Home Gardeners

Black Berries-Rubus

Black berry is a fruit in the family of Rosaceae. Berries grow wild throughout Europe and in some parts of the countries like Australia, New Zealand, Chile and North America. Berry leaves are food for caterpillars and some grazing mammals. Blackberries are red color before they ripe. This soft fruit is popular for its use in desserts, jams, jellies, wines. It is often mixed with apples for pies, crumbles and to produce candy.

The leaf, root and fruit of blackberries are used in medicine to treat diarrhea, diabetes, swelling, pain and prevent heart disease. It is also used as mouth cleaner for mild and throat irritations.

Nutritional Information: On serving 100 grams of blackberries it contains 43 calories, 10 grams of carbohydrates and low fats. Berries are free from cholesterol. It also contains proteins, vitamin A, vitamin B6, vitamin B12, calcium, magnesium and iron.

Companion Plants: Companion Planting is the method of planting different plants together to ensure better growth or protect against pests and diseases. Blackberries love to grow with tansy plants as they have the ability to repel mosquitoes.  Do not plant blackberries with raspberries or nightshade family as they can spread viral diseases and verticillium wilt transmitted to the soil.

Blackberry Varieties

S.No	Blackberry Varieties	Specification	Category
1	Shawnee	Sweet and juicy	Thorn
2	Apache	Attractive glossy black color	Thorn less
3	Arapaho	Short conic bright glossy black color	Thorn less
4	Chester	Large fruit with mild flavor	Thorn less
5	Natchez	Weighs 8-10gms & contains 9.5% of sugar	Thorn less

How to grow berries in pots?

Though berries grow wild in all parts of the world cultivated varieties produce dark juicy berries that are sweet.  To start growing blackberries in your home you must care for berry plants throughout the growing season for a productive yield. The factors that are responsible for the growth of blackberries are…

Hybrid variety: If you wish to grow blackberries then pick up the seed variety based on its growing pattern. For cold climatic conditions prefer thorn variety and trailing varieties for warm or dry summers.

Pot & Soil: Use a large pot or container of size 5 galloon to grow. Select a planting location to grow berries from seed indoors. Plant generally prefers all kinds like sandy or clay fertile soil or acidic soil with ph between 5.5 & 7.

Water & Sunlight: Water the berry plants weekly about 1-2 inches depending upon the climate. Avoid over  watering as it may result in damaging the plant to root rot. You can also add mulch to the soil to prevent soil  erosion.

Expose the plant to sunlight for a minimum of 6-8 hrs to ripe berries evenly. Berries in pots thrive best when you maintain the room temperature between 30-40F.

Planting: The seed germinates after 15-20 days from sowing and reaches to a height of 4 inches. Leave it for few more weeks to grow.  Prune the young leaves, stems and small flower buds to ensure faster growth.  Plant grows to a height of 3-4 feet tall and wide when the root absorbs nutrients from the soil.

Nutrient Deficiency

Here is the list of table that illustrates the list of elements, functions and deficiency symptoms in plants…

S. No	Element	Function	Deficiency Symptoms
1	Nitrogen	For plant growth	Yellowing of foliage
2	Potassium	Stomata opening & closing	Purple hue in older leaves
3	Phosphorus	Stimulates root growth	Dark green foliage
4	Calcium	Cell division & elongation	Chlorotic young leaves, blossom end rot
5	Magnesium	Chlorophyll production	Older leaf margins
6	Iron	Chlorophyll production	Brown leaf margins, suppressed bud growth
7	Zinc	Auxin production	Short internodes, reduces leaf size

Pests & Diseases

Pests and diseases are the major problems for all types of crop plants. If a single plant is affected by a pest or disease then it spoils the total crop plants. You can solve pest problem using organic fertilizers or sprays and for diseased remove the infected plant from crop plants so as not to affect other plants. Here is the list of pests and diseases that spoils the growth of blackberry plants….

Pests	Diseases
Cut worms	Powdery mildew
Aphids	Fruit rot
Cane borer	Orange rust
Fruit fly	Leaf curling
Spider mites	Spot anthracnose
Beetles	Crown gall

Fertilizers: To overcome nutrient deficiency issues feed the plant with nutrients such as N-P-K fertilizers in the ratio of 10-10-10 or 16-16-8. You can also overcome the deficiency by allowing the plant to get sufficient amounts of water and sunlight.

Harvesting: Pick the mature berries that are fully black color and pull freely without a yank.  They cannot be ripe once they picked up from the plant.  Harvest mature berries twice a week to propagate more berries as they ripe. Harvest berries during the colder parts of the day and place it in shade or refrigerator as early as possible.

How to Propagate Blackberries from Cuttings?

It’s easy to propagate blackberries from leafy stem cuttings or by root cuttings.  Out of these leafy stem cutting is the best way to grow high yielding crop plants. For this you need to take 4-6 inches of the cane stems of berries and is placed in a moist peat or sand mix soil about 2 inches deep. Now place it in sunlight or slightly shaded location. Within 3-4 weeks root develops and is ready to transplant to outdoors. Provide nutrients to the plants to encourage vertical growth and also produces sweet berries.

Precautions

• Avoid picking blackberries from bushes.
• Prefer organic content to enrich the soil fertility.
• Water regularly and provide sunlight to the plants.
• Harvest mature blackberries and store them in refrigerator.
• Make sure the pot or large container has holes at the bottom for proper drainage.
• Keep children and pets away from plants when you use fertilizers for better growth.
• Wear gardening tools such as gloves, goggles and shoes when you deal with fertilizers.

Health Benefits

Blackberries are mainly helpful for pregnant women, cancer patients, to boost immune functions are listed below…..

Pregnant women: Blackberries are safe during pregnancy. Wash berries before eating as pesticides can increase the risk of birth defects, abdominal pain and food poisoning in pregnant women. It also reduces the prostate, breast cancer in women. You should not feed children below 24 months with blackberries.

Cancer: Berries have the ability to fight as a cancer-fighting food. Anti-oxidants in berries like polyphenols and anthocyanin helps to cure lung, colon and esophageal cancer.

Boosts immune: Eating blackberries help to boost immune as it contains vitamins, minerals and phytoestrogens. These may help to fight against various pathogens and infections.

Bone health: Magnesium and Calcium are essential for maintaining healthy bones.  Calcium strengthens the bones and magnesium facilitates the absorption of nutrients into the body & for proper functioning of cells.

Brain health: Recent studies shows that blackberries have the potential to increase the brain performance especially for short term memory patients. It also has the ability to protect brain cells from degeneration.

Digestion: Phosphorus plays an important role in facilitating effective digestion in human body. Riboflavin and niacin energizes the metabolic activities and stimulates digestion. It also solves the problems like constipation, diarrhea and other bowel movements.

Improves vision & skin: Regular consumption of berries helps to protect eyes from UV-radiations.  The  presence of lutein content in berries forms a protective pigment behind retina and prevents from oxidative stress and high wavelength light radiations.

Side Effects: A moderate intake of blackberries does not have any side effects, but excessive can cause severe health problems that includes…..

• Constipation
• Nausea
• Vomiting
• Diarrhea
• Liver effects

Start growing blackberries from seeds in a pot or large container that produces tasty fruits and monitors your health. If you have amazing ideas about growing blackberries in your home, please share your experience with us.