Posted by glenn_russell 6b, RI (My Page) on Thu, Jul 17, 08 at 8:38 Hi Bonnie- I do have a lot of wild berries here on my property, but really, they don't compare to the cultivated ones. The ones you will purchase (either from a nursery, or online site as bare root) will be much larger, taste better, and be less seedy. The time to do any transplanting (or plant bare root) is early spring, or late fall. I'd recommend searching the archives here in this forum and you'll find a lot of information. -Glenn why is that? If the wild berries are given some food and taken care of do they produce better fruit?

bigalmo: If you plant a Concord grape vine every six feet along the fence, you are not going to have any trouble hiding the posts. Within 3-4 years you may not be able to see the fence at all. You sure wouldn't be able to see any poor little berry plants under them. I wouldn't plant any other berries under the Concords, and in fact would keep the other berries separate from one another as well. Blackberries and raspberries are not bushes, but caneberries, which can spread quite a bit on their own, especially raspberries. You don't want them to become mixed together. Blueberries are a special case, with specific low Ph soil requirements, and should be planted in their own specially prepared soil area. In Iowa, if you are in an area of limestone soils, your natural Ph may be close to 7, but blueberries like a Ph of 5 or slightly below. With that many Concord vines, you could eventually have one heck of a Concord crop. Unless you make juice or a whole lot of jelly, you might follow the Fruitnut's suggestion and check out some other varieties to mix in. Jupiter, particularly, seems to be a real favorite of grape growers here. Gooseberries are not my particular favorite, since I could never figure out very good uses for them, especially when compared with other berries I grow, but I would also assign them their own private bed. Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

When we first moved here, most of the swamp was either red-twig dogwood, cattails or phragmites. All of them are extremely aggressive in a wet setting. In slightly higher places, there is some sort of wild pussy willow, what I think is arrowwood viburnum, wild winterberry, too much amur honeysuckle, coltsfoot and, of course skunk cabbage. I've planted lindera benzoin, viburnum trifolia, Hammalis virginiana, Rosa palustris, and more winterberry in relatively wet areas. Only the rose went into serious standing water. Slightly higher up, in areas that stay dry, but don't have a lot of root room before they hit water I've put a Little Girl magnolia, some hydrangea, and there are fairly large pin oaks, maples and ashes. One of my biggest gardening obstacles is a fairly limy soil. Somehow it got into my brain that the acid lovers can't handle it because the minerals clog their vascular system. So they might do better provided with as much water as possible. This does explain why winterberry grows wild here, and why my pin oaks aren't chlorotic when it's a real problem locally. So there are things like the magnolia that wouldn't ordinarily be placed in a wet place, but I'm putting down there as an experiment.

You can plant container grown plants at any time of the year. Bare root plants do best if planted while they are dormant (winter). Blue berries have shallow roots and like lots of water so it usually works out best to plant during the time of year that the soil will stay damp or wet. Planting them before it gets hot and dry just means more work for you. Black tips usually means they got frosted but maybe it also means sunburn. If the plant was grown in the shade and is now out in full sun it could be sunburned. Blue berries do fine in shade or half day sun but I get more berries by growing them in full sun (but I have to water them all the time).