to the climbing aid
let fix.Substrate
At the later location, the soil for the blackberries should be prepared accordingly. Here again, the quality of the soil has a direct effect on the yield. Basically, the starting soil where the blackberries want to plant later is of secondary importance, because you can upgrade it. However, it will shorten the work if the topsoil is already in good starting conditions.
The soil at the site should have the following properties:
- Soil: medium-heavy to humus, fresh, moist
- permeable to water
- pH value: 4.5-6.0
To bring the soil to the appropriate values or To improve it, you should primarily incorporate deciduous compost. To do this, first loosen the soil. If you notice that the soil is very heavy and dense, you should also work in some sand or coarse gravel. Then the leaf compost is worked in.
Tip: As an alternative to leaf compost, you can also use commercially available bog soil.
Climbing aids
A suitable climbing aid at the location is indispensable for blackberries. It is ideal to be trained on a horizontal trellis, which is used for both fast-growing and slow-growing varieties. The advantage of the trellis is that the individual rods can be harvested better later, but also the work with
Pruning is simplified.
Blackberries themselves have no way of holding onto the trellis. That means you have to fix the tendrils to it on a regular basis. It is often sufficient if you simply wrap the tendrils around the wire, alternatively you can also tie the individual rods with cords.
How to build a trellis for blackberries
- Drive in a 2 m high stake at the ends of the bed
- Depending on the length of the bed, hammer in further pegs for additional stability
- Tension the first wire at a height of 50 cm
- Tension further wires at a distance of 30 - 40 cm each
Protect thornless varieties
Blackberries are a popular snack fruit, but not easy to harvest because of the thorns, which are like barbs. Therefore, cultivars are spreading that have little or no thorns. However, these cultivars are much more sensitive when it comes to low temperatures.
Thornless varieties should therefore only be planted in protected locations such as the house wall. A sunny south side is ideal. Alternatively, you can plant thornless blackberries in a berry orchard so that they are protected from other berry bushes.
