storm blew over the black raspberries and now we have dozens of babies

Well we had a bad storm on March 29 here that knocked over trees and houses, well it blew over our black raspberries onto the ground, didn't notice before they all rooted baby plants all over the lawn next to the patch..those buggers are prolific.

so yesterday I dug up 16 plants and gave to two neighbors and have probably 3 time that many more yet to dig up..sending some out to family and friends..and going to move some to a trellis in the back..so glad I LOVE black raspberries..

wondering IF I SHOULD consider them a money crop..sure could have sold a lot of berry bushes had I planned ahead this year..

and another possibility would be to put in a couple long rows and sell berries too..as they are quite rare in this area (black ones)..and red ones are pricey at the stores.

so..

guess maybe this has forced me to rethink black raspberries ..in the future..as a possible cash crop..they will tip root but also will root anywhere on the stemp where they touch damp soil..i basically could get hundreds of plants each year ..

roadside stand hext year anyone??

In my limited experience with black raspberries, the time it took to pick a quart wasn't worth the price per quart ($5 is what we charged). Even at $6 it wouldn't have been so. I only tried this a couple of times, and I wasn't picking at breakneck speed but wasn't slacking either. It's quite possible that I could've upped my picking game and made it worthwhile but I dunno...

I should say that the places I was picking from had a good crop of berries but the patches were kinda wild and in blocks that were sometimes pretty wide and hard to get to the center of. So if the black raspberries were tip pruned and were set up in an orderly-ish fashion, I could see it working out commercially.

Not to discourage you but I wanted to relay my experience trying to make money with black raspberries...

by keeping up with the pruning of the raspberries you can pick easily and make it more worthwhile. check out this video from the maine extension. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOzo4s9Z9jE
i'd imagine it would be hard to sell enough plants to make it worth it. you might be able to sell it to some people but once those people have them, there will no longer be a customer base. you could raise other veggies and weird fruits to keep them coming back. just my opinion.