Raspberry stand

[Ifitaintbroke]

I've got a piece of land, say 1/4 acre, that I would like to plant with raspberries mainly, with blackberries and some other varieties. It's sitting directly on top of a drain field, so should be fairly fertile. The problem with this area is that it's always getting overrun by weeds. Not little ones either. It becomes a mass of foliage and thorns so thick you can't even walk into it. That's part of why I want to plant there, to choke the weeds out. The land is currently cleared except for some small trees that will be gone soon. I know it's full of weed seeds that will sprout as soon as the weather gets warm. (I'm in zone 8a). I'm prepared to deal them as I must, however aggressively I have to. (Not using herbicides, only mechanical means). What I want to know is, what is best way to plant raspberries in this quantity? I'd like to do long rows, but how far apart? I know, that will depend on the varieties, but maybe just some general guidelines? This is going to be quite expensive, so I mainly want to ensure that the plants survive. And, I'm more concerned with plant growth than berry production. Any ideas?

 

[MiniOrchardDude]

What has worked for me is to use cardboard and laying wood chips on top. The hard part is getting wood chips.

I would cover the entire area with cardboard and lay wood chips on top. First Mow it down as close to the ground as ppssible. Need to pull bushes or small trees or burn them. I would put my scraps on tree stumps and use it for a burn spot. The areas where you will plant your rows buy some good soil or compost and place on top of the cardboard and then chips on top of that. It takes time to cover that much area but little by little you'll get there.

Another option which might be easier and less maintenance would be to mow it all down and place cardboard on just your rows then compost on top then the chips. That should keep the row clean and you can mow around the rows as the season progresses. It would be easier to mow the overgrown raspberries than having to pull them out if covered completely with chips. That is my issue since I have chips as my ground cover.

As you can see the chips are darker since I just pulled out the overgrown raspberries which is normal.

MOD

 

[gary350]

Plow, disc, till, soil every other day to kill everything. Seeds try to grow till again they die too. More seeds try to grow till again they die. I till my soil about 7 times then I plant. With very few seeds left to germinate there are no weeds no grass. I have been growing Cumberland Black Raspberries for 47 years. My berry patch is 4 ft wide 15 ft long it produces 15 gallons of ripe berries June 20 to about July 15. I like zero maintenance crops when berry patch has too many dead canes cut them down and burn them the berry patch will grow back. You need 2 berry patches so you can cut 1 down and still have berries on the other patch. Berry are the size of a quarter, good flavor, we make jam, cobbler and wine.

 

[nao57]

Oh! I have something that can help! There's a video here that talks about how to increase the # of raspberry plants you have. That's what you'd want to know if you were trying to expand a raspberry farm. ->

I hope that helps.

 

[nao57]

Was the replys we gave you good enough, or do you still have another question, etc? And are you only going to do raspberries or other things also?