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Planting
Days to maturity
Seasonal yields
Sow indoors · Direct sow · Transplant outdoors
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Plant · P-022
Blackberry
Rubus fruticosus
Blackberry is a thorny, fast-spreading bramble whose canes fruit in their second year, then die back after cropping. The berries are the main draw - eaten fresh or cooked into jams and syrups from midsummer into late autumn - and the young leaves make a tea while spring shoots can be peeled and eaten raw. It roots wherever a cane tip touches the ground and suckers from its base, so a planting spreads into a thicket unless the margin is mown or grazed. Established plants tolerate deep shade, wind and poor soil, though fruiting drops off away from full sun.
Record at a glance
Growing profile
- Sun
- Full Sun · Partial Sun · Shade
- USDA zone
- USDA 5–8
- Soil
- Sand · Loam · Clay
- Moisture
- Dry · Moist · Well-Drained
Vertical layer
Shrub- Soil pH
- 4.5–7.5
- Plant type
- Perennial
- Mature height
- 3–5 ft
- Mature spread
- 3–5 ft
- Plant spacing
- 24–36 in
- Root type
- Rhizome
- Spread pattern
- Both
Keep exploring
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The deeper layer
Plan what comes next.
- Primary
- Locked ecological function
- Secondary
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- Byproduct
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Behind the record
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