I just received three raspberries, and a currant from Indiana Berry, and the raspberries are huge, single cane over pencil size, ton's of roots, and were only $3.25 and $3.00. The currant was a little small, but I didn't expect a giant plant anyway. So great price, large size, if you need to pinch pennies, this is your company. All were bare root and dormant. Packaged extremely well. This company is awesome to say the least! I would order from them with pleasure any day. The next day I received one bare root from American Meadows. The raspberry was small, not packaged well at all, and dried out. It may not make it? Have you seen the raspberry packaging at Home Depot, well it was like that, unsealed, dry, and put in a box too small, so the cane was bent and broke a few inches above dirt. It was not damaged in shipping, it was damaged putting it in the too small box! Idiots! I know this will not hurt the plant at all, but it just goes to show how this company could give a rip. Avoid them like the plague! Four times the cost too! The only place I could find that had Kiwi Gold. A shame because this is an excellent cultivar. It has lost favor for whatever reason? Looking for Valentina. Willing to trade suckers. I have many cultivars here. All the gold ones I could find. Cascade Gold, Honey Queen, Fall Gold, Double Gold, Kiwi Gold (if it makes it?), and Anne.

Hi Everyone! Thanks again for everyones input, my comments below Oregonwoodsmoke Thanks for the suggestion in terms of using a cross line between wires, Excellent suggestion! It is simple enough but at the same time, I would have never thought of that. In terms of mowing down the fall berries, that is my plan as well. I plan to remove the clothes line from my turnbuckles and mow away. As for the clothes line, Im actually using a more heavy duty version of the green vinyl coated line. This line is stiff but not quite as stiff as many of the wire coils you mention. Glen Thanks for the suggestion on the deer spray. I hate to put money into the garden in lieu of a more permanent solution but this might be the best option. How long does the Deer Out last? We usually get hard thunderstorms throughout the summer so do you have to continually reapply? As a side note, I was talking with my "mystical friend" and she said that I have to release my fear of the deer! She claims that my continual worry is what is attracting them to my beds. She might be right (laughing)!! Ive been paranoid of the deer every since I put in my main garden (1000 sq ft) five years ago. I think your advice on waiting to see how the plants grow is good. Ill watch their growth patterns this year and make adjustments as I go along. athenainwi Thanks for your advice. I didnt think about keeping the varieties separate, that is a great "note to self." In terms of keeping different varieties separate in each bed, does everyone have any recommendations given that fact that I already have multiple varieties in each bed? For example, if either Heritage or Anne crowds out the other, should I just prune the shoots of either variety to keep them in check??? Ive also noticed that Heritage is starting to move in on my Jewel plant in Bed 2. backyardener Yes, that is the exact same line that I purchased from Lowes. It seems to be pretty sturdy for the most part. socalliegal You might try doing a Google search on each species to get their growth habits. Im new to this too and Ive had to do a TON of homework to get this all figured out. I am surprised that more vendors dont offer information on growth habits or trellising when they sell their plants. You might also post this as a separate topic on GardenWeb. You will probably get more replies that way. For what its worth, here are my suggestions Canby This looks like a fall bearing raspberry so you will probably want to mow the plants down after they fruit. You could go with a simple "T" trellis design with your crossbar at 3 feet. This should keep them contained. But you dont necessarily need to use a trellis for these berries due to their growth habit. If you grow these in a hedgerow, Ive heard that for good light penetration and growth you should keep the hedgerow at a width of (12-15"). So the only pruning that will be done on these is on the suckers (new plant shoots) that grow outside this width. Someone please correct me if Im wrong. Black Satin I believe these are considered "semi erect." So they will grow upright for a while and then the canes will flop over. When the flop onto the ground, the canes will tip root (mine did) and multiply. So you will need a trellis to keep them off the ground and additional support as the plant gets larger. You can prune the tips of the canes at (3-4 ft) (depending on the height of your trellis lines) and then attach the canes to your line. The plant will start to produce lateral branches once cut which you can train to your lines as well. I will see if I can find the page I used for my trellis designs and then send it to you. In the meantime, you can check out the following page for info: http://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalog/html/ec/ec1303/ They have a good page on raspberries as well. Thanks again everyone!!! Terry

I don't have clay, but ledge, and what we did was to take a mixture of topsoil and compost to make mounded rows on top of our rocky soil (didn't even bother to double dig as we would for veggies), maybe 6" deep, and plant the canes in that. Did every 3ft and boy have the raspberries spread! They have even started coming up through the mulch on top of our poor native soil! They're very shallow-rooted. I planted Triple Crown blackberries so they are trailing, do need support (planted in 2012 and they didn't need much/didn't produce much in 2013 but need trellis now). Those I intentionally tip-rooted to get them to spread, cut the canes connecting old and new plants this spring once the new plants started sending up shoots of their own (not just roots on the buried tip). The older canes are also sending out fruiting laterals now. The Encore and Killarney raspberries are more upright. Those varieties you want to prune out the canes after they have borne fruit since they only bear once. The new shoots that are coming up now will bear next summer. But you have to check to see if you have a different type that will bear twice on the same cane before deciding how to prune them. I did plant them where they get some late afternoon shade but found a lot of bleached-out raspberries last year - hopefully this year will be better, we had a heat wave last July and while I kept them watered, the sun was intense. We covered the bare soil with burlap on the sides and between canes, some clover and weeds have managed to seed in the gaps but they're easily pulled, I do check each spring to see if new canes or weeds are coming up under the burlap. If canes, I rearrange the burlap to give them light and let them get stronger before transplanting (try to keep them attached to mother plant roots and just move the new shoot a little into the row, rather than cut), if weeds they are weak and I can pull them. We've mulched with wood chips from tree service in between rows and that hasn't worked as well - the potentilla is spreading in the mulch anyway.

I won't attempt to answer all of your questions. These types of fruit are collectively refered to as brambles. Brambles are much easier to grow in the ground than in pots, and are much more productive that way. If they are growing in the ground it should be relatively easy to take some to transplant, or propagate them when it comes time to move. Especially so if you have a time-table for the move. Blackberries and raspberries have two basic types. Primocane (sometimes called fall or everbearing) and floricane types. Primocane types grow the fruit on canes the same year that those canes emerge from the ground. If allowed to overwinter, they can bear a second, smaller crop the next year. Floricane types don't fruit until the year after they emerge from the ground (they have to experience one winter before they fruit). Nearly all blackberries and black raspberries (certainly all thornless ones) are floricane varieties. Rasberries are common in both types, although I don't know which types the thornless ones come in. Raspberry "thorns" are generally more of a fuzz and are not dangerous. Blackberries and black raspberries can be vicious blood-drawers. Raspberries and blackberries have a very different taste and character. Everyone has their preference. How would you answer a question "Does apple taste better than pear?" The blackberries seem to have much greater variation in flavor amongst varieties than do raspberries. I grow 4 varieties of primocane red raspberry, 1 variety of black raspberry, and 5 varieties of blackberries (all thornless). It would be hard for me to pick one type if I had to. If I had to lose one it would probably be the black raspberries because of the thorns. If I had to pick one for you, from what you described, I would probably go with blackberries planted in the ground. They will be the most productive, are easier to keep from spreading, and can be thornless. Understand that you won't get any fruit the year you plant them and probably not much the following year either. The reason fresh berries are so expensive is because they are perishable, fragile, and labor-intensive to pick. That makes them great candidates for growing at home.