Cane Berry Variety Planting Advice

General Fruit Growing
#1

I know there is a lot of information on here, and believe me, I have looked through many posts and responses. But I am running out of time to prepare.

I work full time and my commute is 80 miles and then I am not hooked up to plumbing or electricity, so most things are inconvenient and take longer and then I fall asleep scanning posts for information.

Here is what I have and for how long (excluding already here wild berries):
Red Latham Raspberry - 2 canes (have for 2 yrs)
Ollalieberrry - 3 canes (have for 1 yr)

Here is what I have coming this month:
10 Ponca
10 Kiowa
2 Jewel black raspberry
2 Cumberland black raspberry
2 Royalty purple raspberry
2 Double Gold raspberry

My plan is to put Ponca and Kiowa in hedge rows in ground but am unsure how far apart is ideal. They are supposed to end up upright, but will start out floppy as young plants. I was not planning on trellising.

For the others, I plan on putting in 2-3 gallon to start, and then put in 15 gallon pots next year. This is what I have done with the Latham and Ollalieberry plants, but noticed that the roots dominated the pots when transplanting into 15 gallons. I have not noticed a problem, but do you think I am stunting their growth by starting out with such a small pot?

Other than the Kiowa & Ponca, does anyone think that all the other varieties would not do well in a 15 gallon pot?I was thinking I could get those 6 foot tall bamboo sticks, and maybe put three in each pot, and then tie the canes to those, and just let them waterfall over to the to the perimeter of the pot. Does this sound like a very stupid idea that I will regret later? I would really not want to have to up-pot a big snarly thorny beast of a plant later.

I use happy frog in pots and would be giving holly-tone twice a year.

Also, I am not sure how to prune ever-bearing varieties, I read double gold is one of those, but I have more time to learn that.

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#2

Everbearing fruit on first year canes in the Fall, the tips of the canes die back, then they fruit on lateral branches in the Spring, and then they die at the end of the season. You can let them fruit in the Fall on the tips and then cut them to the ground. Let them grow three or four feet tall and then tip the canes and let them fruit in the Spring. Or let them go through the canes’ life cycle and cut out dead canes (or after they fruit in the Spring).

#3

Thank you, so worst case scenario is just cut them out after they die, like I do with primocane varieties?

On this forum somewhere I read about cutting tips so they grow more lateral branches and then you get more fruit, is that true?

#4

I double crop my everbearing raspberries.

New primocanes come up in the spring… once they reach 4 ft… i cut the tip off… they then send out 3 or 4 or more fruiting laterals from that tip prune.

Those produce berries in the fall… normally mid august to first hard frost (some time in november).

My fall crop is not huge or all at once… it just sort of trickles in over a long time.

After those tip shoots fruit in the fall they die (normally like the top 1/3) of the cane.

In the spring i prune off the dead part… but leave that lower 2/3 of the cane to produce my spring crop. My spring crop is huge, lots of quantity… but only last for about a month.

That is when i make most of my low sugar jam.

After the spring crop is finished. That bottom 2/3 of the cane dies… you can take the dead canes out after that

While your spring crop is happening… new primocanes will be coming up to produce your fall crop.

It goes on and on like that.

TNHunter

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#5

Thank you very much, very interesting. So the laterals only come out of the tip and go sideways and that’s what you need a trellis for or do you think I can get away with using bamboo sticks?

#6

I have had several varieties of blackberry and raspberry… and most will send up a single stemmed primocane… that will remain single stemmed and just keep getting taller…

But if you wait until it gets some specific height (say 4 ft) and cut off that tip…

It will then send out multiple forks in different directions frim that point where you cut it or just below.

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The pic above is a herritage red raspberry… that i cut the tip off of as it got taller than my support rod.

See how it responded by sending out 4 forks.

That was late summer and on the tip of that tall fork to the right you can see a bumble on some raspberry blossoms there.

Bt Sept, Oct they look like this…

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Most of the length of those forks will fruit in the fall.

The part that does fruit… will die.

In the spring i prune all the dead off… but leave the cane that is still alive… and the part that is still alive (normally the bottom 2/3) at each leaf node will send out fruiting latterals and produce a bunch of raspberries.

Below is a pic if what my spring crop looks like.

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Those support rods that I use… I get at TSC store. They are 4 ft… made of fiberglass.

They are very durable and last for many years.

Anywhere a raspberry primocane pops up in my bed… i can just push one in and tie the cane to it.

I like them. From a distance you cant really see them. It just looks like your raspberries are standing up straight on their own.

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A couple of purple royalty supported by the same rods. See how those purple royalty canes all forked just above my support rods… yep… l tipped them there.

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#7

I love it, thank you!

seems a lot less confusing now.

#8

take a look at this post for inspiration.

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#9

I have grown both raspberry and blackberry in pots. For raspberries I have put one root in a 4 gallon square pot, or 2 roots in a 8 gallon square pot. Then I stick 4 stakes in the corner and wrapt it with hortonova nylon trellis. Fed with typical acid fertilizer holly-tone or DTE acid mix they produce a good deal and no issues of root spreading.

I have tried growing blackberries in 15 gallon pot, these were prime ark freedom which did amazingly well and grew to be 4 ft wide 7 ft tall bushes from a 2 inch plug in just one season. We got primocane berries through December but a January cold snap for 3-4 days in teens killed most of the nice canes supposed to fruit this year.

my suggestion is plant them directly in their larger home and save yourselves the repotting effort.

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#10

What a bummer, to lose the canes. Were they not dormant when the temp dipped in January?

#11

they didn’t drop leaves at all, and kept producing until mid-december, although the berries were water balloons due to the rains.