Growing blackberries in New Mexico is one of the most fulfilling tasks you can do, whether you are a beginner or an advanced farmer. The United States has an abundance of places where you can grow various fruits and vegetables, and even right at home, harvesting happens.
For more than 2,000 years, people have been known to grow blackberries and when harvested, these become their food source. Blackberries are also utilized for medicinal purposes, or as hedges to keep away intruders.
In the state, blackberries are tiny fruit crops and commercial plants that can yield as much as 6,000 pounds per acre within the right management, with production that can double the yields from the field and can even turn you great profits. The production of these plants may take more than 10 years, but the best product happens in the third and eighth year.
How To Grow Blackberries In Southern New Mexico?
To start to grow blackberries in Southern New Mexico, there are tips and processes to follow. First, have you decided on the type of blackberry that you want planted?
Once you have decided on this, then you can now have the chance to plant these blackberries. When growing these bushes, it is a great idea to look ahead and prepare for the site a year before the planting.
The rule of thumb is to make sure that the blackberries are not in companion planting with peppers, eggplants, tomatoes, or strawberries. Or, any plant that has grown during the last three years. Why? These planting habits many develop into problems that could allow you to grow these plants, so be sure to keep out of these areas.
Choose the place where you can get full sun, and offer many room for these crops to grow. If these are in full shade or shady spaces, then they would not be able to give that much fruit. The soil must have the well-draining sandy loam at pH level of 6.5 at the maximum. If there is insufficiency with the drainage, then you may not be able to grow the blackberry on the raised bed.
Once you have selected the area, you need to weed this and have the soil amended with organic compost during the summer or fall before planting the blackberry.
How Long Does It Take For Blackberries To Bear Fruit?
Growing blackberries in New Mexico involves knowing the length of time needed for these blackberries to produce the fruit. It takes three to four days before the blackberries can produce fruits.
To elaborate, the fruiting season happens in the summer, or particularly in the months of July, August, and September. Note that the fruit cannot keep on ripening so make sure that you wait until these fruits ripen before picking them from the stem.
You can see how the fruit will turn from color red to black, but avoid picking them as soon as you see the blackberries in the color get through. Gardeners may wait for four days at the most to have these picked for kitchen use.
How Much Should Blackberries Grow In Their First Year?
During the first year of growth with these blackberries, several things can happen. They bear the healthiest fruits, and right after planting the seeds, you can see how the canes can grow first, producing leaves from this year.
Each cane can live for two complete years, with older canes that you may need to prune to avoid diseases from disrupting the growth. The quicker that these canes are produced, the quicker that you can be able to see the new ones sprout up.
Right at the end of the summer, you can be able to see how blackberries are ready to be harvested. Or, they are usually in this condition at the start of fall, and they must be picked at a colder temperature and refrigerated thereafter.
What Month Do You Plant Blackberries?
It is advisable to get these blackberries planted while the blackberry canes are dormant, preferably during the spring season. The reason for this is, planting may also be completed right during the last months of fall, but must be delayed until early in the spring in colder areas since temperatures may disrupt the hybrid varieties.
Where Is The Best Place To Grow Blackberries?
In New Mexico, growing blackberries happen best in greenhouses. To grow only the best fruits, you need to train the canes along your wires and posts, utilize your garden twine and have these tied to the trellis.
Next, plant these crops in a sunny area and use your well-drained soil. You can add many composts as you would take right to the planting hole. Make sure that these are watered until you have established the root system.
Can You Grow Blackberries From Fruit?
Planting blackberries, as with any crop, happens from the seeds, so is this possible with the fruit? Blackberries can grow best in where the U.S. agriculture department has set from zones five to 10, though these are usually propagated with divisions or cuttings. This provides the copy of the berry bush.
You can grow these shrubs from the seeds, but you may also grow them from flowers. What you can do is to get these blackberry fruits harvested, utilizing fresh berries to gather up the seeds and not dried fruits. The rate of germination drops when the seeds dry out.
Will I Get Blackberries First Year?
In the earlier paragraphs, you have learned what happens to the blackberry in the first year, but the question must be asked, will you be able to get these blackberries right from their first year? The answer is on your observation of how the seeds are growing.
Once these seeds are planted, you can realize how the canes can grow first, usually only producing small batches of fruit and leaves from the first year.