Growing Raspberries and Blackberries in a Home Garden

Updated: February 20, 2023

Growing raspberries and blackberries (brambles)

Collectively brambles are defined as any species belonging to the Rubus genus. This covers a large number of plants found growing wild in the woods and fields surrounding us.
Brambles of interest to the home gardener, however, are domestic raspberries (red, black, yellow, and purple types) and blackberries (thornless and thorny types).
Wineberry, Rubus phoenicolasius, should not be grown in the home garden. It escapes cultivation and is now recognized as an invasive, non-native pest harmful to the natural environment.
Bramble species vary by fruit color, growth habit (thus cultural practice), pest problems, and other characteristics.
Bramble crowns and roots are perennial. Canes are biennial. The canes, typical biennial life-cycle is as follows: Each spring, canes known as primocanes emerge, grow tall, put out lateral branches, and overwinter. In the second growing year, the canes, now called floricanes, produce flowers and fruit.
Floricanes die after fruiting and must be removed eventually. Usually, this is done in late winter before new canes begin coming up.

**Raspberries - Red June bearing**
Varieties	Description
Amos-H	Good winter hardiness; mid-season berry. Round-shaped fruit of moderate size.
Latham	Mid-season, cold-hardy variety that tolerates virus diseases. Flavorful, firm fruit.
Lauren	Vigorous plants yield large berries with excellent flavor. May not do well in years when temperatures fluctuate widely in late winter.
Taylor	Tall, vigorous, erect plants. Fruits are large and firm with excellent flavor.
Titan	Very vigorous, cold-hardy cultivar but is susceptible to phytophthora root rot. Large, mild fruit. Early harvest.

**Raspberries - Red primocane bearing**
Varieties	Description
Amity	Similar to Heritage, but ripens two weeks earlier.
Autumn Britten	Two weeks earlier than Heritage; good flavor.
Caroline	University of Maryland release; excellent flavor. Harvest is earlier than Heritage.
Heritage	Widely adapted, a vigorous variety that suckers freely. Fruit is medium size, of very high quality, and tolerates light frosts. Harvest from mid to late August through severe frost or freeze.
Jaclyn	University of Maryland release; earliest primocane. Good flavor and heat tolerance.
Josephine	University of Maryland release. Strong plant; good pest resistance; very high quality fruit holds well.

**Raspberries - Yellow primocane bearing**
Varieties	Description
Anne	University of Maryland release. Large fruit with good flavor.
Fall Gold	Fruit is fairly soft, small, with an excellent, sweet flavor. Good cold hardiness; adapted to a wide variety of soils.

**Raspberries - Black**
Varieties	Description
Bristol	Large fruit of excellent quality. Erect, vigorous, productive plants.
Haut	University of Maryland release. Very good flavor, mid-size fruit; high-yielding plants.
Jewel	Vigorous and very productive mid-season cultivar with large, fine-flavored fruit and good disease resistance.

**Raspberries - Purple**
Varieties	Description
Brandywine	Vigorous, winter-hardy variety with canes that are large, erect, and thorny. Very large, tangy fruit.
Royalty	Large fruit that becomes sweeter as it reaches full purple color. Very vigorous and productive canes.

**Blackberries- Thornless-trailing (May not be suitable for colder portions of Western Maryland)**
Varieties	Description
Chester	Similar to Hull but ripens 10 days later. Very cold-hardy, productive canes with large, sweet fruit.
Dirksen	Vigorous, productive, erect canes. Large, high-quality fruit. Not as cold-hardy as other varieties.
Hull	Very vigorous, semi-erect canes. Large, sweet, firm fruit with excellent flavor.
Triple Crown	Vigorous and productive. Good cold hardiness. Good quality fruit.

**Blackberries - Thorny (More cold-hardy and sweeter than thornless types)**
Varieties	Cultivar
Cherokee	An erect and productive variety with medium-size fruit.
Darrow	Tall, vigorous plants with erect canes. Good winter hardiness. Firm, medium berries with good, sub-acid flavor. Ripens early.
Shawnee	Late, productive plants that are very cold-hardy. Large and flavorful fruit.

**Blackberries- Thornless-erect**
Varieties	Description
Apache	Largest fruit of the three cultivars. Ripens between the other two. Large fruit; very erect canes.
Arapaho	Ripens earlier than Navaho and has very small seeds. Vigorous and productive.
Navaho	Good flavor; small fruit. This was the first release in the thornless erect category.

Type of Bramble	Min. distance between rows (ft.)	Between plants (ft.)	Annual yield per plant (lbs.)	Yrs. from planting to first crop	Av. life span (years)
Raspberry-red	8	2	1.5	2	5 - 12
Raspberry-black	8	2.5	1.5	2	5 - 10
Raspberry-purple	8	3	1.5	2	5 - 12
Blackberry (thornless)	8	5	3 - 10	2 - 3	5 - 12

Here are the basics for growing brambles

Full sun is best; six hours minimum.
In warmer regions of the state, raspberries may prefer light shade from the hot late afternoon sun.
Plant brambles in early spring.
However, tissue-cultured brambles are tender and should be planted after the last spring frost.
Black raspberry plants are susceptible to mosaic virus and should not be planted close to red raspberries; Avoid poorly drained soils and sites where verticillium-susceptible crops (tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, eggplant, and strawberries) have been grown.
Wild brambles are a principal source of disease, so plant far from wild brambles and remove any within 50 yards.
Prune bare-root plants after transplanting.
Healthy, potted plants do not require any initial pruning.
After planting, cut off any old, dead canes attached to the crown as they may harbor disease.
Remove flower blossoms during the first year to encourage plant establishment.