Grow Berries In Your Back Yard!

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Because wild blackberries are so abundant, many gardeners pass up the opportunity to raise the domesticated kinds . . . which is a pity, since "tamed" blackberry plants offer so many advantages over their wild counterparts. Cultivated varieties not only produce heavier crops of fruit, but bear larger, juicier berries . . . berries that—in my judgment—retain more flavor after freezing than almost any other kind of fruit. With the advent of thornless blackberry plants and dwarf varieties (such as Darrow) that require much less care than full-size varieties, there's no longer any excuse for not raising blackberries in your back yard!

Blackberries will thrive in many types of soil, but do best in moderately light loam to which humus has been added. (A slightly acid soil—about pH 6.0—is desirable.) If the plants are to be trained to a trellis, set them six feet apart . . . otherwise, give them three- to four-foot spacing.

When the canes reach a height of three or four feet, their tops should be clipped to encourage the appearance of "laterals", or side branches. Then—each fall, after harvest—the canes that bore fruit that year should be cut off at ground level and new canes (no more than ten per plant) allowed to develop. When the new canes reach three feet in height, they—in turn—can be clipped to encourage the production of laterals. (And, after these shoots have borne fruit, they should be cut off at ground level, and so on.)

LOGANBERRIES AND BOYSENBERRIES

Both of these bramble fruits are blackberry hybrids, which accounts not only for their blackberry-like flavor but for the fact that their cultural requirements are the same as the blackberry's. (As with all cane fruits, it's a good idea to apply plenty of compost to loganberry and boysenberry plantings each year between spring and fall. For maximum productivity, you also may wish to rake a general-purpose commercial fertilizer into the surface of the earth around the canes in early spring. And as always, keep the berry patch's soil weed-free.)

A FEW WORDS ABOUT BLUEBERRIES

Most berries do better when they're "companion planted" with others of their own kind. This is especially true—however—of blueberries, which are largely self-sterile. In other words, to ensure high productivity it's essential that you plant more than one variety of blueberry. (Currently, the three most popular varieties are Earliblue, Bluecrop , and Coville , which are—respectively—early-, mid-season-, and late-cropping.)

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