- Dewberry: origin and properties
- Planting dewberries: How it works
- The most important care measures
- Harvesting and Use of Dewberries
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The dewberry is a wild native relative of the blackberry. We introduce the little-known wild fruit and show how the vitamin-rich fruit can be cultivated and processed.
In late summer, the dewberry forms edible, blue-frosted fruits, which are particularly appreciated by wild fruit lovers. In this article you will learn everything about the properties, cultivation, care and harvest time of the prickly blackberry.
Dewberry: origin and properties
The dewberry (Rubus caesius) is also called field blackberry or currant and is closely related to raspberry (Rubus idaeus) and blackberry ( Rubus fruticosus) related. They all belong to the large rose family (Rosaceae). The dewberry is native to Europe and North Asia and is found scattered in Central Europe in alluvial forests, on river banks and fields. The small shrubs reach a height of 30 to 80 cm, occasionally 100 cm. They spread out with several meters long, small prickly, prostrate shoots. Rather than stinging, the short spikes tend to scratch on contact, which is how the dewberry got its name.
The blue frosted, green rods easily form roots on the tips of the shoots when they come into contact with the ground and therefore quickly become whole thickets of dewberries. The shoots are alternately covered with threefold, coarsely and unequally toothed leaves. Between May and June, the field bramble has five-petalled, white flowers that are about 2 cm in size. After pollination, cluster drupes form, which, like blackberries, are made up of 5 to 20 fairly large individual fruits. When they ripen between July and October, the fruits of the dewberry turn black, their surface is mealy and has a bluish frosting. In autumn, the blackberry plant develops a pretty orange-red autumn colour, which, together with the blue fruits, creates an attractive contrast.
Planting dewberries: How it works
The hardy dewberry prefers nutrient-rich, moist to wet, loamy and calcareous locations in sunny to semi-shady locations. She survivesshort-term flooding and is considered an indicator plant for soil compaction. The ideal planting time for dewberries is in late autumn between October and the end of November or alternatively in early spring in March. Before planting, the soil should be enriched with organic material, such as mature compost, and dug up over a large area. The dewberry can be planted under trees or without competition in a damp or wet corner of the garden. Since the plant can spread quickly in the right location, only a few dewberries are needed to cover an area. A planting distance of 80 to 100 cm between the individual plants initially gives the dewberries enough space to develop. The plants quickly grow together into a thicket and soon can no longer be identified as different plants. When planting, dewberries should not be planted deeper into the ground than they were previously in the pot.
At a glance: planting dewberries
- Select a sunny to semi-shady spot with moist, loamy and calcareous soil
- Planting period: October to the end of November or March
- Dig up the soil and enrich it with organic material
- Planting distance: 80 to 100 cm
- Plant no deeper than the plant was in the pot
Tip: Unfortunately, blackberries can quickly become a nuisance. If you want to fight the dewberry, you should therefore have staying power. In order to get rid of the plant permanently, all shoots and roots must be carefully removed, because dewberries can grow again from the remaining root and shoot pieces. They root up to two meters deep and then sprout again from these root remains. The best control strategy is therefore to completely dig up the plant, dig up as many root parts as possible and later repeatedly remove runners.
The most important care measures
Dewberries are nutrient-loving small shrubs, which is why they benefit greatly from regular, balanced fertilization. It is important here that no pure nitrogen fertilizers are used, as the dewberry reacts here with strong shoot growth and proliferates even more instead of bearing fruit. A predominantly organic long-term fertilizer such as our Plantura organic universal fertilizer is ideally suited. The animal-free fertilizer granules are distributed around the dewberry and, if possible, superficiallyincorporated. It decomposes over months, slowly making the nutrients it contains available to the plants with no risk of leaching.
In hot and very dry summer phases, dewberries should be watered regularly, especially if they have just been planted and have not yet been able to develop an extensive root system. Dewberries are extremely tolerant of pruning, but do not necessarily have to be pruned back to fruit. However, if the dewberries get too sprawling, the rods can be shortened without hesitation.
Harvesting and Use of Dewberries
The dewberry develops edible fruits that taste juicy and sweet when they ripen between July and October, but usually extremely sour and not very aromatic. However, ripe dewberries can be processed into a tasty jam or compote. However, the preparation of dewberry liqueur is well-known and particularly popular. The manual harvest is time-consuming because the yield of the bushes is low and the shoots are thorny. Gloves are therefore a sensible protective measure when harvesting dewberries. In the case of wild collections, care should be taken to ensure that in endemic areas of the fox and dog tapeworm (Echinococcus) only fruits with increased growth are harvested, washed thoroughly and heated to at least 60 °C. The dried leaves of the dewberry are used in herbal medicine in a similar way to blackberry leaves, especially for intestinal problems such as diarrhea, but also for inflammation and skin rashes.
The aromatic and attractive Japanese grape (Rubus phoenicolasius) is also found in the genus Rubus. We introduce you to the little-known plant and give tips for successful cultivation in your own garden.