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Blackberry /raspberry market garden help- layout and what plants to add to guild?

 
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Hi there, I’m in South. Carolina zone 7 b, blackberries grow wild here and usually do well, but I’m planning a market garden for them utilizing permaculture methods.
2 questions-
What other plants to add to a blackberry guild? Raspberry guild?
How to lay it out?
We have a slope so will be planting on contour and using t posts and wire to support the berries, wondering with that setup, would spacing between rows or width of rows be different when using permaculture methods? How many support plants to blackberries? Or just do a basic market garden layout and add in support species as an understory and occasionally between berry bushes?
 
gardener
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Location: North Carolina zone 7
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Hi Anna. I too reside in zone 7b, but in NC. Are you planning to use the native invasive blackberries or a different type?
 
steward
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Location: USDA Zone 8a
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Anna, you might find this post of interest as this is about a market garden with berries and other plants:

https://permies.com/t/41285/Berries-market#415560

He is in NC and talks about his layout and which plants are on which row.
 
pollinator
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Location: Kent, UK - Zone 8
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They may grow wild, but I would definitely recommend working with cultivated varieties. The wild varieties of blackberry have hugely variable fruit; flavour, sweetness, size, quantity of pith, toughness etc... For a market garden you want a reliable product you can sell, so cultivated strains are hugely beneficial.

As for a guild, my experience is that blackberries grow best natively in either exposed soils or in shaded woodland. However they don't tend to fruit prolifically in shade. That gives you an indication of the conditions they like - their roots systems seem to thrive in soil with high carbon content (forest floor). They don't do as well with root zone competition from grasses and the like.

I would consider a plan with plentiful use of comfry (shades the soil, reducing root zone competition with grasses) and mulching with woodchips. Well rotted chips are best, to avoid the nitrogen leeching that can happen. I would plant comfry in the path area, where the stems will flop sideways, then mow/slash it down around picking time.
 
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