#Sweetie pie blackberry care how to#

Determine the original soil line by the change in color on the plant trunk.

For bare root plants, trim any broken, twisted or discolored tips.This helps prevent the root ball from drying out. Cut the burlap away from the trunk and be sure all edges are buried well below the soil surface. Backfill soil mix around plant to ground level and tamp lightly removing all air pockets. Place soil mix under root ball if too low. Set root ball in hole making sure the top of the root ball is slightly higher (1/2 inch) than ground level. This includes any string, wiring, nails, cages or burlap. For balled and burlaped plants (B&B), do not remove any materials surrounding the root ball yet.If the plant is heavily rooted, loosen roots by gently pulling a few away from the root ball. Instead let the root ball slide out by tipping the container. For container grown plants, carefully remove plant by squeezing container and slowly removing the root ball.Amend native soil dug from hole by mixing with organic soil conditioner according to directions.This plant variety either requires a pollinator planted within ¼ -1 mile to produce abundant fruit or it is self pollinating. Allow the top surface of the root ball to rest 1/2 inch higher than the soil line. Dig a hole 2 times the width of the root ball and a depth slightly less than the height of the root ball.Read pruning information below for further instruction. Pruning and thinning is an integral part of maintaining a healthy, productive plant. Planting a mixture of early, mid and late season varieties will ensure you have tasty fruit to enjoy all season long. Planting them in containers or around sunny outside patios allows for easy harvest and adds unique accent color to the landscape. Many smaller varieties are great for patio gardens. Some varieties even produce fruit within the first or second season and are bountiful for many years.

#Sweetie pie blackberry care how to#

Now that you know how to trim blackberry bushes and when to prune blackberry bushes, you can help your blackberry plants grow better and produce more fruit.Small fruit varieties offer the gardener home grown taste without utilizing large areas of the landscape. When pruning blackberry bushes for clean up, use a sharp, clean pair of pruning shears and cut off at ground level any canes that produced fruit this year (two year old canes). Cutting these spent canes off the blackberry bush will encourage the plant to produce more first year canes, which in turn will mean more fruit producing canes next year. Blackberries only produce fruit on canes that are two years old, so once a cane has produced berries, it will never produce berries again. In the summer, after the blackberries are done fruiting, you will need to do clean up blackberry pruning. While you are tip pruning, you can also prune off any diseased or dead canes. If the canes are shorter than 24 inches (60 cm.), simply prune off the top inch (2.5 cm.) or so of the cane. To do tip blackberry pruning, use a sharp, clean pair of pruning shears and cut back the blackberry canes to about 24 inches (60 cm.). This will force the blackberry canes to branch out, which will create more wood for blackberry fruit to grow on and, therefore, more fruit. Tip pruning is exactly what it sounds like it is cutting off the tips of the blackberry canes. In the spring, you should be doing tip pruning on your blackberries. Keep reading to learn how to trim blackberry bushes both of these ways. In late summer, you will be doing clean up blackberry pruning.

In the early spring, you will be tip pruning blackberry bushes. One of the most common questions about blackberries is, “When do you cut back blackberry bushes?” There are actually two different types of blackberry pruning you should be doing and each must be done at different times of the year.

Let’s take a look at how to trim blackberry bushes and when to prune blackberry bushes. Blackberry pruning is easy to do once you know the steps. Pruning blackberry bushes will not only help keep blackberries healthy, but can also help promote a larger crop.