People will be familiar with propagating plants by saving seeds and growing them. And also some people may know about taking cuttings from plants and rooting them to create new plants. But people may not know about another method to clone or multiply your favourite Propagate blackberry plants. This is called layering.
There are different types of layering methods but they involve the same easy principle:
You bury or cover a part of a stem with soil.
This causes the plant to grow roots along the stem.
You then cut the rooted stem top from the mother plant, in order to create a new plant.
Making a perfect copy of your favourite plant.
Tip Layering:
• Today we are going to look at tip layering. For blackberries this method is easy to do and has a very high success rate compared to other methods (such as taking cuttings).
• So if you want to grow some of your own food, blackberries are a good place to start as they are hardy and easy to propagate.
• In nature blackberries propagate by growing long canes or stems, which then eventually bend over causing their tips to touch the ground.
• Blackberry plants spread themselves by rooting these tips into the ground, causing new plants to form.
Tip layering takes advantage of this natural process, but with a bit more order and organisation.
What You Are Aiming To Do
So what you are going to do is get your single blackberry plant and use it to create many new plants.
Tip layering will utilise the plants natural process of propagating itself.
The tip layering methods works well when only a small number of new plants are needed, but it is very reliable.
What You Will Need
1. A single blackberry plant 2. A good number of plant pots 3. An ample amount of garden soil 4. Garden gloves 5. A pair of secateurs 6. A trowel 7. A watering can
Plant Pot Preparation
Gather a good number of plant pots and clean them thoroughly.
Have a good amount of garden soil nearby ready to use.
Now half fill each pot with garden soil, leaving enough space for the new stems to fit it.
Then fill a watering can full of water ready to use later on.
Tip Layering
Tip layering works by pushing the very tip of a stem from the blackberry plant underground and into the soil.
1. All you need to do is bend a long & healthy looking stem down so that the tip touches the ground. Then strip off some branches at the end to encourage root growth.
2. Then place the stem’s tip in the prepared plant pot and cover with plenty of soil so it does not spring back up or move around. . You can use a peg or put a stone on to prevent this (but I prefer the soil method).
3. Then water well & wait for the roots to develop
Wait For The Roots To Grow
After 3–4 weeks the roots should have grown in the new pot of soil.
You can check if this is the case by gently pulling on the stem to feel if there is any resistance.
If some roots have grown and you are satisfied, then cut the tip layer from the mother plant.
Creating a whole new blackberry plant.
Separate the new plant approx 30 cm or 1 foot from the pot leaving 2 or 3 sets of leaf branches on, cutting diagonally above a node.
When To Tip Layer
• It is advised to tip layer in Late Summer to Early Autumn. • I would use this 3–4 week period as a minimum to get some roots developed. • But it is argued that you can tip layer all season long. • But a safe way is leaving the tips covered in the pots through Winter & by Spring there should be a well established root system. • How long does tip layering actually take? • Then you can separate the new plant from the mother plant. • How long do you really need to leave the tips in the pots before cutting it from the mother plant. • How Long? depends on many factors but .. • As mentioned earlier it takes around 3–4 weeks for the tips to root. • You don’t want to separate it too early and negatively affect its growth.
Calculation
Hopefully the newly potted blackberry plants will come out in Spring and show some new green growth.