Berry plants can fit into surprisingly small spaces...

by Rosemary McCreary
 

It never fails to happen:  As soon as we taste a fresh fruit just coming into season, we wish we had it growing in our own garden.  Yet rarely is tasting time the same as planting time.

Most fruit crops are planted bare root January through March while plants are dormant.  A note on next year's calendar is the first step, but while you're thinking of planting, now is the time to survey your garden space to determine how new trees or vines will fit into your existing scheme. In winter, when back yards are mostly bare, we tend to forget how fast branches grow and how wide fruit trees spread.

This is also the case with those delectable cane berries that are now coming into season.  Most require trellising, take considerable space, and can fast become a tangled nuisance when they're planted in the wrong site.  But depending on the orientation of your property you may be able to fit raspberries or blackberries into a surprisingly small area.

A north-facing wall won't work, but nearly any other exposure will yield adequate crops, even in a narrow, foot-wide strip along a driveway or between a sidewalk and the side of the house or garage.  In hot interior valleys, however, it's best to avoid sites that receive intense and reflected summer heat.  But nearly everywhere else, as long as you can amend the soil, provide water and good drainage, and are able to fasten supports for canes, you can grow berries.

You'll notice that there's no mention of planting along a fence between neighbors.  While this is certainly possible, you should plant there only with the understanding that berries cannot be completely contained; they will creep under a fence and may be unwelcome on the other side. You would not want a neighbor to spray them with an herbicide.  Canes will spread on your side of the fence, too, or wherever else you plant them, after a couple of years in the ground.  The new shoots can be pulled out or dug up or passed along to a fellow gardener, which is how I happened to plant raspberries.  And what a valuable gift that was.  We have fresh raspberries for five months and frozen ones for sauces and desserts the rest of the year.

If you have berries growing now, you will see stray shoots popping up where you may not want them.  On blackberries - or any blackberry variety such as Cascade, Boysen, Marion, or Olallie - don't confuse new growth at the crown with unwanted strays; for with these berries, next year's bearing canes begin growth now as this year's canes and lateral stems bear fruit.  After harvest, cut canes that bore this year down to the ground and begin tying or training new young ones to their supports.


     Boysenberries

Boysens are the favorite of my family simply because that's what we found growing behind our previous home and brought with us to Sonoma County many years ago.  They are extremely popular with backyard gardeners along the North Coast for their taste and prolific crops.

There is a subtle flavor and color difference between blackberry varieties, which is quite obvious to some, undetectable to others.  Marion berry is somewhat unique, is more red than black, and retains its shape when cooked.

The "Sunset Western Garden Book" has an extensive list of blackberry varieties - early, midseason, and late - with good descriptions of flavor and growth habits.  Most are not available in our nurseries but must be mail-ordered for delivery during bare root season.


     Growing hints

The amount of water berries require depends on the type of soil you have and the intensity of sunlight they receive.  A drip system works very well in keeping soil evenly moist especially under a thick layer of coarse mulch.  Soil can dry out on the top inch or two but must never dry out any deeper.

Some gardeners like to dig in manure in fall several months before planting and to add it as a source of nitrogen -- always well rotted -- as mulch each spring.

To avoid overcrowding in your berry patch, it's wise to thin out excess growth, sometimes radically, by keeping only three stout canes per crown.  If you have lots of space, you can keep more.  Some nitrogen fertilizer is needed annually.

A sturdy trellising system of hooks and wires or anchored posts is best established before planting.  Be sure you allow for plenty of height.  Blackberry canes can grow over 12 feet tall. Shortening them in late summer holds fruiting sites lower but promotes lateral growth, which in turn needs trellising and increases fruiting sites.


     Raspberries

Raspberries are probably easier to grow simply because canes remain more erect and need less support than blackberries.  Two end posts that hold horizontal wires 4 to 6 feet above ground on each side of a row are usually enough to contain growth.

Gardeners who harvest two crops a year prune the top half of first-year canes after they bear in fall.  The following year these canes are already half grown and will bear a spring crop.  After harvest, cut them completely to the ground.  The new spring canes will bear in late summer and then the process is resumed.


*The Press Democrat, Santa Rosa, California, Saturday, July 1, 2006.
Rosemary McCreary, a Sonoma County gardener, gardening teacher and author, writes the weekly Homegrown column for The Press Democrat.  Write to her at P.O. Box 910, Santa Rosa, 95402; or send fax to 521-5343.