Perhaps every bright plant has a modest double. For a rose, it's a peony. Cherries have cherries. In the shadow of fragrant sweet raspberries, a blackberry lurks. It is amazing why it is grown: watery berries, spines are larger, the bushes are huge and climbing. This is not so. Delicate blackberries ripen when the raspberries have left. By this time, I already want something else. In addition, not all blackberry varieties are inferior to raspberries in sweets - Agavam is close to raspberries in sugar content, and even exceeds in terms of some vitamins. And is this double so modest or is he just a "dark horse"?
History of growing Agaveam blackberry variety
It was not in vain that when I became acquainted with the variety, an association arose with the word “wigwam. As it turned out, the Indians really have to do with this sort of blackberry. The originator John Perkins (Ipswich, Massachusetts) named the blackberry variety in honor of the Agawam Indian tribe more than one hundred and fifty years ago. Since 1865, over eighty years, the variety has been considered the best in performance from the early blackberry varieties in the United States. Due to its unpretentiousness, productivity, balanced taste and composition of berries, it has become widespread for production on an industrial scale. Since 2006, the blackberry Agawam has been included in the State Register since 2006, and everyone is listed as the access region - from the North to the Far East.
Grade description
Blackberries Agawam is an early ripening variety. This is a dessert variety. Berries are also used for processing and freezing. The bush is not sprawling, medium-sized. Shoots fall like an arch, thick, in the cut they have a five-sided shape. The shoots of the first year are brown-green, the biennial shoots are brown. Prickly bush. Spikes are dense, brown, medium in size, curved down. The leaves are green, heavily pubescent. The flowers are large, white, collected in inflorescences, bisexual, self-pollinated. The flowering and fruiting of Agawam is stretched over time, so the crop is harvested in several stages.
Agawama flowering bushes look rather modest
The berries are oval, medium in size, weighing 4.5-5.0 grams. The peduncle is short, slightly prickly. Unripe green berries, ripened black, sweet and sour, in the hot summer more sweet, with a delicate aroma. The fruit is edible. The tasting score of fresh berries is 3.5 points, after processing - 4.0.
Agawama bush always pleases a skilled gardener with a harvest
Characteristics of blackberry varieties Agawam
The average yield is 99.8 centners of berries per hectare. For more than eighty years, agaves have maintained leadership among industrial varieties of blackberries in the United States in the 19th and 20th centuries due to productivity, frost resistance and unpretentiousness. Bushes tolerate short frosts well up to 25-30 aboutC, do not require shelter for the winter, grow on any soil. Fruits equally well in lighted and shaded areas.
Video: Agavam benefits
In the shade, fruit bearing is a little late in time. Plants tolerate heat worse. They have medium drought tolerance. Of course, in hot summers with limited watering, the berries will be sweeter, but this will affect the size of the berries. However, with waterlogging and thickening of plantings, the bushes may be affected by didimella (purple spotting), and the berries by gray rot. Of the pests, weevils do the most harm to the weevils (weevil).
Diseases and pests of Agaveam blackberry
Didimella or purple spotting develops with high humidity in thickened plantings of blackberries and raspberries. The disease is caused by Didymella applanata fungi. Young shoots, offspring, petioles and buds of the plant are more affected. Leaves are less commonly affected. In the initial stages of the disease, purple spots appear on the stem. Less flowers are formed on the plant, the ovary does not form. The kidneys dry out, foci of necrosis appear on the leaves, they dry and fall off.
Didimella hits blackberries and raspberries
For the prevention of purple spotting follow agrotechnical recommendations:
- thin out blackberry bushes;
- sprouted shoots after harvesting are immediately removed;
- in time remove and destroy weak and diseased plants;
- destroy weeds around bushes;
- in autumn, fallen leaves are removed and burned;
- in the spring, bushes are carefully treated with a 2% solution of copper sulfate or Bordeaux liquid.
When bushes are formed on trellises, the risk of fungal infections is significantly reduced. In such cases, the stems are almost baked, removing all the lower branches. And the upper part of the bush remains lush, and this does not affect yield.
Gray rot (Botrytis cinerea) is also caused by fungi. The disease manifests itself in the form of gray rot on berries, although all the aerial organs of the plant are affected. For treatment, antifungal drugs are used:
- Rovral Aquaflo;
- Switch
- Gates;
- Teldor;
- Horus.
All fungicides are toxic to one degree or another for people, warm-blooded and bees, so it is necessary to use these drugs in strict accordance with the instructions. General recommendations include the application of drugs before flowering or after, so as not to cause damage to pollinating insects, treatment in calm and not rainy weather.
The causative agent of gray rot quickly becomes resistant to a specific fungicide, so it is often necessary to change drugs or combine treatment with biological methods of control: add a concentrate of competing non-pathogenic fungi Trichodermin to the soil.
Blackberry rot
Planting healthy bushes in a new place gives a good effect. And in areas previously affected by pathogenic fungi, vegetables are grown: solanaceous, onion, garlic, spicy herbs. Agrotechnical recommendations for the prevention of gray rot are similar to those for the prevention of didimella. In compliance with agricultural standards and regular crop rotation, it is possible to minimize losses from diseases.
The pests of blackberries and raspberries are common, but most often Agave is affected by a weevil. This is a beetle 2-3 mm in size, black-brown on thin long legs. Adult female beetles lay eggs in pedicels. Young beetle larvae devour buds, so the yield of affected bushes decreases. The second generation of beetles appears in late July, feeds on leaves of host plants, and with the onset of cold weather leaves for wintering. Beetles winter in the surface layers of the soil and in fallen leaves. When eliminating plant debris under the bushes, pests are also destroyed. In case of significant pest damage, Aktellik type chemical protection preparations are used.
Weevil - the main enemy of the blackberry Agwam
Features of planting and cultivating varieties
Blackberries are planted both in autumn and spring. They dig planting pits 60x80 in size and 60 cm deep. Blackberries prefer well-fertilized soils, so they immediately put a bucket of humus or compost into the hole, two or three tablespoons of superphosphate, a half-liter can of ash, mix everything, plant a bush, water it and mulch humus from above. Then weeds are weeded and watered if necessary.
Video: About Agawam Blackberry Growing
It is important to pay attention to the formation of the bush. It is necessary to limit the growth of shoots, pinch the tops. In this case, the fruiting is larger, and the berries are larger, and harvesting is easier. Cut bushes in the spring. When pruning in the fall, injured branches can overwinter worse. In the summer, after harvesting, frigid branches are immediately cut out, since a new crop will be formed on the shoots of substitution.
One of the indisputable advantages of the variety is frost resistance, thanks to which blackberry bushes without shelter winter safely. Spring chills, aggravated by the wind, cause little trouble. But even this can be corrected by further circumcision of the affected areas.
Blackberries are propagated by root offspring or cuttings, by dropping drooping branches, later, as they take root, they are separated from the mother bush. In some cases, it is necessary to limit the particularly rapid propagation of Agawam.
Reviews
Blackberry Agawam bred more than a hundred years ago. The origin of the variety is not known for certain. It is assumed that the variety was obtained by hybridization between different wild-growing American species. Berries of this variety, when fully ripened, are very sweet, without acid. Unripened rather grassy than sour. The name of the variety is associated with the sweet fruits of agave.
The Agawam berry is not large. Its average weight is 3 g, as with most varieties of raspberries. However, yields are incomparably higher. An adult five-year bush can produce more than 10 kg of berries. The bush of the plant is erect. Shoots can reach a length of 2.5 m. The ends of the shoots are drooping. If the size of the berries is inferior to other varieties of cultivated blackberries, then this is one of the most frost-resistant varieties. Its shoots endure up to -30 degrees C.
The berry is black with a glossy sheen. The shape of the prefabricated drupe in the form of a small elongated truncated cone. In a berry brush 10-12 berries. Replacement shoots are powerful, faceted. The adult shoot has a circular cross section. First, the shoots are light green, by autumn they become reddish, then dark brown. Spikes on the shoot are rare, but durable, slightly curved. There are spikes along the central vein of the leaf plates, on the back of the leaf.
The leaf of the plant is decorative. Leaf plates diverge in five rays from a common point like a leaf of a girl’s grape or horse chestnut. Each plate of the beam is quite large, in shape resembles a boat with a rounded stern and a very sharp bow formed from two converging concave sides of the arches.
The plant blooms in large milky-white flowers, collected in erect brushes. The bush blooms beautifully and violently. Flowers in the brush diverge in all directions by the Christmas tree. The berries ripen together in early August.
This blackberry is practically not affected by diseases. Unlike many blackberries, it gives offspring, with which it multiplies. Apical layering can also be propagated if artificially bent substitution shoots, but rooting does not go well. Only ten percent of layering is rooted, and even later they grow poorly. The root system of offspring is usually undeveloped. To get a standard seedling, you need to grow in the school.
Yakimov. From: Samara//club.wcb.ru/index.php?showtopic=63
Caring for a blackberry is almost the same as for raspberries. While the bushes are small and not yet fruiting, clippings of the shoots are not produced. When fruiting begins, annually after harvesting, fruit-bearing shoots (shoots from which the crop was harvested) are cut. They are cut immediately after collection. Leaving shoots of substitution - that is, that will bear fruit in the next year. Replacement shoots emerge from the ground in May - June. Thus, the bush is renewed every year. Fruiting has just begun on your bushes, a few berries is not a crop, perhaps there are still flower buds on the shoots, so try to leave it for the summer.
It is necessary to cover the shoots remaining after cutting for the winter, regardless of frost resistance. Even if the variety is quite winter-hardy and the shoots do not freeze, the flower buds are more sensitive to frost, that is, a fairly developed, ready-to-bear bush may not produce crops or produce several berries due to freezing of flower buds. Judging by the fact that some of your bushes are powerful, they are ready for fruiting. Not sheltering bushes for the winter, if November is without snow, and frosts below -20 degrees C can lead to freezing of the aerial parts of some varieties.
Yakimov. From: Samara//club.wcb.ru/index.php?showtopic=63
Yes, the agave is prickly. Yes, southern varieties will definitely be tastier, larger and almost all without thorns in their south. As well as apples, pears, grapes, apricots and all-all-all. But for our conditions, this is so far the only variety that can be left uncovered in autumn and not be fooled whether the crop will be next year or not. Harvest will be. The tops will freeze and that's it. As for the taste of berries, then, as you know, tastes are not debated. Agawam is flying away from me. Children climb into thorns, nothing can stop.
Hare. From: Moscow and Taldomsky district of Moscow region//forum.prihoz.ru/viewtopic.php?t=4856&start=150
My husband did not allow me to uproot Agavas: he loves more raspberries. I yoked at the thorns. I read the advertisements and decided to replace it with a studless one, I took it from a neighbor, because she climbed into her garden. She traded for black raspberries and assured me that her blackberry was uncovered. This fall I specifically went to her site through the netting and looked: her whole blackberry is under the spadbond. So I think it's too early to clean the Agaves. They do not seek good from good.
a la la From: Moscow//forum.prihoz.ru/viewtopic.php?t=4856&start=150
Among gardeners, heated debate about the benefits of raspberries over blackberries, about the preference for growing modern unshipable blackberry varieties relative to prickly ones, does not quench. All this only pleases: it means there is a plot; there is something to plant him; and there are those who are ready to consume what is grown on the site. Everything is eaten in the season, and the preparations are simply swept away!
