Wgafaw: You are correct that you have both blackberries and black raspberries, and your identification of each is also correct. While it is possible that either or both of these berries is "wild" (i.e. native), it is far more likely they were planted by someone years ago. People have been living in North Carolina for a long time, and those look like cultivated berry varieties to me. Blackberries do very well in the Southeast climate. They grow just fine here, and my climate is not so much different from yours. I don't know why anyone would say black raspberries are particularly difficult either, since they did well for me here when I had them, but they are subject to a number of viral and fungal diseases that can make them difficult to grow in certain locations. For whatever reason, the variety you have seems quite well adapted to your climate and location or they probably wouldn't have survived. If you value these berries, and want to restore them to their full producing capabilities, you might try keeping the areas around the plants free of weeds, mulching the plants, and even fertilizing when that is necessary. I seem to have picked up the suggestion that your black raspberry leaves are yellowing, which could be due to low fertility or iron deficiency. You should also use the practice of cutting old canes down to the ground after they have produced, to allow the new canes room to grow in. If you particularly like the black raspberries, it is possible to start new plants by allowing the canes to arch down to the ground, then burying them so that they tiproot. If you can get rid of that leaf yellowing with some soil amendments (although this could also be a symptom of viral disease), you might be able to grow quite a few black raspberries. Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

I'm in zone 7 and have just started growing Chandler, Brigitta, Chippewa. I have not grown blueberries for about 15 years, when I lived in zone 8. Since KURITE is way north of me, I looked up what varieties had large fruit, varied fruit times, and were reliably hardy that far north. Everything else being equal, I agree that bigger is often better for fruit. One exception that I look out for is that bigger is always better for commercial growers. Sometimes varieties developed for commercial growers have stressed size and shipping ease above all other traits, so I always search the "fine print" when I read about an extra larger variety. I also agree with FrankTank, that the flavor of homegrown is so much better than commercially grown, that I don't notice differences in flavor among varieties of homegrown fruit very much. What I wanted to stress was that soil prep is always important, but with blueberries it is perhaps more important than other fruits. Besides their need for extremely low pH, they have more shallow roots than many other fruits. If I'm planting a pear tree, amending the planting hole will give it a little help the first year, but its tap root is going to be heading down beyond the planting hole very quickly, so you can't do much except hope your soil is adequate and give it some fertilizer in the springtime. Because blueberries develop very shallow, dense, and fibrous root systems, preparation of the soil before planing has much more benefit. Because their roots are shallow and dense, they dry out very quickly, but they also need soil that drains and isn't too heavy. Since KURITE was working with a small space, I recommended preparing the soil almost the same as if growing them in a container. The extreme soil amending I suggested would not be practical for someone with lots of blueberry plants, but for KURITE I think it would be worth the effort so that the plants would have the best possible environment for maximum production from a small space. The $20 or so it will cost for the oil absorbent will make a big difference with a small area because it keeps the soil very friable for the plants' small roots. It is exceptionally good at holding moisture and nutrients for the plants roots. Because their roots don't spread out as much as other plants their size, blueberries need a medium that is moisture and nutrient dense. Peat works well at first for this, but it decays and compacts quickly, whereas the oil absorbents are insert and last virtually forever. They are used for containers very successfully and are consumer accessible versions of the products used to maintain baseball fields. Growers of Bonsai have used similar products for centuries for the same reason I suggest it for blueberries, because in both cases you are dealing with plants that are depending upon a root system with limited space.

I have started growing blueberries this year and so for everything I have done is organic except adding sulfuric acid to alter the PH of our tap water. I use Calloways Organic fertilizer 6-2-4 with 2% sulfur and I fertilize 2-3 teaspoons once in two weeks. Folks at the container gardening forum suggest to use slow release fertilizer for potted plants but the Calloways is regular organic fertilizer and they don't seem to carry slow release version of their organic fertilizer. I don't see any marked improvement in the growth of my blues or any other plants with this Calloways fertilizer, probably they are growing well but having just started gardening I'm expecting too much. Blueboy suggested to use micro life fertilizer but it is not available in Dallas, I plan to get it when I get a chance to travel down south. Also a friend of mine in Round Rock near Austin swears by Micro Life Azalea fertilizer 6-2-4 with 14% Sulfur for blueberries in ground. Not sure how far it would work for potted plants. I would like to continue with organic gardening as much as possible and regarding water I may install a rain water collection system in future.

Well, I'm no expert, but I grew red raspberries successfully in Bartlesville, OK for several years. I didn't know they were not supposed to grow well in OK. I planted them along the concrete-block foundation, on the east side of my house. Of course they were all brambley and I didn't have but 8 or 10 plants to start with. I'd go out every day in the early summer and get maybe a handful, sometimes would pop them in my mouth, other times bring them in and drop them in a freezer container. I'd just add to the container and keep it in the freezer till it was full. When I had collected two quarts, I made some jam. Yum! As I look at the list of what they need, I can see I accidently bumbled into a good spot. The cool concrete block wall kept them sheltered from the hot afternoon sun and from some of winter's effects as well, I suppose. I don't remember what kind I had, but the fruit grew on one-year-old canes. My husband is partial to blackberries, it's "soul food" for him and his siblings. There were 11 kids in his family and his dad was an Oklahoma sharecropper. Times were really hard for them and they lived off the land most of the time. They remember going out with their buckets to pick wild blackberries, eating as many as they could hold while still managing to bring home enough to Mom so she could make her famous blackberry cobbler. He's 65 now, his mother's been deceased for quite awhile. But when she was alive, every family get-together they had, she had to bring a blackberry cobbler. Too many seeds for my taste, though.