Blackberry - perennial shrub from the Rosaceae family, growing in the northern and temperate latitudes of Eurasia, in coniferous forests, floodplain rivers and, oddly enough, in the garden and in the garden.
Did you know? Blackberry has not only external beauty, but also benefits the body. Blackberry juice will help reduce the temperature, the bioflavonoids contained in it normalize body temperature.
The advantages and disadvantages of the variety
Bearing Blackberry "Giant" - one of the most high-yielding and tasty varieties. Yield blackberries "Giant" - up to 30 kg of gorgeous large berries from one bush.
Bushes begin to bear fruit in early July, and this process lasts continuously until late autumn. In addition, this frost-resistant blackberry can withstand up to -30 ° C. The shrubs of this variety are quite branchy, on large shoots form luxurious racemes. Blackberry bloom occurs in June.
A fully ripe berry has an average mass of 20 g. Berries attract attention with their bizarre pyramidal shape and brilliant bright black color. Does not fail and taste - sweet and sour and soft enough. The fruits are enriched with calcium, sulfur and iron.
The disadvantages of this variety include poor tolerance to dryness of the soil and lack of moisture, which significantly reduces the survival of the "Giant" in a tropical climate.
Important! To avoid problems, it is necessary to carry out soil mulching. This procedure will provide high and consistent performance.
Planting Blackberry Saplings Giant
How to choose seedlings
The selection of blackberry seedlings should be based on the following criteria: the number of main roots can not be less than 2-3 pieces, the root system in length should reach 15 cm, the main shoot and the aerial part 40 cm tall.
When to plant
Blackberry planting "Giant" is usually carried out in the spring - from March to May, or in the fall - at the end of August - September.
How to choose and prepare a place for landing
When choosing a place, you should take into account the peculiarities of the “Giant” blackberry. The plant is light-loving enough, so it will be great to bear fruit in the sun or partial shade. It is not so demanding on the soil as raspberries, but this berry does not like wetlands.
Especially moisture provision is necessary in the initial period of growth from April to June, the time when there is an enhanced growth of the shoot and the formation of the crop. The best conditions for blackberries are fertile drained loams with a weakly acid or neutral reaction of the soil solution (pH 5.5 - 6.5).
Overmoistening of the soil and cold winds should be avoided. To prepare the soil, it is necessary to dig it up to 50 cm and fertilize with organic and mineral substances. Add some sand and peat to the clay soil. Harmful for blackberries "Gigant" will be the soil with a high content of limestone, which provokes yellowing of leaves - chlorosis.
How to plant
Blackberries are planted in pits or trenches measuring 40 * 40 * 40 cm and a distance between them from 50 cm to 1 meter. It is necessary to fill a hole on two thirds of the fertile soil. Each pit for planting fill 5-6 kg of compost or humus, mixed with 30 g of superphosphate, 20 g of potassium salt or 30 g of wood ash. For acidic soil does not hurt to add 10 grams of lime.
Dried roots are required to hold in water with a constrictor for about an hour. Fertilizer mixed with the top layer of soil and fall asleep in the pits. When sprinkling the roots of the seedling with earth, do not forget that the maximum length for a growth bud is no more than 2-3 cm.
The roots should be straightened to avoid bending to the top. The soil with fertilizers is shaken a little to penetrate the soil between the roots, and it is also compacted around the roots.
Proper care is the key to a good harvest.
Agrotechnika blackberry "Giant" is quite simple and does not cause unnecessary trouble to the owners.
Watering mode
Blackberry roots are quite deep, and watering during the flowering and ripening of berries should be carried out weekly, and the flow rate for each plant should not be less than one bucket of water.
Did you know? Blackberry tolerates drought much better than raspberry, precisely because of deep-seated roots.
Fertilizer and feeding
Gardeners need to know how to feed a blackberry in the spring before flowering. At this time, the plant should be fertilized with ashes, humus and compost, after which it is required to feed the root zone of the blackberry with urea and nitroammophos.
In the autumn it is better to use potassium and phosphorus for fertilizer. These trace elements will prepare the plant for winter, protect it from harmful effects.
Important! Blackberry is a fairly unpretentious plant, but it also requires proper rational care.
Garter bushes on the trellis
There are two ways to bandage blackberry "Giant".
The first is the shortening of shoots that have reached a height of 15 cm above the first wire. In winter or early spring, eight of the strongest seedlings are tied to a trellis, the rest are cut out. After two years, the shoots are cut. 
The second is that the shoots are tied up and not cut, until they reach three meters and do not join the neighboring bushes, while the annual shoots are spread along the ground.
Harvesting
Berries are harvested as they ripen, in several stages. Large ripe blackberry is separated along with its edible fruit of a delicate light color. Ripe berries of a soft consistence, are rather elastic and long stored.
Pruning and shaping the berry bush
Blackberry pruning should be divided into the following stages: shortening in autumn or spring fruit-bearing stems, removal of infected and damaged by pests stems, normalization of excess young shoots in May-June and spawn-bearing stems immediately after harvest, pinching of shoots in June-August.
Pinging of the top 3-5 cm is made at the beginning of June. The most suitable formation of the bush is a fan-shaped one, when in spring the overwintered shoots vertically rise on the trellis and are placed over the roots of the bush, place the growing shoots parallel to the ground, in the fall cut off the center shoots under the root, leave 8-10 young horizontal and most hardy shoots, remove the rest, shorten the wintering ones lash them and press them more firmly to the ground; in the spring, after warming the lashes, raise them vertically.
Preparing Blackberry Bushes for Winter
Gardeners are advised to cover for the winter, even such frost-resistant varieties as the "Giant". To prepare you need to lay all the shoots on the ground, sprinkle with straw and cover with agrofibre, which will protect against obscuration and temperature fluctuations.
Also suitable for shelter humus, sawdust, corn leaves and roofing material. Trimming the top of the shoots also helps to ease the wintering of the blackberry.
Blackberry "Giant" will decorate your garden, give you wonderful aesthetic sensations and pleasure from its amazingly delicious berries.
