Hello,
I have a 25 x 5 foot raspberry patch. I was just given 20 strawberry plants and wondering if planting them in a 25 foot row in front of my raspberries would be a good idea. I have ground hogs and squirrels in my neighborhood, so I’m wondering how much damage they’ll do. They don’t touch my raspberries much, probably because of the thorns, but will they just eat all the strawberries?
I’d say it depends on how much space you have between them. Both plants propagate themselves like weeds and are difficult to control. My strawberries and raspberries intermingle seemingly without disease issue, but if I were to do it over I’d make sure to carefully separate them a good distance, simply because it’s a pain to pick strawberries when raspberry thorns are in the way. Also makes it really difficult to protect strawberries, I’ve given up trying to keep birds and critters away from them.
Squirrels will take their fair share, raspberry suckers will invade any strawberries within 3’ robbing nutrients your strawberries need. Both need adequate sun to achieve sweetness! Bad idea to plant close together, a separate bed isolated from other roots is preferred
Dennis
Kent wa
Thanks everyone for your responses. I chose another location and planted 20 bare roots this afternoon. Cheers!
I planted summer bearing strawberries under my raspberry bed early in the spring. I’ll know how they both coexist sometime next year.
I have had raspberries and strawberries and goumi, apples in a long borderless raised bed since 2020.
I now have some chives, okinawan and longevity spinach in the same bed.
My bed runs east/west… so it has a sunny south side and a somewhat shady north side.
Strawberries do very well planted along the edge of that south side.
In 2020… i started with 9 raspberry plants in a small section of that bed. Today they have spread by root shoots all up and down that bed (the red raspberries herritage reds). I probably have 100 HR raspberries in that bed now.
Grow like weeds… produce good fruit… love it.
They will come up along the south edge of the bed with the strawberries… i keep those pruned out. Plenty of room for raspberries in the center of the bed and I let them come up and produce anywhere there.
I have to rather seriously thin them out along the top of the bed and anywhere else I want something else to thrive (like chives or longevity spinach)… the raspberries would win the battle.