Propagating blackberries with tip layering

I recently found five branches with new roots on my thornless blackberry bush in the polytunnel. I decided to plant them and now I'm just waiting for them to grow!

Små kvistar med kluster av vita tjocka rötter.

The thick, white roots are developing. They stretch from the branch to the ground.

 

I probably don't need five new blackberry plants. But my blackberry bushes have already started to develop new roots and I feel like I should use every opportunity I get! I think I will go for a couple of new plants after all. I could always give a few of them away as gifts.

This variety is called Black Satin, it's a thornless variety. The plant is growing in my large polytunnel and seems to like it there. The berries outside ripen in September-October, but they usually get a good head start in the polytunnel of course.

 

More about berries: Take cuttings from blackcurrant hedges 

 

En hand håller i fem sticklingar av björnbär som har rötter i ändarna.

These five blackberry branches (the Black Satin variety) have started to sprout roots. I decided to plant them in pots before winter comes.

 

Tip layering

I recently decided to cut down my thornless blackberry bush in the polytunnel. That's when I noticed that a few of the branches had developed new roots. This happens when the branches bend to the ground and touch the soil.  The new little aerial roots start to grow straight from the tips, that's why the process is called tip layering.

It's really easy to propagate blackberries this way. All you need to do is to cut the branch off a bit above the roots, plant them in pots and then water. You can do this all season long. You can help the tip layering process along by bending parts of the plant down toward to the ground and adding a rock on top. The roots will start growing shortly after!

 

Två krukor med sticklingar av björnbär.

The new plants are standing upside down in the pots, since the roots sprouted from the tips. The plant adapts quickly and will start to grow in the right direction soon.

 

I put my new blackberry plants in pots filled with partially decomposed compost and then watered them. I plan on digging the pots down in my polytunnel during winter, and then we will see what happens to them when spring comes!

 

If you want to read and see more from my garden, check out Sara's Kitchen Garden here:

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Good luck with your blackberries!
/Sara Bäckmo

25. October 2021

2 responses to “Propagating blackberries with tip layering”

  1. Greg says:

    This looks great! Thanks for the post. I'm new to tip-layering so maybe this is a beginner question, but... when you pot them up, aren't all the nodes are pointed upside-down then? In your picture it would appear so. I guess the first leaf growth, from that rooted cutting, would indeed be from 'upside down' nodes... but then, over time, new canes would develop and these would be 'right-side-up'. I wonder if inserting the cuttings into a container (or ground) at a slant / diagonally (so existing and new-growing leaves can face upwards) has any better or worse % success rate for blackberry tip-layering? I'll be using tip-layering a lot, this year, so thanks for any further input you can share on this process.

  2. Ljiljana says:

    As they say 'gremlins got to your computer' - your link in post about pruning blackberries says: Read more: Propagating blueberries with tip layering. I have plenty blackberries just outside our fence and one by the old watering hole and here they grow like weed - but I have no blueberries and wanted to learn (and than teach my brother who has them) how to propagate blueberries with tip layering.. But.. it was just writing mistake - this is not about BLUEberries... well maybe some other time you will write about blueberries, too. Your English is amazingly good and I enjoy your videos and blog (although English is not my language either) and I understand you perfectly - and more importantly - I am using some of your methods in my little garden and they work great! Thank you Sara - and have a lovely holiday season with your family!

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