Tell Me All About Raspberries!

[baymule]

Bay when you get your plants I bet they make a good Vodka just like blue berries.

With all the crap we're dealing with trying to buy this house, that sounds pretty darn good right now! Even for a practically non-drinker like myself.....I think I got a bottle of wine in the pantry somewhere......

 

[ninnymary]

Fall Gold are not thornless.

Mary

 

[Jared77]

Is there a thornless yellow variety? Mary did you buy fall gold with the thought it was thornless?

 

[ninnymary]

Jared, I didn't know anything about berries with thorns or thornless. I just bought Fall gold because I like that color of rasberries. I don't really expect my plants to get very big and I have leather gloves which I can use to pick the berries.

Mary

 

[digitS']

I don't have much experience other than gardening near berry jungles all my life. The half-dozen raspberry crowns that I dug up and planted in my yard a couple years ago have done well, invaded my neighbor's yard. She's happy so I've got no complaints ... yet.

This is good raspberry country. There are a few commercial operations. The lovely thornless blackberry struggles thru our too cold winters, however.

In one garden, a neighbor had a nice row of raspberries and planted a blackberry at the end. Over the last 15 years, I have watched the blackberries move down the row, killing the raspberries as they went. His only raspberry is now only one plant, in my garden!

So, the blackberry may die in subzero weather but during the summers, it puts so much pressure on its neighboring raspberry plants that they die out! The 1 raspberry is on its way out. I'm not allowing any more shoots to come up. Next year, the Blackberry may try to take its place but that ain't happening either ... I can reach enuf of those berries for snacking as it is .

@baymule , make sure you have local advice. Your idea of cutting all canes to the ground would only work for fall-bearers. Your climate may not allow for fall-bearing plants to do well through your hot summers. You get to the end of summer and they may not have enough oomph to produce a crop.

Steve

 

[Jared77]

Good to know Mary.

Interesting about the blackberries. I'd have thought it would be the other way around with raspberries choking out blackberries.

 

[baymule]

OK, I will widely separate the blackberries from the raspberries. Blackberries do well in full sun. Do raspberries need full sun or partial sun? Because of our ferocious heat, they might come off the vine already cooked! Hmm....maybe park a fruit jar under the cluster of berries ........

 

[digitS']

The other garden has a neighbor's raspberry/Concord grape jungle to the east and south.

These two can live in ridiculous harmony altho fruit production must suffer. It is only Benjamin Bunny and a few Song Sparrows that can get inside. Expansion by all species is in every direction! After 9 years on the ground nearby, I could have populated acres with cuttings of raspberries and grapes.

All raspberries that I have anything to do with are in full sun.

Steve

 

[thistlebloom]

My gold raspberries are thornless. And in your climate Bay, I would plant them so they only got sun to midday unless you can really lavish the water on them.

 

[baymule]

I don't even have to take notes on all this good advice......just look up this thread and re-read everyone's comments! @thistlebloom I might plant some in full sun and some semi-shaded to see what works best. Never know until you try.