A side of thorns with your berries?
Posted on April 17th, 2008 – 12:55 PMBy Jaime Chismar
Speaking of thorny bushes, raspberry season is right around the corner. No, I’m not jumping the gun… For those of us without fruit bearing bushes, raspberry planting season is at hand. We northern gardeners have many, many — almost too many — options and the pursuit of summer’s sweetest treat includes just as many questions.
Karen writes:
Has any one out there planted thornless raspberries? Are they as hardy as the everbearing Or I SHOULD SAY THORN ONES? Are the thornless blackberries really hardy and large or are they usually small and a few?
What kinds of berries do you enjoy? For someone just starting a raspberry patch like me, what varieties would you recommend? Anyone try the yellow or pink raspberry?
And what’s all this thornless business about anyway?
2 Responses to "A side of thorns with your berries?"
My garden-buddy and I here in Seattle have strawberries that produced medium to small-sized berries one at a time through about July last year. However, they’ve already expanded to almost double their original area (and have even sprung up in spots 8′ or 10′ from the main body of the plant in our bed!), and Tuesday, I noticed several blossoms, a few with some berries developing already!
This fall, I took out most of a big bramble of blackberries that didn’t produce any berries last summer (no idea why not)to expand one of our beds, but left a couple to see if we can tame them. They grow like mad out here in the Northwest.
We also have a couple of little scraggly raspberry bushes we put in last year, which also didn’t produce any berries. They’re growing back already, so I hope we’ll get at least a few to taste this year. Next year, I hope to put Knott’s to shame!
No clue about the thornless business.
My house came with Heritage raspberry escapees from the next yard. They crept my way as the neighbor that actually planted them has an aversion to pulling out all the maples that sprout from the propellers each spring (no sun = no berries).
I let them grow for many years until her trees leaned so far over the fence that I have no sun in that area of the yard either. They have a three year cycle: 1st year sprout from ground, will need to be trimmed in the spring to about 2 feet high so they don’t flop around and to promote branching. 2nd year: will fruit, pick daily to increase yield. 3rd year: will be shedding bark, roots will send out replacements, cut old canes off at ground level in spring. Netting will keep more berries for you, less for the birds but is a real pain to unwrap, a chicken wire Berry Protection Chamber with a door is easier but requires carpentry skills. Good luck.
Greengirls Connie Nelson, Robyn Dochterman and Jaime Chismar are dishin' the dirt from the backyard garden and beyond. Whether you're a greenthumb or greenhorn, they're eager to learn from your misshaps, mistakes -- and most importantly, your sweet successes -- all growing season long.
Need more Greengirls? Follow along on Twitter:
Subscribe to Greengirls
Learn more about RSS
Garden resources
Categories
- Apples, Plums + Tree fruits (18)
- Asparagus (3)
- Beans + Peas (9)
- Bees (12)
- Beets, Carrots + Root veggies (7)
- Berries (10)
- Books + Resources (13)
- Chickens (13)
- Compost (7)
- Container gardening (7)
- Corn (2)
- Critters + vermin (27)
- Cucumbers + Melons (15)
- Farmer's Markets (1)
- Flowers + Grasses (27)
- Garlic (5)
- Greens + Lettuces (10)
- Herbs (6)
- Lawn care (12)
- Mulch (7)
- Mystery plants (9)
- Potatoes (9)
- Preserving (7)
- Rain gardens (2)
- Seed starting (16)
- Soil care (4)
- Squashes + gourds (1)
- Succulents (2)
- Tomatoes, Peppers + Eggplant (38)
- Tools, gloves, rain barrels + more (17)
- Transplanting (1)
- Tree + shrub care (4)
- Uncategorized (164)
- Water gardens (3)
- Weather woes (25)
- Weeds (13)
- Weekend to-dos (11)