blueberries near blackberries near rasberries

HI, I need something to plant near my blueberries and I was thinking of blackberries or rasberries.

I read you can't plant one of those three near the other two (maybe because of pollination or disease?). But now I can't find where I read it so I am doubting if it is true or not. Does anyone know if I can get these to grow together?

ratfood, I am certainly not an authority, but I believe you can grow any of the three you mention in proximity to each other. I believe you should not try to successfully grow red or yellow raspberries near black raspberries (blackcaps). Maybe someone else will come along and verify.

Donna

blackberries and blueberries grow together in the wild and in my yard with no trouble.

OK thanks folks, I am going to go for it

I do not think we can grow raspberries sucessfully in our area
Stark Brother's has a cross of raspberries and black berries
It is called Loganberriy and is thornless
It is recomended for zones 6-10

Hemental, I was looking into those same plants but after I checked Garden Watchdog I found out that Stark Bro's are very liberal with their zone info and plant quality... It's too bad because they have very interesting stuff, come to think of it I don't know how I got their catalog in the mail but I did.

Anyways I made a plot for the blueberries and bought a bag of aluminum sulfate I will slowly introduce to the soil on an irregular baisis. Also someone said to put some apple cider vinegar in our alkaline water and that seems so easy enough that I will actually do it thanks to the contraption that looks like a jug that attaches to my garden hose. If they don't make it then I will probably blame it on Rutholive because that was the post that made me do it.

As far as the rasberries go, I put 3 different kinds in the next plot but I am not going to mess with the soil PH at all. If some reason they don't live I will blame it on Hemental.

As far as the blackberries go, I can't make that plot until I move the kids sandbox. Which won't happen for about another month when I build their new swingset. I hope someone chimes in here between now and then so I can blame the blackberry deaths on him/her. Until that day, cheers!

They might think they'll mix, like cukes and squash will, and sweet and hot peppers do.

I seem to recall that blackberries and raspberries don't mix well. We grow the two of them on either side of a brick walk and they're fine, but I think before we separated them they created their own space between the two types.

Well there is about 4 or 5 feet between each plot and they are separated by garden ties so im not worrying about the suckers getting close to each other. The plants will never touch, but they are close enough for the bees to fly back and forth...

I've had a row of raspberries perpendicular to a row of blueberries for about 30 years - no problems that I have noticed. One of my kids' favorite treats when they were younger was a blazberry - raspberry stuffed with a blueberry. We are unindated with invasive non-native blackberries so I've never understood actually planting one, but I do enjoy the fruit even as I struggle to keep their population under control.

Blueberries [vaccinium] are of a different genera from blackberries and raspberries[rubus] and have not been known to cross
There are many species of blackberries and raspberries and althoug they are related they do not cross readily.
If they did cross the fruit or plants would not be effected
Only the seeds and seedlings would be different.

I read that raspberries and blackberries can be afflicted with the same kind or disease and thats why you shouldn't plant them within 300 ft of each other or something but I have seen them growing together very successfully in a friends berry cage. I would never worry about blackberries getting some disease, they are truly ferocious around my neck of the woods.

"Raspberries should be planted in an open site that receives at least 6 to 8 hours of sunlight. Avoid planting raspberries within 300 feet of any wild blackberry or wild raspberry plants and in areas where tomatoes, potatoes, or eggplants have been grown previously."
Above quoted from
http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/1000/1421.html

I believe that is in effort to keep your berries from getting disease, they can get verticillium and phytophora (mentioned on that page I linked)

I think the problem may exist if red raspberries and black or purple raspberries are planted close to each other, not blackberries.

Donna

Why is that Donna
Is it because of disease stated by wonder and sally

Here's more
http://ohioline.osu.edu/b782/b782_28.html
See the paragraph second under 'control of cirus diseases"
I think I've read cautions in the past abut planting some near others but didn't know why, and haven't yet read a more direct statement about it today.

There is a virus that transmits from red raspberries sometimes to black or purple raspberries so it is deemed best to keep them separated by several feet. Mine are planted more than 50 feet apart.

Donna

At the risk of being blamed for something by RATFOOD (lol), I caught this thread as I was thinking of interplanting blackberries and blueberries.

RATFOOD if you are interested this is info that I had saved before I purchased my plants.
blackberries http://davesgarden.com/community/journals/viewentry/290027/
blueberries http://davesgarden.com/community/journals/viewentry/288363/

Someone above mentioned verticillium ~ is that not a soil borne disease?

Ratfood-
Since you live in San Antonio, Zone 8B, I thought I would send you this blueberry nursery in Florida. They are suppliers of warm weather blueberry plants developed by Univ. of Florida. I emailed them with some blueberry questions a while back and they were very responsive but basically said I live too far North for their cultivars. They would probably be a good source of info for you. Here is their web address : http://www.trueblueplants.com/gardener/blueberry-gardener.html

Paul

Don't forget blueberries need really acidic soil--not sure how compatible the rasberries and blackberries will be with that.

The varieties grown commercialy in southern Mississippi and Alabama are Tifblue,Powerblue,Premier,Austin,Brightwell,Climax and Alapaha
There is a seller in Collins Ms.selling plants for $1.50
I do not know them or know if they ship.I found their add in the Mississippi Market Bulletin.
PM me if interested in phone no.
Charlie

This message was edited Mar 30, 2010 10:31 AM

Hi Charlie,

MSU recently released the Dorman red raspberry for this area. I just planted mine last fall thus can't yet report on it from personal experience.

Susan Mc

I planted some Anne, a gold one, this winter. It's rated for up to zone 9 so I'm hopeful. I never tasted a fresh raspberry before. I'm also trying Navaho black berry and something called a Baba Berry which is some kind of raspberry. They're all leafing out and putting on new canes.

One of my raspberry canes just died, very wierd, not planted near blackberries though.

Off topic a bit, but if you don't know what variety of raspberry you have, how do you know when to prune? Do you always cut the canes after they bear? Do you ever leave canes that have already borne fruit? I don't know the variety on two of my raspberries...

im under the impression that you always cut the canes that have already borne fruite no matter what variety.

So if they didn't bear fruit last year, leave them. If they did, cut them to the ground, or just cut the tips?

If they did not fruit last year they should this year, yes.
If they did have fruit, at minimum cut off the entire end from which you see the side shoots of last years fruit. those side shoots will be skinnier things with lots of little twigs, and probably dry and dead anyway. . You may get new side shoots coming out from the buds farther down which will bloom in early summer.

Canes which had fruit last year CAN be cut at the ground too because you will get fruit from canes that did NOT fruit last year, and you should have fresh new canes coming from the ground by now too. They can get pretty thick if you don't prune at all, and the berries won't be as good.

Thank you for that advice! I was a bit perplexed what to do, not knowing the variety. Getting out the pruning shears now...

I'm glad I like blueberries and blackberries a LOT more than raspberries - raspberries seem too complicated for me to comprehend at my late age.

There are two types of raspberries. The first, primocanes bear on one year old canes that can be mowed down after a killing frost. The frost stops the primocanes from bearing. The second type if called floricanes which bear on two year old canes. Just as soon as the patch stops bearing you have to go in and prune out individual canes that just bore fruit. You can't put this off because the evidence will soon disappear. My mom has floricanes which bear in the summer. I help her with the pruning and it's a lot of work. I like just hopping on my tractor and dispatching my primocanes in one fell swoop. I've also noticed that the primocanes don't start bearing until early fall and have far fewer bugs on them than the floricanes. Good luck, I hope this helps.

Just now reading this...but, if I don't know all the varieties of my raspberries, how do I know if I have primocanes or fluricanes??? Any way to tell? And, really, does it matter, so long as I prune out any cane that has just borne?