Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Stephen Howard
On Tue, 12 Jul 2005 12:29:23 +0000, kate7
wrote:
Hello,
In the depths of my local nature reserve, there is a blackberry bush
that produces abnormally large, sweet blackberries. None of it's
neighbours have similar atributes and for the last three years I've
been harvesting this one bush for the best freezer jam you've ever
tasted.
Does anyone know the best way to propagate from this bush?
I don't have room for blackberries in my garden, but I'd like to try
and plant some in the wild, or maybe pass some on to some other people
I know brambles are weeds, but we are talking about blackberries that
could cover a two pence piece here!
Just as an aside..
I've got a number of blackberry bushes dotted around my garden, and I
found that some produced significantly larger berries than others - so
I lifted offshoots from these bushes and planted them alongside the
other bushes in the hope of beefing up the main picking area.
By the time the bushes fruited I was rather miffed to find that the
fruits weren't anywhere near as large as the ones on the host
bush..and never have been.
The conclusion I drew from this is that the bushes are of the same
variety, but the environmental conditions ( assuming a minimum, of
course ) play a major role in determining the size and quality of the
fruit.
Strangely enough, the best berries come from a patch that only gets
the sun for the morning and is overgrown with ground elder.
So you may find that whilst you can propagate new bushes, you might
not get the huge fruits you expect. Gotta be worth a try though!
Regards,
--
Stephen Howard - Woodwind repairs & period restorations
www.shwoodwind.co.uk
Emails to: showard{whoisat}shwoodwind{dot}co{dot}uk |
Well, it's rather distressing to think that there are people in this world that think you can damage a local eco-system by picking a few blackberries.
I should think that around a quarter of the harvest rots on the bush, so there's plenty to go round.
I suppose it'd be more ecologically sound to use some petrol going to a supermarket, buy a pot of jam the fruit from which was grown with the help of fertilisers and insecticides, then take the jar to a recycling unit where it can be recycled usuing huge amounts of energy for heat, and plenty of cleaning chemicals.
In my experience, blackberries are like water - they fill up whatever gap they can - usually in the time it takes to blink.
I'll try getting some stems to root. Worth a try!
And for any of you that do have a care for the environment, good news! The company that manage the reserve have just bought another bit of land, tripling the size of the reserve to around 300 hectares. So there'll be lots of room for me to try out my mutatnt berries.
Another word about the plentitude of this finefruit. When my mum was little EVERY child in the village was sent out picking berries for jam.And she says there was still never a shortage. I believe the environment was much better off when communities engaged with it in a sustainable and appreciative way.