OK, you might find this a silly question, but when planting a bareroot raspberry or blueberry or any other similarly formed berry plant, they have a root ball that obviously needs to be buried. My question is, do you dig a deep hole so the plant and roots go straight down into the hole, with the cane sticking out of the ground?
OR do you dig like a shallow trench hole, and lay the roots in parallel with the ground, and bend the cane upwards? Like an “L” shape.
I’ve seen instructions for both techniques, but which one is really the best way? I would think you’d want to lay them in a trench so that you’d get suckers to come up from the shallow roots.
Also, should the cane be pruned pretty close to the ground to induce new canes to grow?
I’ve heard of folks planting leggy tomato plants using the trench way, because the stem can send out roots if in contact with the soil.
Actually all those are very good questions. I’m not positive on the answers. I think either way will work. As long as you don’t bury them too deep, or too shallow. As far as suckers, well just about impossible to stop. They will come up 6 feet away with some cultivars. I have had them go under 1 foot raised beds to get in, Every year I’m pulling out suckers, and they always come back. It takes a few years to establish, then they sucker like crazy… The suckers come off the crown. I usually dig a hole to fit the rootball. More left, if it goes off that way. I try to plant at the level it was planted at, if you can tell. I would leave canes about 6 to 12 inches high. I think cutting them a little is a good idea to kick start the plant. But you may get some berries if big enough. So just cut a little off. It’s what I do. If a floricane is left, it leafs out and can produce food for the plant, I think leaving them is a good idea. Foliage is going to help any plant. New canes will grow if it’s growing, they will come. Harvest is better the third season. The second season still could be sparse, depends on the cultivar, and how well it established the first year.
I don’t know if the stems can produce roots or not? But these guys usually do not need much care. If watered and in decent soil, they will take off. I know it has a crown and most roots are on the crown. If a cane starts rooting I would think it would form a new crown too. The plants sucker and slowly form a new crown. They stay connected to the old crown too, at least until the new crown is established. Roots are rhizome like, very much like rhizomes.
You can plant anytime if dormant. As long as the ground is workable. Late freezes and frost will not bother them.
Yeah if in the future you want to dig up suckers for trade or moving, realize they will still be attached or could be to the old crown, so you have to cut that root going to the old crown.
Im not sure how well stem cuttings work, but root cuttings work great for raspberries. When I got new plants several years ago, they had very well established roots. I planted the original 10 plants and like 20 root cuttings, 2 between each plant, that I stole before I planted them and almost all came up. With raspberries, even relatively small roots will often throw up a new plant if you handle and plant them properly.
Derek, I wonder if slicing into the ground around each plant with a shovel in about a 2 1/2’ diameter circle would make new bushes sprout up any sooner than just letting them grow as is?
Its an interesting idea, dont think it would hurt anything, might force those extra roots to grow tops… You could probably go even closer, if you wanted to try on an established plant.
This strays a little from the topic but today I stopped at Tractor Supply to pick up some dog food and noticed a new berry display . I’ve never noticed it in past years but they had an interesting selection for a big box store. I can’t remember all of them but some included Desert Gold and Heritage raspberries. Ouachita and Chester, and Arapahoe blackberries. About 5 kinds of grapes and another 5 types of strawberries including white pine berries. They even had Aronia berries which I’ve only ever seen in catalogs. They also had small Chicago hardy figs. The berries were all priced at $4.99 except for the line berries which were $7.99 for 20.
As for trees there was nothing exciting. Just a few standard varieties.
@Drew51, do you have experience growing Boysenberry and Loganberry? Those are 2 other berries tractor supply had that I failed to mention. I always thought of Loganberry as having a wild blackberry flavor but I’ve not actually tasted either of the two. I just layed out the location of my berry trellis and it looks like I’ll have room for a few more berries.
Wondering what the flavors are like and their growth habit vs blackberry and raspberry.
Both are not that hardy. I put a loganberry in and we had the coldest winter ever a few ago, it didn’t make it. I have been growing boysenberry for a bit, It’s hardier, but can be killed to the ground some years. A raspberry-blackberry hybrid. It has a good flavor, more like a blackberry. Also a couple types, I grow the old school, thorny trailing type. Thornless ones are around. I heard they were good too, I think MrClint has one? Mine tends to be tart, I only like it dead ripe, then it’s excellent. I have wyeberry too, which is like a bigger badder boysenberry. At least in my garden. Trailing types that require trellis. Hard to work with trailing thorny plants, they tend to be the best though.
From accounts I have seen Loganberry is supposed to be pretty good and also a raspberry-blackberry hybrid. The original had thorns and is gone. So are wyeberries too, not sure why? Impossible to find. Glad I got one.
Loganberry flavor for me hasn’t been outstanding but rather OK. Boysenberry, on the other hand, is quite tasty. A sweet and sour mix. Both varieties are not that cold hardy although this winter in my area (low of only 5F) I left both uncovered and both are starting to leaf out now with minimal cold damage. I don’t think they can go much lower than 5F though unless you cover them up.
Hey JT!! I would agree with your assessment. My bosenberry looks pretty good, it appears the Wilt Stop is working. I think the problem is drying out, so either cover or spray with Wilt Stop. This product does not work for everything. We got down to -2F this year. Much better than last year! I covered them, and sprayed last year and we got down to -16F and they survived. When one peach tree lost all it’s fruit buds to cold, but the boysenberry plant was fine. They for sure though need protection, what’s awesome is protection works!
JT have you tried Tayberry? Seems even more sensitive, but wow those berries are just outstanding.
Last year as far as taste the usual suspects were good. Columbia Star was better, glad I gave it another year. Loch Ness was tart but when fully ripe was a ball of sugar. Amazing how it changed. Needs a long time on the vine. New Berry was good too, I like it. Marion as expected was excellent, but I have it in a pot, and production was low, and the birds liked this plant! Argh! They got most of them! Siskiyou was too young, berries this year.
The birds paid me back a bit, I have a trailing thornless voluneteer, it has thorns close to the ground, but loses them a foot up. Strange. I may get a few berries off of it. I kept it. Also another thorny upright volunteer I kept. And my intentional raspberry cross between Polka and Anne will fruit this summer. Looking forward to that one! It grew 3 feet tall from seed.
Darrow blackberry is going to produce a few fruit, and it has bright red-pink thorns. They don’'t look like any other blackberry I have seen. Currently the only eastern blackberry I have.
Hey Drew! I have one Tayberry plant from last year but it did not fruit last year and looks suspect to have overwintered this year. I think it will live but probably no fruit. Your wyeberry should fruit this year and I had a few extra starts, so now I have a row of four more wyeberry plants. They do seem more cold hardy. Newberry and boysenberry both look like they could have a good year and neither was covered this winter. Even my Loganberry made it through with minor dieback. Cane borers are what has become my number one problem. I’m going to have to treat a lot of my plants this year to bring that under control, although I really don’t like to use pesticide. I had to replant a lot of blackberries last year, so this year will be the first full year of growth for them. This will be a raspberry replanting year since I lost several patches of raspberries to root rot and fungus due to the rainy summer. Going with Cascade Delight again, Saanich (red), and Brandywine (Purple). I also have four (4) blackberry hybrids that grew well last year and look to have a full growth year this year. They are an erect, thornless blackberry, courtesy of a bird’s digestive tract. SWD was almost missing last year, so hopefully nature has balanced that out. Marion, Siskyou, and Kotata are done…too much effort for the return in fruit.
Thanks for the report. Yes, you have been battling the borers! I had one cane infected and I just removed it today. I cut my raspberries all down last year. Trying to renew the patch. On raspberries Josephine is new. This berry is huge! Good tasting too. See how it does. I heard reports it is a low producer.
Hello, @jtburton, from a fellow Kentucky member. Are you in the Cincinnati area? I see on your profile that you grow various berry plants where you’re at. We have some wild blackberry and raspberry canes on our farm. But, we’re adding some blueberry and gooseberry plants in a few weeks. Namely, Bluecrop, Blueray, Patriot, and Nelson blues, and Poorman, Hinnomaki Red and Jeanne gooses. Plus, we’re getting some Romance Series tart cherries- Romeo, Juliet, and Crimson Passion.
What varieties are you growing, if you don’t mind me asking, and how have they been doing where you’re at? Also, how have your cherry bushes done?
Yes, I live in Boone County, Northern most county in KY…actually North of Cincinnati…
I have blueberries (northern highbush and rabbiteye), gooseberries, black currants, several varieties of raspberries and blackberries, and a few failing dwarf cherry trees. As you can see from the list below, there are a lot of variations. Blueberries require soil amendments to make the pH lower, but once you have the hang of it they are easy and so far pest free. The Rabbiteye varieties fruit each year now that they are larger (more cold sensitive). Most of the Western Trailing blackberries require covering during the winter. Really cold winters (-10F or lower) generally starts killing some plants. Probably wet clay soil causes more plant deaths in my garden though, especially for raspberries. You need to keep them elevated and pick varieties that are root rot tolerant. Gooseberries get mildew each season but come back. Don’t even think about growing grapes… too much work. You’ll need to clear the wild blackberries and black raspberries from nearby on your farm. They harbor plant viruses that will eventually infect your plants if not removed. Let me know if you have any specific questions about the varieties.
BB = Blueberry (Patriot, Razz, Pink Lemonade, Reka, Tifblue, Powderblue, Kabluey)
BY = Boysenberry (Thorny)
CD = Cascade Delight Raspberry
CG = Cascade Gold Raspberry
CS = Columbia Star Blackberry
CU = Currants (x2)
FN = Fantasia Blackberry
MC = Mac Black Raspberry
HB = Hybrid Blackberry
GB = Gooseberry [Poorman, Jeanne, and Hinnonmaki Red]
GC = Glencoe Purple Raspberry
JR = Jewel Black Raspberry
KT = Kotata Blackberry {gone]
LB = Loganberry
LN = Loch Ness Blackberry
MB = Marionberry [gone]
NA = Natchez Blackberry
NB = Newberry Blackberry
NR = Nova Raspberry
OL = Olallieberry Blackberry
OS = Osage Blackberry
OU = Ouachita Blackberry
PA = Prime Ark 45 Blackberry
RR = Royalty Purple Raspberry
SC = Schultz Blackberry
SK = Siskiyou Blackberry
SP = Sweetie Pie Blackberry
TC = Triple Crown Blackberry
TY = Tayberry
VN = Von Blackberry
Thanks, Jeremy for the response. Looks like you’re growing the same exact GB as we’re getting! Am interested in hearing how those have done for you. I never knew what they were until my wife (we live on her family’s farm, been here 3 years) told me about them, how they liked them, so I thought I’d try some.
The rasps are wild red ones, and there are very few of them. Haven’t ever harvested any of those. But, we have lots of wild blackberries which she harvests every year. I think they’re a bit bland and not too sweet, but I’ve never been a big fan of the fruit. Though, the PrimeArk blacks do intrigue me.
Our natural pH runs about 5, so good for blueberries, but not so much for our veggie plots. I’m in the process of adding lime to get those plots’ pH up so the veggies do better. Anyway, I will make some slight amendments for the blues, I’m only getting 4 plants, so I don’t need to make a lot of soil changes. Our soil doesn’t have a lot of clay in it, unless you get down past a couple of feet. It’s a fast draining silty loam.
If we get some new rasps, would we need to clear out the wild blackberry brambles? We don’t have but maybe two or three wild raspberry brambles.
I bet that brutal winter of 2015 got some of your berry plants. It got to about -15 here in Feb of that year. We didn’t have anything new planted until 2016, and those seem to be doing OK so far.
My wife has a couple of cousins who live in your area. We’ve been up there a few times to the airport. That’s one of the closer airports to us, and it’s almost 100mi from us. I find it funny that Cincy’s airport is in Kentucky. Hope you’re not to close to the airport, too noisy! We’re not too far from Grayson, Carter county, BTW.
Speaking of gooseberries on the ourfigs forum, a guy mentions growing Jewel Gooseberry, and that if he only had to grow one that would be it. So now I have to try it!
Not familiar with it, but I do recall seeing Brandywine raspberry plants at Lowe’s. Is that where you got yours? I’ve been tempted to pick up a few of them, they also have Heritage and Anne, a yellow rasp. Costs like $7 a plant.
too much work. You’ll need to clear the wild blackberries and black raspberries from nearby on your farm. They harbor plant viruses that will eventually infect your plants if not removed. Let me know if you have any specific questions about the varieties.