Why am I growing a "Bramble Garden"?

Most gardeners spend long arduous hours eliminating stickers and vines from their beds. So, why in the world would anybody plant them on purpose? I ask myself this question every late summer when I begin the long, painful process of pruning. 

Lesson 1 of the gardener: Nothing delicious ever grows without some kind of nurturing. The sooner you understand that the "miracle" plant that boasts hi yields of that delicious fruit (that everyone in the house will be running out to pick early in the morning to put on their breakfast cereals) and requires no spraying, pruning or fertilizer...does not exist.  I know that the hard way. I attempted to do nothing to my peaches, plums, blueberry's, pomegranates and BRAMBLES, and I never could get that great big fruit that looks like the grocery store. I got peaches with rotten pits. Oranges that rot on the tree. Plums that fell to the ground green. Pomegranates the size of a cutie orange and raspberries that looked like shriveled grapes. So, I have been forced to prune and like a rebellious teenager, I grit my teeth the whole time. You may even hear me mumbling curse words at those vines as they scrape my arm and send little splinters through my gloves. Then I have a flash like a little cloud over my head, I am running out on that temperate spring morning in my pajamas, walking across the lawn to pick a handful of those delicious plump red raspberries to put in my yogurt, (of course, always in slow motion with perfect hair and makeup! ha ha). This thought always keeps me sticking around. No pun intended.

Therefore, I tackle this job of pruning like a baseball player in spring training. What is a "bramble garden"? According to the good ol' Webster, A bramble is a plant, usually prickly shrubs of the rose family, including the raspberries and blackberries. Bramble bushes have a distinctive growth form. They send up long, arching canes that do not flower or set fruit until the second year of growth.  The canes of raspberries are biennial -- they grow for one year and then produce flowers and fruits during the early summer of the second year. The second year canes die shortly after harvest.  I use the term "Bramble garden" loosely. I call it my "bramble garden" because like most of the phases of my 2 acre garden, I had this awesome idea that I could make a little cozy nook inside a horseshoe shaped trellis of raspberry canes. Have I achieved this idea yet? no.

this is the horseshoe nook I tried to create

before picture with all the weeds and last years growth

For the past 8 years, I have done search after search on the internet on how to prune raspberries. I get really confused. In fact, last year I think I even cut down the fruiting branches which would make sense when I only picked a handful of  raspberries the whole harvest. I would read about primocanes, floricanes and different trellissing methods usually the information was put out by some extension in Minnesota and was using terms I could not pronounce. However, this year something just clicked for me. I think I finally got it. So I am going to attempt to explain with no big scary words like I would explain it to my 9 year old.

my 9 year old

I wish someone would have explained it to me 8 years ago. Let's stick with one type today: Spring Fruiting trailing raspberries in Zone 8b.

Variety: Dorman Red Raspberries

Spring:

Raspberries and Blackberries fruit on canes(branches). Those branches are going to die and need to be cut down to the ground after fruiting.

Late Summer: 

Cut down fruiting branches to the ground when you can see the leftover fruiting buds. Now, you will notice these long green running vines trying to overtake your lawn. 

These are good! These are next years fruiting branches. So being very careful, You take these vines and trellis them. Gardening info sights will give you about 20 ways to do this.

this year I just tied them up and spaced them out

Again, adding to the confusion. So, just get them off the ground and tie them to something so they can continue to grow without getting hit with the mower or rooting in the grass! Fertilize with 10-10-10.

this is what it looks like with old and new canes before pruning

this is a great pic of old and new canes

Fall:
Make sure the long runners are trellising good and place more ties if needed.

Winter:

Early winter: provide any winter protection you may need...mulch, frost blanket, etc. Then do nothing and recover from the beating your hands and arms took from pruning in late summer.
Late winter. (Dec- Feb) Cut back branches you tied up to a good length for you or your trellis. My trellis is 5 feet high and I cut it so they are straight up or some I trellis up and to the side (like and upside down L)...so I just pick a good length. I also try to keep the nice big canes, they say around a pencil size. 

Now what happens is that runner vine from last summer that you so diligently tied up is going to produce little branches on it. These are going to grow the raspberries on them. So, look at your tied up cane, find the lateral branches and cut these to about 15-18 inches or I usually count 6-8 leaf buds. This will send all the nutrition to the berries. Around March, fertilize with 10-10-10. The plants will need consistent watering at least 1 inch a week. I use a drip system at the base of the plant because as you can see fungus is always a problem in this humidity.

Spring 2: 

Your back now enjoying your delicious plump raspberries in your cereal or yogurt, but just don't expect your kids to run out and voluntarily pick the fresh berries. I end up begging the kids to go out and eat them off the vine so that they either beat the birds to them or I don't have to go out and pick them. 

Post pruned raspberries. After 3 long days...

I would like to keep these turorials as short as possible. So, I will tackle everbearing Raspberries and Blackberries another blog as well as spraying schedule for disease. 

This year I did find a great article that really helped me. I put a link below for it.

http://www.caes.uga.edu/applications/publications/files/pdf/C%20766_2.PDF

Happy Gardening!
Nicki