I am on a mission to plant a kazillion raspberries, blackberries and other berry bushes on our property. They are just so darn resilient and delicious not to mention delicious.
We started out with a dozen raspberry canes and about nine blackberry three summers ago. The raspberry have been the easiest. Suckers or "baby canes" pop up all over the place throughout the summer. We just transplant them every time we see them. I think we planted over 100 raspberry suckers in the back field last year. It's still covered in snow and I am really eager to see how they all fared.
Blackberries have been a little more work. They have not produced any suckers so we need to propagate these canes manually. There are numerous ways to do this, all of them quite easy. We've chosen two different methods: Cuttings and Tip Layering. You can do this with a variety of berries including raspberry and blackberry.
From just a few plants you can propagate and expand your patch ... endlessly. One becomes three, three becomes nine and on and on it goes. Berry bushes are often thorny but they are such vigorous, hardy, nutritious and delicious perennial food! No garden should be without these rock stars.
Tip Layering
We gave tip layering a try for the first time last fall. If the canes are nice and long you simply bend the tip of the cane and push it into the soil. You might need to use a fabric staple or something to help pin it down. It's best if there is at least one bud underground. Tamp the soil down well and water thoroughly. These tips won't do a lot of rooting in the winter but when spring arrives they should take root quite quickly.
When you are ready to transplant them you need to snip off a portion of this cane (ideally with at least four buds on it). Carefully dig up the cane and transplant. I've taken a peek at one and they are already taking root so this process really does work quite well!
These canes will be transplanted in the back field as soon as that area of the property has thawed out. I'll let you know how it goes!
Tips bent into soil. We chose to use a loamy mix in makeshift boxes so they would be easier to transplant in the spring. This area is heavy packed clay.
Snipped canes. These will be dug up and transplanted once the field where they belong has thawed out. We've got about 50 of these to transplant.
Cuttings
We were cleaning up the bushes and getting rid of dead wood. We snip the dead wood cuttings up and leave them on the ground beneath the healthy canes as mulch.
In this clean up process we tend to end up with many live cuttings that we can propagate. I've been known to take a cutting and jam it into the soil with no extra effort and after a day or so of root shock, they've just grown. The ground where the new berry patch is situated is still frozen however so this isn't an option.
When you take cuttings it is best to scar the stem a bit, this promotes root growth. It's also a good idea to cut just below a bud and plant that bud under ground. This too will promote root growth. You can use a rooting hormone if you have some.
We potted the cuttings in a loamy soil medium and will leave them outside until we can plant them in the field. I just need to keep the soil moist and the canes shaded for the time being.
This isn't exactly the recommended method. The recommended method would be to plant one cutting per pot and keep in a shaded area until the root is well established, typically you would plant these spring cuttings in the fall and fall cuttings would be planted in the spring.
This is our new berry patch
This part of the property is a bit more shaded than other areas and is the last to have the snow melt. Spring was late this year so we've still got plenty of snow around.
We've grown potatoes, corn and buckwheat back here with disappointing results so now it's time to try the raspberries and blackberries that I know will thrive.
We are experimenting a bit with some of this so I'll have to keep you undated on how it all works out!
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