I did not have a good start with my first batch of berry bushes in this area. Specially the boysenberry and raspberry bushes. The roots were bound inside the pots and did not seem to recover from planting. So I got some new plants and put them in the ground. I took the old ones and dug some new holes just in case they come back to life. But I think its best to move ahead with new plants in the area where I want to grow more berries.
Also the holes were not as deep and wide as I hoped, but at the time it was the best I could do for them. Digging this area was much harder than other areas of my property. And six of them was a lot of work. I could not get my skidsteer back here to drill them so had to dig by hand. Me and my partner using a pickaxe and shovels.
But once the old plants were out of the holes, my foreman helped me dig them bit deeper. The soil is very tough there, and actually dipped the pickaxe while he was digging. I guess the geology right here is mostly rock and some clay.
Just digging holes this big took us an hour. So not easy going.. pretty surprised the t-posts went in without much issue.
Excuse the milkweed, it dots the whole area but I will pull them up as they become a problem.
The raspberries came as bare root plants, but the boysenberries arrived as whole plants. Kinda was hoping to get both in whole plant form, but oh well.. I have high hopes for the bare root raspberry too.
I add some Foxfarm Ocean Forest soil to each of the holes. I used this stuff to grow my cannabis plants and worked really well.
This soil is good for larger plants, mostly just not seedlings. I have Foxfarm Happy Frog dirt for that when I need it.
These plants look really happy, hope they like their new home.
Hard to say how the bare roots will do. I will plant them and keep an eye out for leaves coming out of the stems.
Using the good dirt in the hole we dug they should have a good start. Maybe one day they will be strong enough to push through that hard clay and rock. But for now they have around a 5 gallon hole to live in.
All planted, added the top soil back over the good dirt to help to keep it from washing away. I will come back and add mulch eventually.
Hah hard to see the bareroot raspberry next to the boysenberry. It may be awhile before there is lots to pick from these bushes, but I think within a year or two.. Maybe even this year we may have berries if they adjust well to transplanting.
All of this is a long term investment, so even if they do not produce much this year I think three of each should be producing lots in a couple years.
🎉🎉🥳 Congratulations 🥳🎊🎊
Your post has just been curated and upvoted by Ecency
keep up the good work
ok i had to google the boysenberries they look like blackberries then i see in wikipedia it's a cross "
is a cross between the European raspberry (Rubus idaeus), European blackberry (Rubus fruticosus), American dewberry (Rubus aboriginum), and loganberry (Rubus × loganobaccus).
Makes me wonder what it would taste like .. i'll ask the wife to keep an eye out in the supermarket.
Join us on the Ecency Discord
Oh that is really cool. Honestly I did not look into their lineage but that is good to know. May be hard to find at super markets.. I only see those kind of berries at local farmers markets.
Interesting, maybe it is your soil or the climate, but I have always considered raspberries somewhat of a weed. I would throw an stick of raspberries and they would just grow and were kind of hard to get rid of since they like to spread.
Same here. Under the right conditions, they just start spreading.
We have wild raspberries, blueberries and blackberries.. Indeed they will grow like weeds. But having a cultivated variety is more manageable and I can control its growth along the fencing I built for it.
"Interesting update! Did the new plants show signs of growth quicker than the old ones?"
Not much growth yet.. but hoping to see some soon.
does clay soil retain water in stem more than loamy or sandy soil,? but am not sure if its good for planting though my question is what happeneds if it is being used without the foxfarm ocean forest soil?
No it does not retain water well. I only use the clay as top soil.
If I was to plant it directly in clay the plants roots would have to be very strong just to break through.. and new plants cannot always do that. So starting the in potting soil is how I like to do it.
Man... Digging is kind of some work specially when the surface is hard having stones.
Indeed it was hard work.. those stones do not make it any easier.
I hope your plants flourish and be healthy, yes, I'm still not planting here, still planting
I bought 2 raspberry bushes like 10 years ago and they created so many suckers that I now have like 20m² covered in them.
This year, I will bend down some branches strategically; When they get contact to the soil, the shoot new roots from the nodes.
With that type of soil you got there, that's probably not going to happen soon.
I think you have to play the long game, if you want to change the soil.
Maybe there is a native shrub that is good at breaking down those rocks?
Over here, thistles break up hard soil. Whitethorn and things...
Maybe companion-plant and cut out the pioneer plants once they are getting too tall and finished their job?
It will probably take lots of roots, time and compost.
It looks like you are trying to grow in solid rock.
And about this ocean floor product: You got all this space and machinery and woodchips and stuff: you should make your own compost; lots of it.
Where I am, I don't really need organic mulch. Where you are, I'd try layering on tons of leaf mulch or woodchips, or whatever I can get.
But it looks like you got no worms there, anyways...
Tough soil...
Oh cool. Where I used to live I had a giant raspberry bush. But it was killed by a virus. Hopefully here it wont be as much as an issue as I see them growing in the wild here but not back there.
Yeah breaking down this soil will be very hard. Getting machinery back there would be hard and I need to wait for the beds to fall apart before I could get the skidsteer back there.. otherwise would have to use smaller machines to do that.
Indeed growing something else to break through the soil would probably help.. As it seems to be mostly clay and hard rock there.
I do not want to produce compost due to the risk of fire, I am also sensitive to mulch. I have to wear a respirator when handling it otherwise I get sick from long term exposure.
What the regenerative ag people preach: You need to somehow get more organic material (C mostly) into the soil, so the soil life food web thing whatever can do its job.
...sounds good, and you probably are aware, anyways...
Sensitive to mulch? You could sheet mulch with plastic tarps. That's kinda hard to breath in (?).
As for compost: if it ever got dry or dusty even, it would be ruined.
Compost needs to be moist, always.
As far as self-combusting compost rot: you need to monitor it, of course, if you add high N stuff like super green stuff or even manure.
Also, if it gets too hot during rot, it could become hydrophobic and thus dusty, which is bad compost anyways...
Maybe you should look into it some more, or maybe I misunderstood.
Adding the 'exported' soil seems to be a very good idea because it seems the ordinary soil appears strong and kinda less fertile
Indeed, hopefully I wont need much more if it.
That definitely looks like some very unforgiving ground! I hope this batch of plants does well for you.
Hah yeah that ground was really hard to break through.
Wow, you're so cool, you plant the fruit of Berry fruit, I'm curious about the berry
Thanks man.. its lots of work but worth it I think.
Its really inspiring to see you continually growing your garden. If you aren't already, I would think you could be totally self-sufficient when all of these plants mature. Thank you for sharing!
Hah that would be cool.. long term it should pay off I think.
Good luck with the Raspberries.. I've heard they're finicky little bastards
I suddenly got interested in planting different berries. I only have mullberry here and I want to have other kinds too, but I'm not sure they will like the climate in my country. We are a tropical place - just wet and dry season.
I found transplanting those boysenberries and raspberries tedious, though. I hope they are just like unwanted weeds that spread easily.
Ocean soil or cow dung is excellent for plant growth and roots. I often mix cow dung with soil, which keeps the soil rich and soft.