Training Brambles

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30561, 2 October 1964, Page 6

Training Brambles

Brambles are growing in popularity and can be found in many local gardens. Many are hybrids between the blackberry and raspberry; probably the two commonest are the loganberry and boysenberry. Newly-planted canes should be cut hard back to encourage shoot growth, which will develop from below ground level. Select two or three of the strongest growths and remove the others in the autumn. A single strong stake should be sufficient to support the plant in the first year, but for subsequent years wires stretched between posts will be necessary. These are required not only to support the prolific cane growth but to facilitate control over development, spraying, picking and pruning. Often very little training of canes is carried out. This results in broken canes apd a tangled mass producing

sorry looking specimens that are not really worth bothering about. As the young shoots develop tie them loosely to the wires so that they go straight up away from the fruiting canes. Cane spot is a disease which sometimes attacks these canes and infects the old wood. Where young growth is tied beneath the old canes, spores fall on to them from old infected wood, causing infection of the young growth. Pruning is simplicity itself. It consists of removing canes immediately after fruit has been picked. All brambles produce their fruit on one-year-old wood only, after which it dies. The thornless blackberry, “John Innes,” is the one exception—it also produces fruit on older wood. After removing the old canes that have borne fruit, thin out the young canes, retaining about six of the most vigorous. Now these young canes can be brought down and tied in position on the supporting wires.