blackberries/raspberries

[simple life]

HOw hard are these to grow, I am in zonw 6a and would love to get started on some of these. The only shrubs I have been able to find are blueberry bushes, those are in every nursery but no one has the blackberries so I was wondering if they were not as hardy maybe.
If I can find some, anyone have any specific advice I would need to know, other than the birds getting to them.

 

[patandchickens]

Wrong time of year. You don't generally buy the bramble fruits as big potted plants or shrubs, you buy them as bareroot canes to be planted in the fall. Well at least I *think* it's in the fall, I can't say I've actually bought any myself

Anyhow hang in there (and check your favorite catalogs too) and they will show up, I promise. For this summer, find a good pick-yer-own

Pat

 

[simple life]

Thank you, that would explain why I can't find them
It will be something to look forward to in the fall.

 

[silkiechicken]

Best of luck! You are free to take any of my black berry bushes. They are a lovely invasive weed that can grow 10 feet in a week and cover whole buildings in one year. At least they give wonderful berries for one month of the year despite trying to kill them!

 

[simple life]

It sounds like one of those low budget horror movies. So if we don't hear from you for a while is it safe to assume they invaded your bedroom one night while you were sleeping?

 

[DrakeMaiden]

It is my understanding that blackberries are particularly easy to grow here in the PNW. I don't know that they are quite so invasive in other parts of the country.

Here you find them in alleyways, untended fields, well actually just about anywhere there is soil.

I am a big fan of a plant that will provide food with absolutely no tending (again, that may just hold true here in the PNW). So blackberries are the only invasive weeds that I don't try to get rid of.

 

[simple life]

What are your thoughts on planting them in a wooden frame raised bed ? Would they be easier to control. I haven't heard of anyone in our area having trouble with berries being invasive, I actually don't know of anyone who even grows them. The thing is I would have to be able to find some. I can't find any around here.I would have to get them from a catalog or something. Unless anyone here would be interested in selling some.

 

[rockytopsis]

Tame blackberries are not as invasive as wild ones. I have a stand above my garden that I have been maintaining for about 15 years now. If you order out of a catalogue you will get the tame variety. They are usually sweeter and bigger berries.

 

[Tutter]

I agree DrakeMaiden, though we periodically do have to reclaim access roads, etc. from the berries. Other than that we have a policy...they leave us alone, and give us gallons and gallons of berries, and we don't work ourselves into a lather trying futilely to bother them.

I've had a different experience than you, Rockytopsis.

We have 2 types which grow everywhere....what we have, and what starts down the road, then we have them in the garden from nurseries. (Dh thought we needed to do that. )

The one down the road has large and beautiful berries, but the flavor is so-so.

The ones in the garden are a good size, and taste much better. Very pleasant.

But the ones we have everywhere, while the berries aren't as large as either of the other 2, have the most amazing flavor I've had from a blackberry. They are head and shoulders above the garden ones, or any of the ones I've tasted from other people's gardens.

I'd like to point at soil or some such, but the ones down the road share soil with some, and aren't even close in flavor, and the really good ones grow all over the property, and in different conditions from one acre to another.

As for me, I just eat what I can get my hands on! :happy_flower

 

[DrakeMaiden]

Interesting observations, Tutter! Now you've got me thinking . . .

We have two kinds of blackberries that grow invasively on our property (not counting the type I was told was a native berry, which is a weak producer and possibly not a true blackberry). The two invasive ones are himalayan blackberries and cutleaf blackberries. I prefer the himalayan ones, which I think you were describing, Tutter, as the flavorful ones. The leaves are broader.

But I haven't taken the time to properly id any of them, besides the cutleaf ones (because when I moved in they were unfamiliar to me, having been raised on the himalayan variety).

Now I think we are officially off-topic, non?

I think a raised bed would be great for growing blackberries, but I personally wouldn't go through the effort of building a raised bed just for them unless my soil were poor. I would expect that in other parts of the country that they would need thinning every once in a while like raspberries, so you could keep them under control in that manner???