sammy lewis

Thank you for all your advice and insight. Planted 5 Apple trees last year, old heirloom varieties. I also have several other fruit trees planted and planning on a few more this year. Hard to do everything I want on a budget so spacing out over several years, cane fruit this year, and some bush fruit as well. Hopefully in two more years I can have everything planted.

I am getting started on building myself a food forest. My parents have both blackberries and red raspberries on their property and have had for many years. I do not know the varieties of either just that the blackberries are thornless and very large and produce tart berries that process well. The raspberries are an everbearing red and are of medium size and tend to be very good eating right off the bush. I am planning to obtain plants from their stock but in reading on how to grow these berry plants and what else I can add to my plans I read that it was not wise to plant the blackberries and raspberries together. Does anyone here have experience with growing both of these in relatively close quarters? My plan is 1 row of 10-15 feet long of each separated by other plants so they are not directly next to each other. My parents plants are separated by a distance of about 50 feet, while mine would be slightly closer. Is this a good idea or should I scrap plans for both and just focus on 1 plant or the other. I think this would be fine based on my parents experience but after reading about virus transmission between the 2 it has me slightly concerned about losing both plants. I would also at some point later to plant some golden raspberries along with these but not sure and want some advice of more seasoned growers.

Thank you for your help.