How to grow blackberries for high yields?

Blackberry Blackberry blackberry A shrub in the genus Rubus (Rubus) of the rose family (Rosaceae), mainly native to the north temperate zones of the Old and New Worlds, especially abundant in eastern North America and along the Pacific coast, and a common coppice and hedgerow plant in the British Isles and Western Europe. Usually biennial, with stems erect, semi-erect or climbing, thorny, and some cultivated varieties thornless. The leaves are trifoliolate or palmately compound, with broad, elliptical leaflets, petiolate, with coarsely toothed leaf margins, and most leaves remain through winter. The inflorescence is terminal, with white, pink or red flowers. The fruit is an aggregate fruit, with black or reddish-purple drupelets borne on a juicy receptacle. Some trailing species of Rubus lack woody fibers in their stems and are called dewberries (dewberry). There are now tens of thousands of blackberry hybrids and varieties, with a planted area in the United States of 4,000 hectares (10,000 mu) and 405 hectares (1,000 mu) in the United Kingdom. Blackberry fruit is rich in iron and vitamin C, and can be eaten fresh, or made into preserves, jam and jelly, or used in pies. Blackberry is native to North America, is a perennial vine in the rose family, and its fruit is juicy, tender, crystal-clear and translucent, purple-black in color, with nutritional value far above that of apples, oranges and grapes, making it the fastest-growing third-generation emerging fruit in the world in recent years, with high development value. Its high-yield cultivation techniques are as follows.

1. Apply sufficient base fertilizer and plant at a reasonable density. Choose valleys or fields with good fertility, loose soil and good drainage, and apply 1000-1500 kg of decomposed farmyard manure and 120-150 kg of superphosphate per mu, generally planting 800-900 plants per mu. For seedlings, choose plants with thick main stems, well-developed root systems, plump buds and no pests or diseases. When planting, first straighten and lay the roots flat according to the seedling's root system, then cover with soil, bury and firm it, water thoroughly to settle the roots, and thereafter water once every 2-3 days until they survive.

2. Pruning after planting. Winter pruning of blackberries is very important; how well and how much is pruned directly affects the yield and quality of the following year. Generally leave 2-3 thick branches per plant, and leave about 6-7 buds on each branch at a length of about 0.4-0.6 m, cutting off the excess length to avoid consuming nutrients. After the buds sprout and grow to 10-20 cm in the second spring, leave another 2-3 thick buds on each branch and remove all excess buds. When pruning, also pay attention to arranging the branches and buds in upper and lower layers to make full use of light.

3. Management after pruning. In the south, blackberries generally begin to sprout after the Spring Festival, at which time "sprouting-promoting fertilizer" should be applied, mainly nitrogen and phosphorus, applying 10 kg of ammonium bicarbonate, 15 kg of urea and 20 kg of phosphate fertilizer per mu diluted in water twice. Apply twice before and after flowering and twice during the fruit-swelling stage, timing it so that it is applied twice each month. At the same time, combine with foliar feeding: spray Baoshi, monopotassium phosphate, urea and large-fruit fruit agent once every 10 days after flowering, for 3-4 consecutive sprays. In the south from the end of April to early May, and in the north in mid-May, when some blackberries begin to ripen and some are still flowering, stop fertilizing.

4. Blackberries have extremely strong tillering and numerous branches. Under dense planting, pruning away most of the branches can ensure that nutrients are concentrated on a small number of fruits, multiplying the size of the berries and achieving both dense planting and ventilation. Generally, after such pruning, individual blackberries can reach 12-15 grams, each cluster weighs about 0.5-1.2 kg, and the yield per mu is also increased from 700-900 kg without pruning and dense planting to 1200-1500 kg, with very significant economic benefits.