Can I Plant Raspberries Next to Wild Blackberries?

Disease Concerns

• While you could plant raspberries next to wild blackberries on your property, the raspberries would like be short-lived and falter within a few years. Wild blackberry thickets are a source of disease, especially soil fungal diseases, that inevitably spread to inflict garden raspberry patches. Verticillium wilt and Phytophthora root rot can proliferate in woodland habitats. These fungi, when vigorous and healthy, create spores that can find their way into raspberry beds and prosper, causing decline on the garden plants.

The Ideal Planting Site

• Cornell Cooperative Extension states the best place to plant a raspberry patch is in a previously cultivated garden plot that is far from woodland edges or weedy abandoned fields. Planting in an established garden lets you know the soil is already fertile and in an accessible location. If there were disease problems already harming garden crops, you'd be more aware of them. Always plant raspberries where other Verticillium wilt-susceptible crops didn't previously grow in the soil. That includes not only other berry species, but also tomatoes, potatoes, peppers or eggplants. Plant these veggie crops on the opposite side of the garden away from the raspberry patch.

The Planting Area

• Raspberries need at least eight hours of direct sunlight daily for good leaf growth and production of flowers and fruits. A sandy loam with a pH that is slightly acidic, 5.5 to 6.5 is prime, but healthy raspberry plants are tolerant and succeed even in near-neutral soil types. Avoid soils and locations where water drainage is poor. While raspberries need an evenly moist soil, wet soil conditions encourages proliferation of fungal diseases. Raspberry canes also tend to sucker in the bed over time, so it's important not to initially plant too closely, as you want ample light and air circulation among the raspberries.

Tips

• If your soil is too heavy, you can still grow raspberries if you deeply cultivate the soil with a shovel or tiller to break up the soil into small particles. Then, add lots of organic matter such as finely shredded bark, well-rotted manure and finished compost in an array of particle sizes. To ensure good soil drainage, you may also create a raised planting area, about 10 to 12 inches higher in grade than the surrounding area. Disease and pests are always a concern with growing raspberries. Besides the soil fungi, monitor plants for other diseases such as cane blight, canker, anthracnose, gray mold and fireblight. Scales, leafhoppers and caterpillars may also be troublesome.