Trellis for blackberries: how to tie correctly
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In order to get a good harvest, you must follow all agrotechnical rules when growing blackberries. The tapestry is a construction necessary for them, with the help of which the correct formation of the plant takes place. Young shoots will develop better while on the trellis. Today, it is possible to install modern rotary structures, making it possible to leave whips on them, laying them under a winter shelter. In this article, we will show you how to use a blackberry trellis
What is a blackberry trellis for?
It should be said, before considering various types of supports, that growing blackberries on a trellis, you can get quite a few advantages:
- The branches located on the support will not get dirty in the ground, which becomes damp after watering or rains;
- The blackberry trellis protects the berries from harmful insects crawling on the ground;
- They are well ventilated, so that the plant is less at risk of contracting a fungal disease;
- Sunlight is evenly distributed over the bush and the fruits ripen better and faster.
Tapestries are no less important for the person himself:
- Growing studless blackberries on a trellis makes it much easier to care for them
- Cutting off old lashes, it will be easier to protect young shoots from injury, because they will not intertwine;
- Watering activities become easier and you can mulch the soil without much difficulty;
- When the branches of the plant are tied and distributed, harvesting becomes easier;
- Autumn preparation for the winter cold takes place without much effort.
- If there is a dilemma to provide the plant with support or not, then here we can say with confidence that this must be done.
What is a trellis for a blackberry
When making a trellis for a blackberry with your own hands, you do not need to spend much energy on drawing them for a blackberry trellis. There are two types of supports and their designs are very simple:
- If the territories are not large, then a single-lane model will be enough. This trellis will be ideal for gardeners and summer residents who make them on their own.
- For large farming, where large areas are used to grow blackberries, a two-lane model is more suitable.
Each of these models has its own pros and cons.
The single-strip model is considered the simplest design. To create it, it is enough to dig in the pillars and pull the wire between them. The tapestry is made to the height of human growth. The support can be not only in an upright position, it can be tilted, the plant can be placed on it in the form of a fan, freely or in a horizontal position. What will be the position depends on where the plant grows, because it can act not only as a bush that brings crops, but also as a decoration for the site.
The single-strip model has only such a drawback as the fact that each lash must be tied separately. If the trellis is small in a summer cottage, then it will not be difficult, but on large plantations, this becomes a problem.
Blackberry garter on a trellis: photo
A two-lane model of a trellis for a blackberry is also made of pillars and wire, only it has the wire in two rows.Thanks to the trellis, the lashing of the lashes is greatly simplified, it becomes easier to form a plant, the bushes do not thicken. This model is most in demand among farmers engaged in growing on large plantations. The design of trellises is of three types: T, V and Y.
If you plan to build a trellis for blackberries in a T-shaped form, then you will need to install two pillars, placing them vertically, and tie elements horizontally located and at the same distance to them. Further, a wire must be fixed to their edges, which forms two lines on one support row, to which the whips will be tied. There are no special rules or secrets regarding the correct garter for such a trellis. The shoots are simply straightened and laid out on opposite sides on the wire, leaving an empty space in the center.
If you plan to install the trellis in a V-shape, you will need to install paired supports at an angle. For one element, two pillars are needed, they must be connected at the ground, and expanded to the top. Blackberries on such a trellis are tied in the same way as in the case of a support in the form of T.
As in the previous version, the same materials are used to install the trellis in the Y-shape, and the procedure is carried out in the same way, only two pillars should expand not from the base itself, but from the middle of the central support. To make such a trellis, you will need to use pivot hinges. This design is ideal for those who want to make their garter beautiful. By placing the branches on such a trellis, you can give the bush the shape of a vase, because from below and to the center, all the branches will be gathered together, and then diverge on different sides.
For the manufacture of supports on their own, wooden poles, metal pipes and profiles are used.
How to make a blackberry trellis with your own hands?
Blackberry garter on a trellis: photo
If you want to buy a trellis, then you can do it, they are sold in any garden centers. But is it worth spending a lot of money on this if the structure is assembled quite simply and with your own hands? You can make a different shape of the structure, but a single-strip trellis is quite suitable for a garden plot.
The pillars are the basis for the entire structure. The length of wooden poles or metal pipes should be 2.5 meters. Wire will be the most suitable material for tensioning the line, but if this is not possible, then you can make the tension from the twine.
Algorithm of actions, how to make a trellis for a blackberry:
- Along the row where planting is planned or the blackberry is already growing, holes are dug, which should go 80 centimeters deep into the ground. You can use a drill to drill holes. The gap from one pit to another should be 5 meters.
- Further, gravel or crushed stone is laid out on the bottom of each pit in a layer of 15 centimeters. This will prevent the supports from sinking.
- Each pillar from below is processed using bituminous mastic for this. After that, it is necessary to install supports in the holes, align them at one level and cover them with earth. After installation, the height of the blackberry trellis will be 1.7 meters. Falling asleep the pillars, it is necessary to compact each layer of earth well with a shovel. It is not necessary to carry out concreting of the pillars for these structures, since when the plant is transplanted to another place, it will be rather difficult to dismantle it.
- After all the work carried out on the installation of the pillars, you need to pull the wire. As a rule, in three tiers, but you can also in four. The first wire is pulled over the top of the posts, one at a time at a distance of 50 centimeters from each other. If you drill holes in the posts, it will be much easier to pull the wire through them. On the supports located at the edges, it is recommended to install a mechanism that will tighten the lines, bolts are perfect for this.
If the trellis for blackberries begin to tilt while pulling the wire or under the weight of a bush, then mistakes were made during installation.
Do-it-yourself blackberry trellis: video
Blackberry garter on a trellis
In order to understand how to correctly make a garter of prickly blackberries, you need to understand the planting scheme, which takes into account all the features of the variety, the climate in which it is grown and how nutritious the soil is. It must be remembered that the better the conditions for the plant are created, the larger the size of the trellis for the blackberry will be.
As a rule, the formation of blackberries on a trellis is done in the form of a fan. This scheme is ideal if the variety has limited shoot growth. Planting bushes should be carried out at a distance of 2 meters or 2.5 meters from each other in a row and between rows. Shrub varieties are planted at a distance of 1 to 1.5 meters.
Garter methods, of which there are three, are selected depending on which variety is purchased. The procedure is carried out in early spring.
- You can tie up the bush in the weaving method. In this case, it is necessary to arrange the shoots in three tiers, and the newly appeared ones, bend a little from the trunk and place them on the fourth line.
- The fan-shaped method is the most familiar to gardeners. In this case, all the shoots of the last year are straightened along the trellis in the form of a fan, fixing them on three lines from below. The upper fourth line remains for the shoots of the current year.
- The one-sided tilt method implies the location of last year's branches on one side of the trellis, where fixation occurs to the first three lines from below, and the shoots of the current year are sent to the other side.Drawing of a trellis for a blackberry: photo
After the harvest is all harvested, the autumn pruning of the blackberry growing on the sleeper is carried out, during which all the shoots that have any damage, signs of disease and those that bore fruit in the current year are cut off. Only young shoots remain.
Gardeners with extensive experience in growing blackberries also prune in early spring. With it, you can shape the plant and remove all shoots that were injured during the winter cold.
New look: pivoting blackberry trellis
Rotary trellis for blackberries: photo
American scientists have developed a swivel trellis specially designed for growing blackberry bushes, which greatly simplifies the preparation of plants for winter in the northern regions. This technology is actively used by large producers of berries around the world. Scientists have been able to prove that this structure is unique in its plant formation system, due to which the yields become consistently large.
This technology was created so that you can easily bend and cover the plant for the winter. The fact is that at a temperature of -23 degrees freezing of fruit buds occurs, and if varieties of the creeping type can be easily laid and covered with straw, then it is extremely difficult to do this with erect bushes. When trying to bend straight and very powerful stems, they often break, not to mention the fact that even bending them is very difficult. With the help of a swivel trellis, you can carry out this procedure simply by moving the device to the winter position without removing the shoots from it.
In summer cottages, such a novelty as a swivel trellis is not popular. But when growing your favorite variety, you can try to build it yourself. The support itself is Y-shaped. The secret of this design is the hinged fixation of the upper fork with the main strut. From the edge along the row, on both sides, they are installed along a single pillar, to which the braces are attached, holding the support.
Rotary trellis for blackberries have many advantages:
- Yields increase significantly, this is affected by the free weaving of shoots;
- Gardeners can practice trellis growing blackberries even in regions with cold winters;
- The bushes are well ventilated and illuminated;
- Less common are burns during the heat of the summer;
- It becomes much easier to pick berries and prepare the plant for the winter period.
The main pillar, short and long arm, a hinge in the form of a metal plate, which is fixed with bolts, are the components of the pivot structure.
It can be in three positions:
- The base position is summer. In this case, the support is in a vertical position. A long arm is used to fix the branches on which the fruit is formed. Young branches, which will bear fruit only next year, are fixed on the short shoulder. The trellis is rotated so that the branches from which the harvest is planned are on the other side of the sun, which prevents burns. Harvesting becomes easy due to the fact that all the berries are on the same side and at a comfortable height for a person.
- In the winter position, the support is on the ground. The shoots remaining after the autumn pruning will be under cover, and this will increase protection from frosty winds. Preparation is carried out in the fall, during which all branches that have borne fruit are cut off to the very base, and new shoots are laid in their place. After that, the support easily turns to the surface of the earth and covering material is laid on top of it.
- Spring position. With the onset of spring, the support rises, leaving a long arm with branches in a horizontal position on the surface of the earth. After new small shoots grow, the design is transferred to the summer position.
Total
It will be much easier to grow blackberries if you use a trellis for this. Thanks to their installation, yields will be much better than without them.
Garter blackberries on a trellis: video, how to tie with your own hands