Some advice about Blackberries, Blueberries and Raspberries.

[Garden_Chris]

I'm exceptionally tempted by the prospect of Blackberry, Blueberry or even Raspberry trees/bushes in my garden, but I have a few concerns with regards to soil pH levels, space and crop size. Having never grown, or seen anyone I know, grow any of the above plants, I'm a slight bit unaware of the pro's and con's, if you will, of plating them.

My growing space, although not entirely limited, still comes at a premium with regards to sheltering specific plants, ensuring others get the required amount of sunlight, etc. So, my first concern was - how much space do these plants take up, do they grow to be 6ft wide by 6ft high? Or do they stay relatively small at 3ft by 3ft?

This point leads me onto my second concern, which is, what volumes, or quantity of produce are we talking with regards to space taken up. For example, does one branch taking up 2ft Squared yield 5 berries, or over 100? The issue is, if they are low yielding, the space required for their growth could be better utilised for other crops.

My final concern is the acidity levels of the soil. I've heard that they need to be around 5pH - whether this is preferable or non-negotiable, I'm not entirely sure. What are the effects of having, for example, a tomato plant located near soil of that acidity - will this hamper its growth? The knock on effects of space once more.

Thanks very much for any and all help, I very much appreciate it. Although my tone may sound quite negative, I would very much like to grow these plants, but as you can see from my above post, I'm just curious as to their demands.

[rustylady]

Hi Chris, guide to growing blackberries here How to grow your Blackberry Cane with pictures and advice.
raspberries here BBC - Gardening - Gardening Guides - Techniques - Growing raspberries
Blueberries here BBC - Gardening - Gardening Guides - Techniques - Grow blueberries
Good old Google.

[WendyC]

I have a 6' row of "Malling Jewel" which is currently providing more fruit than a family of 4 can cope with, probably a dozen canes. I have one blackberry which again has a 6' run and this provides us with enough berries for a crumble each week at the end of August into September. It fruits over a long time whereas the raspberries have masses over a shorter time. Although they take a width they can be trained to take a narrow depth. You would be able to grow against a fence but would obviously need access for pruning and picking. They are quite unfussy about soil but a thick mulch of manure seems to help keep the moisture in and feed the canes. I don't grow blueberries but know they need an acid soil but I know can be grown in a pot. Sorry no idea about yield. I also have one gooseberry and one blackcurrant which again is enough for the 4 of us, unless you were making jams. Hope this is of help.

[Potstubsdustbins]

Chris, I only purchased my blueberry and blackberry last year so am no expert.

The blueberry is a Blue Pearl compact variety and sits in a pot of ericaceous compost by the looks of the amount of berries on the plant at this time it should give a good crop in only its second year.

My blackberry is Black Butte again grown in a home made container about a 2ft cube but this time filled with MPC. I left 3 laterals on last year and the crop again looks as if its going to be very good with dozens of berries on at the moment. Another advantage of this variety is the berries are reputed to be twice as large as any other. At the end of the season I will prune off all the wood used to produce fruit this year and train 3 new laterals ready for next season.

Hope this helps Colin.

[Two_Sheds]

My blackberry is a 'wild' type, and it's currently 15ft wide x 8ft high (one plant). It's trained along the back fence (west facing) and gave me a lot of fruit last year ... enough for 6 bottles of wine and about 18 jars of chutney/jam

[Aberdeenplotter]

For me, blueberries do not yeild enough to justify their space. Mine have been in three years now and again this year, there is only a piffling amount of fruit. Raspberries are very much worth their space

[Garden_Chris]

I must admit, I'm a little put off by the blackberries, the size they occupy seems to be a little larger than the space I can afford to give them. Having looked at your blueberry plant, Colin, I'm very tempted to get one myself - a smaller variety with high yield sounds great, especially when they can be kept in a pot - no need to mess around with soil pH's with regards to my other vegetables, just an isolated environment.

With regards to the crop of Blueberries, I'm guessing they produce once per year? (as opposed to, for example, runner beans which keep producing until the frosts) Or do they continue to make berries if they're continually harvested?
Also, what sort of numbers could I roughly expect? Enough to make a pie, or several? Jams? (Sorry for the questions, but I'm very intrigued)

Thanks for all the help guys

[Two_Sheds]

Blueberries - we only got our plants this year (3 for £20) and I reckon we'll get barely a handful of berries this year in total

Raspberries: last year was cool & wet, perfect for rasps, and I picked kilos of them. My plants are autumn fruiting (summers get too damaged by maggots) and are 3ft high and wide

[Potstubsdustbins]

2 Sheds I had the same experience with my blueberries last year but the supplier had warned that this would be the case so it was no surprise.

This year looking at the number of berries on the one plant I have I am pleasantly surprised and am thinking of getting a second.

Colin

[rustylady]

IMHO Blackberries and raspberries are best planted along boundaries. I have raspberries in my back garden against the fence (west facing) and they do well. I don't grow blackberries, but there is a humungous one as the bottom border of my neighbour on the lottie's plot. Lovely fruit, but it is a vicious ba*****. Thorns everywhere, and the new stems every year come out and stab you in the face, the arm, etc. etc.

[Creemteez]

Hi GC, I would not bother with Blackberries personally as the hedges round here are just heaving with them in the Autumn. Most places have a local srcubby bit of land within easy reach where blackberries grow wild and are there for the picking. I have autumn fruiting rasps on my plot - I took them as runners from the plot I had to give up, which brings me to a point you may want to consider if space is tight. Autumn fruiters spread like billy-o. Mine are (hopefully) contained within a raised bed, but I expect I shall get the odd escapee who will have to be culled.
They are doing very well and I'm hopeful of a decent harvest as long as I get my caging organised before Mr and Mrs Blackbird get a look in!
Summer fruiting raspberries do not tend to be as invasive as Autumn.
With blueberries you have to be patient depending on the size of the bush you buy. I had a good couple of handfuls of my biggest plant last year, but as they tend not to all ripen at the same time they never made it home and I just snacked on them as and when.
This year I've lost a lot to said blackbird couple - my fault for not netting.

[Potstubsdustbins]

The reason I bought my blackberry was quite simple. I wanted to replace my roses which were coming to the end of their life with something edible. The one requirement was that it should have thorns, bl--dy big thorns hopefully as it forms part of my security for the boundry fence.

Have you tried to by a fruit bush with thorns these days, it would seem they are all being cultivated to be thornless. Still its doing well this year and I should start picking berries next week.

Colin

[Loudbarker1]

My tayberry is in its second year and is fruiting very well. It has one long lateral, a good six/eight feet long that has given us lots of fruit, about a small punet full a week for the last 6 weeks and more to come.. There are two laterals coming for next year, so this years will be pruned off in autumn, with the new ones spread out to replace it. I hope there will be twice as much more fruit next year with twice as many laterals!

The plant is potted (but I am sure the roots have grown through the dranage holes) and gets the occassional high potash feed. Very low miantenace, so good. Lovely taste, provided you let the berries get really dark.

I haven't noticed that it requires especially acid soil, but I do water with rainwater when I can rather than out of the tap which is very chalky where I am.

I have no regrets about the tayberry, am growing another and will propagate a third by layering this year, because I think you need quite a lot of plants (when you will get continuous fruit for a long time.) If I only had one six foot space I would put rasberries in instead. As with others, blackberries come free for the picking!

Blue berries are much less ofrgiving about pH. My four one year old blue berries have a total of 4 berries on. They are in pots, but when I plant them out (I will one day) I will put them in a bath or similar filled with ecracious compost rather than just filling a hole with it. I'm likely to be gardening on thick chalk, so that will have to be managed.