Description of the blackberry variety Giant - true or fiction?

the main » Garden » Shrubs » Blackberry » Blackberry varieties

Gardeners are gambling people. Passion for novelties and experiments makes them organize annual marathons in search of a rare interesting and fruitful variety. Sometimes, for the sake of the cherished seedling, tremendous distances are overcome and large funds are spent. The market of planting materials is a tasty morsel for businessmen. That is why for the sake of increasing sales sometimes not very fair marketing techniques are used, and even outright fraud. This article describes one of these varieties of blackberry called Giant.

Description of Blackberry Giant, one of the most productive varieties of Russia and Ukraine

Some time ago a variety called the Giant with amazing long finger-thick fruits appeared on the seedlings market. According to Yandex Market, in Russia it offers an online store of the company Becker, registered in Smolensk. You can also find a new product in Ukraine - in the online store Home of Tviy Dіm i Garden Plus company with registration in Lviv. Of course, the identical site design is suspicious that the Ukrainian company is a clone of the Russian one. Or vice versa. But it is not so important. The main thing: the gigantic variety is not sold anywhere else.

The characteristics of the variety indicated in the description on the websites of sellers are simply stunning: yield - 30 kg from a bush, the mass of one berry - 23 grams, ripening - already in July, frost resistance - up to -30⁰С. No other information about the Giant is given. Nothing is known about the type of growth of shoots (erect or creeping), nor about their studding, and the origin of the variety is completely sealed.

On gardening forums you can find such complaints:

Do not order anything in Becker. Every year I “get in” for 20-30 thousand rubles, as I chase exotic things, but these have surpassed everyone. Instead of goji, they sent a barberry of Thunberg, instead of a blackberry Gigant - Agaves.

The Gorky question arises: “Was there a boy? Maybe there wasn't a boy? ”

"Boy" actually was. But his name was Black Butte (in Russian transcription - Black Butte). This can be seen if you look at the photo before the description of the Giant. This very snapshot is replicated in English-speaking online stores on the pages of the Black Butte brand.

What are these frauds for? It's simple: to intrigue hunters for novelties and rarities. Brand change is an old marketing move that stimulates demand for non-tradable goods. And if you also talk about a fantastic 30 kilograms from a bush ...

However, the BlackBlack BlackBerry is worthy of the attention of Russian gardeners without any fog.

Blackberry Black Bute: Variety Characteristics

This is certainly an interesting variety, like almost all other cultivated blackberries, originally from the USA. He was bred at the University of Oregon Agricultural Product Service (ARS) program. The main characteristics of the Black Butte variety are listed in the table:

Thus, the main advantage of the Black Butte variety is giant, surprisingly beautiful, transportable berries. But for such a miracle the plant pays low yield. For growing for sale or winter harvesting it is not very suitable. But the ripeness of the variety allows in the middle of summer to feast on fresh tasty berries, and this is undoubtedly a big plus.

Nuances of agro-technology low-yielding blackberry

If a variety is not genetically capable of producing a large number of ovaries, and you want to increase the yield, there are two ways out: compacted planting and intensive farming. The essence of the first method is cultivation on a smaller area of ​​a larger number of plants. The second is the stimulation of fruiting fertilizing and pruning.

Intensification

Blackberry Black Bute, like all others, such as the Doyle variety, bears fruits on the second year shoots. It should also be noted that, as a creeping variety, it concentrates the fruiting area in the middle part of the shoot. Based on this, a trimming scheme is being developed.

1. Early spring overwintered last year’s branches shorten to a height of 1.5 meters from the ground. Damaged and dead frozen are removed.
2. In May, they are examined again, choose the 4 strongest and cut out the weak. Do not be afraid to leave fewer shoots on the plant. The plant will direct the forces on formation of a crop on the remained.
3. In the middle of the summer they spend pinching, preparing young runaways for fruiting for the next year. Pinning is to trim their tops to stimulate lateral branching. For creeping blackberries, the rate of trimming is up to half the length of the shoot.
4. Sprouting side shoots shortened to 40 cm.
5. In the autumn cut out all the vines.

When planning feedings, you need to remember that excess nitrogen will stimulate the growth of green massbut not fruiting. Therefore, blackberry blackberry nitrogen should be given strictly metered.

After spring frosts are past, a bucket of mature compost, 100 grams of superphosphate and 30 grams of potash fertilizers are brought into the soil under each bush.

At the beginning of summer conduct foliar feeding of blackberries with a solution of boric acid. To do this, 10 grams of the drug is dissolved in 10 liters of water. Sprayed on the underside of the sheet on a windless cloudy day, without rain.Additionally, it is good to feed blackberries with ash solution under the root.

Compaction

Sort Black Bute is good because it is compact in itself. Therefore, he will easily survive a compacted landing. For this blackberry, a distance of 0.8 meters between plants and 2 meters between rows will suffice. But at the same time to direct the vines need to vertically.

For this variety, you can apply a fan formation on two sides. This is done like this:

1. Even when planting seedlings supports are installed on both sides of the row. Between them the wire is stretched in three tiers: at a height of 40, 100 and 150 cm. It is better that the rows be directed from east to west.
2. Further shoots are distributed on two sides. The southern side is fanned by fruit-bearing second-year shoots. They will receive enough light and heat so that the fruit can be tied up and matured well.
3. Young shoots are directed to the north side.. There is enough light and sunshine for them to ripen and prepare for winter.
4. In the autumn, after cutting the fruiting branches, annual vines are removed from the garter and laid on the south side, bending over the lower tier of the wire.

Agrofibre is considered to be one of the best materials for insulating heat-loving plants. But you can do with natural resources.

A great option - lapnik. The smell of needles frightens off pests, and the resins have disinfectant properties. Chopped spruce branches are stacked in two layers on the blackberry. After the snow falls, it will be good to throw it on the structure additionally.

Good frost protection - leaves and stalks of corn. If you lay them thick enough, no additional cover is required. The main thing - to ensure that the tops were healthy, without rot.

But with the straw you need to be careful. This material can be chosen in the winter by rodents, who will spoil blackberry shoots with pleasure.

Blackberry Black Butte is an interesting variety. Some of his the disadvantages are more than covered by the pleasure of collecting truly giant berriessurprising for its beauty and taste.