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!

In article ,
"michael adams" writes:
|
| Having just noticed this is in a local nature reserve -
| where your pots may be disturbed - it's possible to layer
| directly in the soil - if you did this, other visitors
| might not realise what was going on. However you'll need
| to water these in, and ensure they never go short of water.

Only if it gets dry.

| This means you'll need to sever the stem come Autumn* and
| dig up the new plantlets and pot them up instead. ...

Now a heinous criminal offence. Ignore that stupidity.

| You can bend the pins out of a metal coat hanger. Or use a half
| brick which is rather less elegant. Blackberries root naturally
| when their stems touch the soil, providing the soil is moist. Which
| is how they spread naturally.

No, they tip in. Blackberries do not normally root except at
the tips, but the shoot may then grow on from where it tipped
in, and do it again.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

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

"Stephen Howard" wrote in message
...
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?

Propagating anything from your 'local nature reserve' is likely to be
severely frowned upon.
It is a *reserve*. A *reserved area*, not to be pillaged at everyone's
whim.
........... :-) Unless, of course, it is truly *your* nature
reserve.

--
ned

http://www.bugsandweeds.co.uk
last update 09.07.2005

ned wrote:
"Stephen Howard" wrote in message
...
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?

Propagating anything from your 'local nature reserve' is likely to be
severely frowned upon.
It is a *reserve*. A *reserved area*, not to be pillaged at everyone's
whim.
.......... :-) Unless, of course, it is truly *your* nature
reserve.

Nonsense!

Removing flowers/seeds from a rare plant in a nature reserve is one thing.
keeping a few blackberries from the jam pot and propagating is quite
another.

pk

"p.k." wrote in message
...
ned wrote:
"Stephen Howard" wrote in message
...
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?

Propagating anything from your 'local nature reserve' is likely to
be
severely frowned upon.
It is a *reserve*. A *reserved area*, not to be pillaged at
everyone's
whim.
.......... :-) Unless, of course, it is truly *your* nature
reserve.

Nonsense!

Removing flowers/seeds from a rare plant in a nature reserve is one
thing.
keeping a few blackberries from the jam pot and propagating is quite
another.

Hey, it is a NATURE reserve. Not the local branch of Tesco.
The brambles and blackberries are there for the benefit of the
wildlife, not to supplement anyone's shopping list.

--
ned

http://www.bugsandweeds.co.uk
last update 09.07.2005

In article , p.k.
writes
ned wrote:
"Stephen Howard" wrote in message
...
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?

Propagating anything from your 'local nature reserve' is likely to be
severely frowned upon.
It is a *reserve*. A *reserved area*, not to be pillaged at everyone's
whim.
.......... :-) Unless, of course, it is truly *your* nature
reserve.

Nonsense!

Removing flowers/seeds from a rare plant in a nature reserve is one thing.
keeping a few blackberries from the jam pot and propagating is quite
another.

Speaking as someone on the management committee of a local nature
reserve, you could always try asking!
--
Kay
"Do not insult the crocodile until you have crossed the river"

In article , ned wrote:
"p.k." wrote in message
...

Nonsense!

Removing flowers/seeds from a rare plant in a nature reserve is one
thing.
keeping a few blackberries from the jam pot and propagating is quite
another.

Hey, it is a NATURE reserve. Not the local branch of Tesco.
The brambles and blackberries are there for the benefit of the
wildlife, not to supplement anyone's shopping list.

You clearly have a minimal understanding of either ecology or botany,
which puts you on a par with the goons who make the laws in the UK.

Almost all ecologies in the UK were created by human intervention,
and none are untouched by it. What the original poster proposed will
do no harm. The limit on blackberry's spread in the UK is space
(a.k.a. competition) and not the availability of shoots to tip-in.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

Nick Maclaren wrote:

In article , ned wrote:

Hey, it is a NATURE reserve. Not the local branch of Tesco.
The brambles and blackberries are there for the benefit of the
wildlife, not to supplement anyone's shopping list.

You clearly have a minimal understanding of either ecology or botany,
which puts you on a par with the goons who make the laws in the UK.

Almost all ecologies in the UK were created by human intervention,
and none are untouched by it. What the original poster proposed will
do no harm. The limit on blackberry's spread in the UK is space
(a.k.a. competition) and not the availability of shoots to tip-in.

If it is a decent cultivar with good fruit (and preferably not too
vicious thorns) then the nature reserve should propogate it for sale!
The best way to ensure a plants survival is to give a cutting away.

It isn't like blackberries and brambles are endangered species - and
they can be pernicious weeds likely to be ripped out by woodland
management even in a nature reserve if they get in the way.

Sycamores and increasingly himalayan balsam are even more of a nuisance
species and will zap all else given half a chance.

Regards,
Martin Brown

The message
from "ned" contains these words:

Removing flowers/seeds from a rare plant in a nature reserve is one
thing.
keeping a few blackberries from the jam pot and propagating is quite
another.

Hey, it is a NATURE reserve. Not the local branch of Tesco.
The brambles and blackberries are there for the benefit of the
wildlife, not to supplement anyone's shopping list.

This would seem to be a dog-in-the-manger attitude - I've no doubt that
the whole area would be covered in brambles in no time if it wasn't
managed in some way. Abstracting a (deliberately) rooted scion before it
and its fellows can be cut back is not the same as removing the parent.

No-one is harmed. However, I would suggest that the administrators are
approached, and without mentioning the enormous size of the fruit, get
permission to root some ends and remove them.

--
Rusty
Emus to: horrid dot squeak snailything zetnet point co full-stop uk
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/

Nick Maclaren wrote:

No, they tip in. Blackberries do not normally root except at
the tips, but the shoot may then grow on from where it tipped
in, and do it again.



All part of the colonisation process that you can see going on around
neglected fields - blackberries in hedge tip-root, thorny new growth keeps
off grazing animals and human traffic, other plant species take advantage of
the protected environment and hey presto you have a 2m wide strip of long
grass, wild flowers and sapling that would other wise have been grazed off.
As the blackberries grow on the process starts again.

Pk

On Wed, 13 Jul 2005 10:47:10 +0100, Martin Brown
wrote:

Nick Maclaren wrote:

In article , ned wrote:

Hey, it is a NATURE reserve. Not the local branch of Tesco.
The brambles and blackberries are there for the benefit of the
wildlife, not to supplement anyone's shopping list.

You clearly have a minimal understanding of either ecology or botany,
which puts you on a par with the goons who make the laws in the UK.

Almost all ecologies in the UK were created by human intervention,
and none are untouched by it. What the original poster proposed will
do no harm. The limit on blackberry's spread in the UK is space
(a.k.a. competition) and not the availability of shoots to tip-in.

If it is a decent cultivar with good fruit (and preferably not too
vicious thorns) then the nature reserve should propogate it for sale!
The best way to ensure a plants survival is to give a cutting away.

It isn't like blackberries and brambles are endangered species - and
they can be pernicious weeds likely to be ripped out by woodland
management even in a nature reserve if they get in the way.

Good grief, yes - I have to keep my bushes in check with a lawnmower,
and more than once I've pulled out a rooted cutting from a pile of old
grass clippings.

A few years ago I recall seeing a documentary which featured a
time-lapse shot of brambles growing in a copse..looked a lot like
something that might have come from the scriptwriters at Dr.Who.

Regards,



--
Stephen Howard - Woodwind repairs & period restorations
www.shwoodwind.co.uk
Emails to: showard{whoisat}shwoodwind{dot}co{dot}uk

Jaques d'Alltrades wrote:

The message
from "ned" contains these words:

Hey, it is a NATURE reserve. Not the local branch of Tesco.
The brambles and blackberries are there for the benefit of the
wildlife, not to supplement anyone's shopping list.

This would seem to be a dog-in-the-manger attitude - I've no doubt that
the whole area would be covered in brambles in no time if it wasn't
managed in some way. Abstracting a (deliberately) rooted scion before it
and its fellows can be cut back is not the same as removing the parent.

No-one is harmed. However, I would suggest that the administrators are
approached, and without mentioning the enormous size of the fruit, get
permission to root some ends and remove them.

Why not tell them why you want it? They can keep a few cuttings too and
maybe sales will help fund the upkeep of the reserve. Most reserves
struggle for funds even at the best of times - a new blackberry cultivar
might be a nice little earner. Provided the berries taste OK as well as
being huge.

Regards,
Martin Brown

The message
from Martin Brown contains these words:

No-one is harmed. However, I would suggest that the administrators are
approached, and without mentioning the enormous size of the fruit, get
permission to root some ends and remove them.

Why not tell them why you want it? They can keep a few cuttings too and
maybe sales will help fund the upkeep of the reserve. Most reserves
struggle for funds even at the best of times - a new blackberry cultivar
might be a nice little earner. Provided the berries taste OK as well as
being huge.

I'd tell them *AFTER* I'd established a cutting or two. If they do
decide it worth propagating for sale, they'll probably sell the whole
clump to a nursery, who would register the strain and sell it on, giving
the administrators a royalty for an agreed period.

--
Rusty
Emus to: horrid dot squeak snailything zetnet point co full-stop uk
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/

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.