How to Propagate Black Raspberries

Often confused with blackberries, black raspberries are perhaps the least understood of all the bramble fruits. They are harder to find in the store than their more widely cultivated counterparts and can be quite expensive. Once you taste the deep, sweet flavor of a black raspberry, you will be hooked. Black raspberry plants often propagate themselves by natural tip layering. If you prepare the plant properly, you can make several new plants through tip layering.

Trowel
Watering can
Pruners
Garden gloves

Instructions

- 1
  Cut off the tip of at least one new cane from a healthy, well-established black raspberry plant. This will encourage lateral growth and give you more tips for layering. Wait until late summer, giving the plant time to grow.
- 2
  Take the tips of the canes you are going to propagate and gently bend them to the ground.
- 3
  Mark a place where they easily reach and dig a hole 4 inches deep. Dig one hole for each tip.
- 4
  Place the tip of a cane into a hole. The tip should be pointing down.
- 5
  Cover tip with good garden soil. If the soil you dug up is not suitable, you may want to amend it with compost.
- 6
  Firmly press the soil around the tips.
- 7
  Moisten the soil around the new tip layers.
- 8
  Allow tips to root. This will take a few weeks, but it is fine to wait until spring. The tip will curve up and send a shoot above ground. The roots will form underground at the curve.
- 9
  Cut the new plant off the cane from the parent plant. Leave about 6 inches of old cane on the new plant.
- 10
  Dig a circle around the new plant, 4 to 6 inches in diameter should be enough. Also make sure it is deep enough to go under the new roots.
- 11
  Scoop the new plant out of the ground with a trowel. You now have a new black raspberry plant. You can pot it and give it away, or plant it in the ground to enjoy even more black raspberries from your yard.

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