Can You Plant Blackberries And Raspberries Together?
Yes, you can plant blackberries and raspberries together in the same area. Both blackberries and raspberries are members of the Rubus family and have similar growing requirements, so they can be grown successfully in the same location
| Cannot | Can |
| Eggplants | Onions |
| Potatoes | Leeks |
| Tomatoes | Garlics |
| Peppers | Chives |
Being able to be planted together does not make them one and the same plants, nor do they grow quite as well. On a plus note, both raspberries and blackberries are very easy to grow, but also so easy to grow that if allowed, they will encroach upon whatever space they take up. Blackberries and raspberries can be grown together in one bush, and this generally requires assistance from the bramble system in order for them to stand a better chance at survival. Erect blackberries, as well as those that are vining, can grow on a wide range of soils; they are however most successful in sandy or clay-loam soils at pHs 6.0 to 6.5.
Erect blackberries are typically planted close together, so you may want to apply banded fertilizer right at the beginning. Plants or rooting tops (which are 4-to-6 inches long and approximately pencil-sized in diameter) may be used to start an erect blackberry planting. Stacey Sullinger plants raspberries and blackberries in a similar manner, placing them into a small mound, approximately 2 inches above the ground level.
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These plants like acidic soil, but if you do not have acidic soil, you can make amends with wood ash or sulphur. Make sure that you have easy access to water, especially during the first year, because as you establish, all raspberries and blackberries need frequent deep watering.
Regular pruning is important for keeping plants under control, to prevent your backyard from becoming a single large patch of blackberries. The danger with planting plants too close together is they become hard to prune and pick, and you end up missing out on a lot of berries. Blackberry and Raspberry plants are specific about the amount of space that they prefer, but once that technique is understood, then it is simply a matter of making sure that your soil is fertile enough for those berries to thrive.
All berries thrive well in a sunny environment, and nearly every variety is self-fertile, meaning that you will only have to plant a single cultivar. Raspberries and strawberries are closely related plants that share many of the same growing requirements.
Raspberries also propagate from roots and produce stems, but blackberries only produce stems from crowns. Blackberries do not, but have an other, more clever, way to spread, by arcing the tips of their canes downward into the ground and taking root there, basically making a bow. Black raspberries mostly spread by cane tips rooting ground-level, so plant them about 3 to 4 feet apart in rows, spacing rows about 8 to 10 feet apart, if you can.
Black and red raspberries share diseases, so planting 100 feet apart is recommended, unless you are doing a fruit tree guild or you have a highly biodiverse landscape that favors disease prevention. Avoid planting raspberries next to trees, as they will often drop leaves and branches on the ground. Avoid planting raspberries near crops that are similar, such as boysenberries, blackberries, or gooseberries, to avoid transferring fungal diseases that live in soil.
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Do not plant raspberries anywhere tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, or eggplants were grown in the last four years, as tomatoes carry a root rot called Verticillium, which may attack raspberries as well. Blackberries and raspberries should not be grown on soil where tomatoes, potatoes, eggplants, peppers, strawberries, or any other kind of fruiting bush or bramble has been grown before. Remove any wild raspberries and blackberry plants within a 600-foot radius of your planting location, if possible, to lessen the chance of viral diseases spreading to your planting. Temperatures less than 5degF will damage or kill blackberries and most of the canes of purple and black raspberries, so only plant them in the southern parts of Maine and New Hampshire, in protected areas.
Be careful not to allow grass to grow to within one foot of a raspberry plant, or it will compete for water and nutrients with raspberry plants. A properly maintained raspberry planting may produce fruit for 10-20 years, but weeds, viruses, fungi, and a few types of insects can significantly decrease production, and may kill a planting if the weeds are not controlled.
Prying dead leaves from established, older raspberry plants is a very labor-intensive process, especially if you have rows longer than 20 feet. Once black raspberries have contracted the disease, there is no way to treat them, so the best thing to do is to simply remove the plants entirely and start over. Raising raspberries, or growing blackberries, usually means finding a spot for them along the fence, unless you have space to allow them to grow in a thicket and pick them outside; a thicket method is certainly the way to go for red raspberries, black raspberries, and June-bearing traditional blackberries.
Raspberries should not be planted near night-shades such as eggplants, potatoes, or tomatoes, because they are especially susceptible to blight and Verticillium wilt. Blackberries are planted in dormant seasons (December and January), but they do have a few stems which can be planted during spring and summer. These plants produce biannual (two-year) canes, that grow in one season (primocane) and bloom, fruit, and die the second season (florecane).
Ever-bearing varieties of raspberries produce two crops; one is in the late summer on the floricane, their two-year-old cane. Summer-bearing raspberry varieties produce one major harvest in early-to-mid-summer on their primacanes. Heritages are different than the budding blackberries, the straddling blackberries, and dormant raspberries in that they produce fruit on the primocanes (first-year canes).
Often called Caneberrys, raspberries and blackberries fruit on the canes of the plants crown — the section of the plant just at ground level, where roots beneath ground and canes above ground meet.
What should not be planted next to raspberries?
Raspberries are particularly prone to blight and verticillium wilt, therefore they shouldn’t be planted next to nightshades like eggplant, potatoes, or tomatoes. To limit the spread of soil-borne fungi infections, avoid planting raspberries close to other similar crops like boysenberries, blackberries, or gooseberries.
What not to plant with blackberries?
Blackberry shouldn’t be planted to crops like asparagus because their roots may compete with one another. Moreover, consider to avoid growing blackberries next to crops from nightshade family. The reason is because these nightshade plants grow quickly and require heavy amount nutrients, so they might start consuming the nutrients of blackberries.
Can raspberries and blackberries cross pollinate?
Because both blackberries and raspberries are members of the same genus and are hence directly connected linked, some people believe that they can pollinate with each other. The fact that both plants are different species, however, prevents cross-pollination between them. So you can grow them together as they won’t cross-pollinate.