Blueberries and Raspberries

[jaydee325]

We live in SW Michigan. My wife and I have enjoyed our vegetable garden for decades now. Purely a labor of love.

Recently, we have been discussing getting some blueberry and raspberry/blackberry bushes. My question is, how many bushes would I need of each variety to yield enough fruit for the two of us, including freezing some for the winter?

 

[Ford850]

I have 6 or 8 blueberry bushes, 2 each of several varieties for good pollination. We've had enough to eat plus freeze a few gallons some years. The other extreme, last year, we got zero berries due to very late freezes in the spring.

 

[jeff9366]

I cannot speak to raspberries nor blackberries, but I know Blueberries.

Four mature Blueberry bushes should be ample, as you are going to plant other cane fruits. Blueberries require two types or more, flowering at the same time, to pollinate. Late varieties are more consistent producers and tend to have larger berries.

Soil needs to be pretty acid; pH 4.5 to pH 5.5. You may have that pH in Michigan naturally. If not, you can buy a bag of 90% "Split Pea" agricultural sulphur, which will lower pH pretty fast.

Full sun.

 

[MossRoad]

I have a row of Fall Gold raspberries that's about 3' wide and 25' long. NONE of them make it to the freezer..... :licking:

OK, a few get made into about half a dozen pints of jam, but the rest are eaten daily. :thumbsup:

 

[CountryB]

Tried growing them a few years ago (in FL) they did great and were looking real good until about a day before they were ready to be picked - then out of no where the deer showed up and ate the bushes bare.
Now the deer have moved on to eating my landscaping shrubs and all the new growth on my little orange trees.

 

[forgeblast]

Nourse farms, the blackberries I bought from them almost ten years ago are still going strong!

 

[PJSprog]

We have a couple of raspberry bushes that produce very little for us. On the other hand, we have four mature blueberry bushes that produce about four or five times what we can eat. We give away a tremendous amount every year, and many more still end up on the ground or eaten by critters.

 

[teejk]

We have a couple of raspberry bushes that produce very little for us. On the other hand, we have four mature blueberry bushes that produce about four or five times what we can eat. We give away a tremendous amount every year, and many more still end up on the ground or eaten by critters.

Raspberries are "canes". As I recall the "reds" send shoots underground and after 2-3 years you knock the old ones down and let the new ones emerge. The wild "blacks" root from the tips that bend over and start the next generation...same concept...year 1 nothing, year 2 nice berries, year 3 so so berries at which time you cut that out. Hoping somebody tells me I'm wrong because I want to know.

 

[jaydee325]

Thank you all for the responses!

I've got a lot to learn. Any suggestions on reference material (books, websites etc) that I can use to educate myself?

 

[jeff9366]

Thank you all for the responses!

I've got a lot to learn. Any suggestions on reference material (books, websites etc) that I can use to educate myself?

Google Blueberries and your state.

There are multiple types of Blueberries bred for particular regions, that will not do well in other regions. We grow 'Rabbiteye' hybrids, bred from Florida natives.
Rabbiteyes only do well in the southeast.

Blueberries warrant careful research before purchase. Buy a pH meter early.

LINK: soil ph meter | eBay

 

[MossRoad]

With our Fall Gold raspberries, a new shoot comes up and has a crop in late summer/early fall. Then it goes dormant all winter. It buds out again in spring, has a 2nd crop in early summer, then a big 3rd crop in late summer/early fall again. Then it dies. So, 3 crops from one cane. I prune out the dead ones each spring. Also, I dig out any runners that try to escape the row and give them away each spring as well. Given away hundreds of them. My grandma gave them to me when I was probably 15 years old, so they'be been to three houses over the last 40 years. :thumbsup:

 

[RSKY]

Don't know anything about blueberries or raspberries but in the first post you mentioned blackberries. My father-in-law has blackberry vines on an old woven wire fence. Don't know what kind they are but they are the biggest, sweetest berries I've ever had. Ever year he burns one side. It grows out and produces the next year as he burns the other side. Works great for him. There is enough produced for him, all three of my families, my sister in law, and various other neighbors and friends. The fence is about thirty feet long and we us tall step ladders to get the top berries. The thorns are a half inch long and HURT when the stick you.

We moved into the house where we now live in 1978. The next spring I dug up some of his blackberry vines to start on the fence behind our house. Spent the next thirty years and untold gallons of Roundup trying to kill them out. The thorns could literally pull you off a lawnmower. About ten years ago I walked up and down both sides of the fence every time I mowed and sprayed the ground to finally kill all the vines.

I'll just go to his house and pick them.

Good luck with your vines.

RSKY