Today we will talk with novice gardeners about how to properly carry out the autumn pruning of blackberries. Everyone knows that crops require competent fall preparation as they enter a dormant period.
Correct autumn pruning of blackberries
The culture begins to bear fruit in the second year after planting, and at this point it ceases to bear fruit. In order to get bountiful harvests in the future, the plant needs formative pruning.
Pruning time
Autumn pruning should be done after picking the berries. The term depends on the duration of the growing season and the variety, from about the end of August to the last days of October. Most importantly, these procedures must be completed a month before the onset of frost.
Varieties: formative, sanitary
Cuttings are divided into formative and sanitary. During the shaping procedure, it is necessary to correctly form the bush in order to get good yields in the future and to simplify the collection of fruits. Sanitary pruning involves removing weak, damaged stems.
Gardening Tools
To carry out the procedure, you must have the following tools:
- Pruner (for cutting thin stems).
- Lopper (for cutting thick branches).
- Garden saw (used to remove dried branches and twigs).
- Garden knives.
Pruning schemes
What kind of pruning to apply depends on the type of bush. For example, an erect crop should have a fan-shaped crown, and creeping varieties are formed by separating the vegetative mass from branches that can bear fruit.
Sanitary
During sanitary pruning, weak, unpromising shoots that cannot survive the winter are removed, dry and damaged branches are cut off.
Formative
Formative pruning involves the fan method and the separation of fertile stems from young ones, by directing them in different directions.
Fan
In an erect plant, a crown should be formed in a fan-like manner with a further simplified procedure diagram:
- In the spring, in the middle of the support there are shoots that have survived the winter.
- Young branches are tied to the lower wire on both sides of the fruitful shoots at an angle.
- During the autumn cutting, the main stale two-year-old stems, from which they have already been harvested, are harvested at the root.
- Of the lateral young branches, about ten powerful ones are left, pressed to the surface of the earth and buried in. Before covering these stems, they need to be pruned.
- Weak, unnecessary branches are cut at the root.
Shrub pruning will be easy if the young stems on the support grow in different directions. It is necessary to cut the fruit-bearing side at the root in the autumn, and cut and dig in the young stems. A similar method is used for creeping blackberries with long branches.
Stamper
Currently, gardeners have begun to cultivate remontant varieties that bear fruit on one-year-old stems. Such blackberries are cut to the root in the fall.
Caring for blackberries after pruning
As soon as the pre-winter pruning is completed, there are a few things to do:
- It is necessary to put things in order on the site by removing cut stems and leaves.
- Treat the soil and bushes with copper sulfate.
- Mulch the land with sawdust, peat, rotted manure.
- After all the manipulations, the plant should be covered for the winter. The stems of the climbing varieties must be collected in a bunch and pressed to the ground, reinforced with pegs. Erect crops are not as flexible, therefore shrubs should be prepared from the end of summer. To do this, attach a weight to the top to help bend the stems. As soon as leaf fall stops, the shoots are tilted to the ground, fixed and covered.
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