The American state of Illinois, with its hot, humid summers, devastating tornadoes and winter snowstorms, is home to many modern garden blackberry varieties.
It was there, at the University of Carbondale, by hybridizing the Darrow variety with Thornfrey and breeding number US1482, that the superstar of Russian gardens, Black Satin, was obtained. Zoned initially for Illinois and California, she very quickly took control of planting areas throughout Europe and acclimatized in Russia.
Description of the variety
Let's start by describing the variety of berries. Black Satin in form occupies an intermediate position between kumaniks and dews. This is a semi-creeping variety, the main characteristics of which are collected in the table:
Habit | Strong shrub, not prone to thickening. Does not form root offspring. |
Escapes | Shoots are fast-growing, with a round cross-section, thornless, very long - up to 5 meters. At the beginning of growth - erect. When they grow beyond the 1.5 meter mark, they begin to creep. Young vines are green and turn brown as they mature. Second years are brown, very tough and thick - up to 3 cm in diameter. The leaf is complex, serrate, from 3-5 leaf plates. |
Bloom | The flowers are pink when blooming, the next day they fade to pale pink or white. |
Fruiting | Exceptionally abundant. The berries are large, up to 8 grams, black, with a satin gloss, which is why the name of the variety appeared. The taste is excellent, sweet and sour, with a strong blackberry aroma. Maturation is extended, from August to October. Some fruits catch the first snow. It begins bearing fruit the next year after planting. |
Sustainability | Frost resistance is moderate, up to -22⁰C. The tops of the shoots can freeze slightly. Shelter is required for the winter. May be affected by gray mold. |
Yield | Very high - up to 25 kg of berries per bush per season. |
Purpose of fruits | Universal. |
Transportability and keeping quality | Both are low. Ripe fruits are soft, quickly lose their presentation and deteriorate. |
Thus, the Black Satin variety has many advantages:
- large berries of excellent taste and universal use;
- high productivity;
- spineless shoots;
- controlled density of the bush.
The disadvantages include:
- poor keeping and transportability of fruits;
- insufficient frost resistance;
- instability to gray rot.
However, these disadvantages can be easily corrected. For example, gray rot affects overripe berries, and it is enough to remove them from the bush in time to avoid this. Extended fruiting allows you to approach the plant every three days and take a small amount of fruits, immediately eating or putting them into processing.
With regard to transportability, according to some observations, this indicator increases significantly with the age of the plant. A berry from an old bush of a denser structure, does not choke so easily and, when deftly picked, can survive a short journey.
Black Satin's penchant for gradual yields is both a plus and a minus. In regions with an early onset of winter, the variety may not have time to show everything it is capable of.
Planting and leaving
It is better to choose a place for planting Black Satin blackberries that is sunny, protected from drafts, with light fertile soil. This variety does not tolerate stagnant water, therefore, drainage must be done on wet soils.
It is better to place seedlings in a permanent place in spring. However, if the planting material is purchased in the fall, it does not matter: when planting a plant in the fall, you need to take care of its shelter and care.
The planting pit is prepared in such a way that it is possible to fill it up to half with good mature compost. Already when disembarking, you need to take into account the need to tie up blackberry lashes and make a support.
The vigor of the Black Satin variety is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, this allows good harvests. On the other hand, it creates difficulties for sheltering an adult plant for the winter. The shoots of this blackberry bend very badly. There are two ways out.
"Education" of the correct position of the vine
Do not allow the plant to push upright shoots too far. Already when they reach a length of 35-40 cm, it is necessary to bend the twig to the ground and so fix it. When the vine is 1.2 meters long, you can free it and put it horizontally on the trellis. For the winter, the bent shoot can be easily removed and placed under the shelter.
American pruning
At home, the Black Satin blackberry is formed in the form of a compact bush according to the following scheme:
- in the middle of summer, at annual growths, pinch the tops at a height of 110 cm, stimulating the growth of lateral shoots;
- in early spring, before the buds awaken, the lateral shoots are normalized: those growing below the 45-centimeter mark are removed from the ground, the rest are shortened to a length of 40 cm;
- in the fall, the branches that bear fruit are cut out.
It is necessary to remove the spent "fruit" in any case. Blackberry vine, like raspberry, has a two-year development cycle, and after the second year it will only thicken the bush and promote the spread of gray rot.
Watering Black Satin blackberries is necessary regularly, especially when pouring fruits. She will respond to drought by chopping berries. Waterlogging of the soil should also be avoided.
To obtain good annual yields, blackberries need to be fed from the third year of life according to the scheme:
- Spring - nitrogen (5 kg of humus and 10 g of urea per 1 m2);
- fall - potassium and phosphorus (100 g of superphosphate and 25 g of potash fertilizers).
Blackberries should not be planted next to raspberries. Being close relatives, raspberries and blackberries suffer from the same diseases, and such a neighborhood can cause an "epidemic".
Diseases and pests
Basically, this variety is resistant to major blackberry diseases. The exception is gray rot, which has already been mentioned. Its causative agent, botrytis gray, is a mold that is used in winemaking.
It can hit the plant already in the flowering phase. If the weather is cold, rainy, whole inflorescences may suffer. In the later stages of the growing season, Botrytis sits on ovaries and fruits. A berry sick with gray rot looks like a rotten one, covered with a gray fluff. Therefore, it is better to take preventive measures in advance than to lose the crop.
- The lower branches should not lie on the ground. Botrytis spores are stored in moist soil.
- The bush must not be allowed to thicken. All vegetative parts of the plant must be ventilated.
- Timely remove ripe berries and remove rotten ones. Finding a diseased shoot, cut it out and burn it.
- In the spring, before flowering, spray the bush with Bordeaux liquid (3% solution).
Of the pests for blackberries, Black Satin, the danger is the blackberry mite. This tiny insect is capable of halving the berry crop. Unlike many other pests, the mite does not hibernate in the soil or under the bark. It settles directly in blackberry buds, and in spring migrates to inflorescences and berries. The fruits affected by this pest do not ripen, remaining reddish.
You can fight this scourge with the drug "Tiovit Jet", which is usually used to treat grapes. Spraying should be done before bud break.
3 facts about blackberry Black Satin
- Researcher Fumiomi Takeda from the Appalachian Research Station has been experimenting with this variety. Blackberries were divided into groups, forming them with a different number of lashes: 3, 6, 9 and 12. The aim of the experiment was to establish whether the number of shoots affects the yield of the plant. The result was curious: in terms of total weight, Black Satin gave absolutely the same result in all groups. The difference was in the size of the berries.
- Working with experienced blackberry plantations Black Satin, the same Fumiomi Takeda invented the swivel trellis. This device allows you to cover the plant for the winter without removing the whips from the garter. It is enough just to transfer it from the "summer" position to the "winter" one.
- It is believed that Black Satin is difficult to breed because it does not produce root suckers. However, the practice of experienced gardeners shows that this variety is easily rooted by the tips of the shoots. A good lower lateral shoot is selected, pressed to the ground, secured with a bracket, buried in. The procedure is performed in the middle of summer. In the fall, you can separate the seedling from the mother plant and place it in a permanent place.
Trellis growing of Black Satin blackberries has a special advantage: it allows you to create beautiful arches on the site, braided with blackberry vines. Given the ability of the variety to preserve foliage for a long time, such a design will not lose its decorative effect until late autumn.