mixing blackberries and raspberries?

[machomama]

Hi- first post for me - thanks silkie /nifty chicken!

So, i ordered 2 raspberry plants, a boysenberry and a marion blackberry, then read somewhere after the fact that these don't like growing together. I have prepared a raised bed about 24Lx6W and am planning to trellis the black/boysens on a long, skinny configuration, and trellis the raspberries on a short wide setup.

Does anyone else have experience growing these berries in proximity?

Are there other 'companion' plants that work well with them? Seems like alot of real estate dedicated for 4 infant vines this season!

Thanks!

 

[Rosalind]

Don't like growing together? They're practically the same darn plant! I can see where they might compete with each other for resources and wear out the nutrients in the soil faster, so you might have to fertilize 'em a little bit more, but it's not as if you're planting 50 raspberries intercropped with 50 blackberries. Also, if you have any predators (such as every bird within 50 miles), it's a lot easier for them to stop and have lunch in your berry patch, thus denuding every cane of every last berry, than it is for them to flit all over your yard to pick individual berries. But if you are willing to throw some netting over them and put down some fertilizer once a year or so, they should be fine. It's a lot easier to netting over one clump of bushes than, say, five or six.

 

[MBLayfield]

I swear I've read the same thing as machomama, but I also don't know why. So I just did a google search and didn't come up with anything that said not to, but on the other hand I didn't find anything that said you could either.

Maybe its some type of cross pollination thing? Like I even know what I'm talking about now........ LOL

 

[OCMG]

I have red raspberries and blueberries next to each other and if that is a problem someone should tell my plants because i got a bumper crop last summer. :rose

Just remember berries like acid soil.

 

[silkiechicken]

It may work where you are but up here it wouldn't. Black berries are a pest plant and anything in their path get's covered and killed and turned into a huge black berry patch. This includes cars, small trees and one story buildings.


But if you keep the black berries trimmed back, it would probably work out just fine.

 

[nightshade]

I grow mine all together, black, red raspberries and goldens, they do just find. Just keep and handle in the blackberries because the do spread rapidly which is fine if you are looking for a nice size patch and like makeing icecream or jam.

 

[machomama]

Sweet!
Thanks to you all for your great replies.
I am not feeling like such a dork after all, and i agree, that a (relatively) small patch will be easier to control.
I have also seen the wild himalaya take over small cars and children, esp in mendo co. and am avoiding that breed like the plague it is.
Thanks again!

 

[born2late]

Hi,
I have a thornless blackberry and four blueberry bushes . They need acidic soil. What do I need to add to make sure the soil is acidic enough... Lime? I planted my blackberry a good distance from my blueberries. Do I need to get another blackberry or just wait for this one to grow and multiply? Diana

 

[Reinbeau]

Hi,
I have a thornless blackberry and four blueberry bushes . They need acidic soil. What do I need to add to make sure the soil is acidic enough... Lime? I planted my blackberry a good distance from my blueberries. Do I need to get another blackberry or just wait for this one to grow and multiply? Diana

Not lime! You need to have your soil tested to establish it's pH, then we can advise what to use on it.

 

[Rio_Lindo_AZ]

Maybe they are so much like each other that that they kill each other?


I'm just taking an educated gues here