What Is The Easiest Berry You Grow ?

Nyboy said:

I want to add some berry bushes to my garden. Right now I have blue berry that have not really done anything, and mulberry. Looking for fool proof berry without thorns. Zone 5/6 heavy clay hot and humid summer.

Click to expand...

Fertilize your blueberries. They should be easy-they need netting or the birds will eat every one before you see it turn blue. Thornless blackberries are easy along with raspberries. Strawberries are easy except for the weeding. Store bought strawberries have taken over first place over apples as the most toxic fruit because of pesticides, etc. And it is going to get worse.

I absolutely hate the store-bought strawberries, no taste whatsoever. Especially the big ones. They are even worse than store-bought tomatoes and that's saying something.

When I was in Denmark I used gooseberries for jelly. Never tried to eat one raw.

Be careful which blackberry you get, ours have so many fish hook like thorns I call the =m the devil thorn plant. They get hold of your clothes or SKIN and there is no getting away without help. (I know from experience.) They do have thorn less out there I want to try - as we are digging out the thorny ones. Gave up on strawberries too. The grass took over.

What ??? nobody is growing raspberries, easy to look after and easy to pick. I've tried explaining my method but found it much easier with pictures.
This is how I grow mine in a slightly raised bed...
First decide how long your bed is to be, put a T-bar at each end with a spreader board down the middle, drill holes in the ends of the crossbar and string clothes line wire around and tighten, to keep taunt, the spreader board stops it from caving in.

Plant as many canes as will fit in a staggered row, you won't get fruit the first year, concentrate on growing some healthy cane and as long as possible, the wire will keep them contained or they can be tied to the spreader board.

In the fall late October for me when the new canes bend easily without snapping, start on one side and start overlapping and weaving each cane as you come to it over and around the next one. This is what it will look like.


This is what it looks like in early spring on both sides of the spreader board.


Sometimes a cane will let loose but they are easily tied back in.

Not the best picture but the raspberries are at just the right height for picking, new canes are trained to grow in the center next to the spreader board. When the berries are finished it's time to cut the old canes out, just clip below the wire and remove. The old cut canes are easy to distinguish from the new ones being shorter, clip them out. Those are Spanish bluebells growing with the raspberries, I though I had got them all when we renewed the bed with a different variety of raspberry (Tulameen) but alas they came back with a vengeance, so there they stay.
NOTE: The height of your T-bar should be at a height that is a comfortable height for picking.
Annette

I did not mention the raspberries, our have thorns just not as bad as the black berries. Do they have a thorn less raspberry?

@Carol Dee , yes I believe there are some thornless varieties of raspberries but I'm not familiar with which varieties. Tulameen doesn't have thorns, but prickles it does have, never found them to be a problem though. This variety has one of the biggest berries I've seen, flavor isn't too shabby either.
Annette

Nice trellising. You'r pretty serious about these vines.

The easiest berry I grow is a Thomson Seedless!
I've just pruned, the larger one is from a cutting that grew over the fence of our Church in Sacramento, California, the smaller is a vine wife brought home,

You can see the shaping of the Trunk and Cordon, I let it grow a bit long before getting on to shaping. I'll use the trellising you've shown, except I'll affix it to the building, there is a small trench running in front that carries gray water and there is a chipmunk type bum that lives around here that can climb the trellis if set into the ground.

valley ranch said:

The easiest berry I grow is a Thomson Seedless!
I've just pruned, the larger one is from a cutting that grew over the fence of our Church in Sacramento, California, the smaller is a vine wife brought home,

You can see the shaping of the Trunk and Cordon, I let it grow a bit long before getting on to shaping. I'll use the trellising you've shown, except I'll affix it to the building, there is a small trench running in front that carries gray water and there is a chipmunk type bum that lives around here that can climb the trellis if set into the ground.

Click to expand...

Grapes?