I love raspberries and black raspberries, but unfortunately, my yard has a history of being occupied by the types of plants you're not supposed to plant them near (i.e. wild brambles, members of the nightshade family, etc.) In fact, I bought a pack of 3 last year from Miller Nurseries, but they didn't make it through the winter (thinking I had covered them over with too much mulch or something).
From what I understand, the problem is mostly with certain soil-borne viruses and funguses. And if so, would it be correct in presuming it might still be possible to grow them successfully if they were planted in containers or raised beds, using newly purchased, sterile garden mix?
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The diseases are spread by sucking insects mostly. At least in my area. The red raspberries are the most tolerant of the diseases, the others .. the "colored" raspberries, and blackcaps..which I LOVE, are more susceptible.
My place isn't even as big as the recommended closest distances to the red raspberries. I'm going to try to plant some black raspberries this year and hope that the house between them will help in making up for the lack of distance. What's the worst that can happen, they may give me a few berries before they croak. One of the catalogs I got this year have tissue cultured virus free berries, maybe if they were segregated with screen to keep the sucking insects off them? LOL I don't know if that will do it or not, but i'd think you'd need to let some kind of pollinators in there .. maybe some kind of bees you can put in the enclosure like leafcutters... but .. not leafcutters. I think there are other bees you can "collect" sort of by providing them with boards with the correct size holes in them ..solitary bees, alkali bees or something.
I planted blueberries only to find out later that they are subject to codling moths, and cherry flies.. there are apple and pear and cherry trees in the neighborhood, so I'm going to have to do floating row covers at least, or do what they did on the victory garden and enclose them in a screen house. I don't know how they are pollinated, I'd have to check on that.. and see if there is a time between blooming and the pest laying eggs. I think they made the screen houses to keep birds out, but it can serve more than that one duty. I'd like to hear what others have had to do to get bug and bird free blueberries..although I don't think I'll be getting any berries too soon. They take several years to start bearing, and I'm going to likely take several years to get them really happy with the acidity levels in the soil.
My soil is surprisingly not as alkaline as I'd expect in Idaho, as the soil is mostly alkaline, and the water is too. I paid someone to dig out trenches and then replace the clay soil with peatmoss and sandy mix soil. I would like to get someone to bring in some pine needles, and oak leaves that I can use for mulching along with peat and any other acid material I can find and use. But, I think I'll be waiting for that for a looooong time ;-)
Would those insects be repelled by certain insect-repelling plants like marigolds or pennyroyal? Has anyone successfully used these plants to protect their crops?
Can black raspberries be grown in containers? I've heard that Heritage red raspberries do well container-bound, but haven't found much info on black raspberries. (One possibility might be planting them in tubs on my upper-floor deck to maximize distance from the other plants as well as get the most sun exposure).
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