Blackberry and raspberry

Did I screw up?

I have 2 rows of established blackberry and this year planted raspberry pretty much right next to it. I randomly came up on an article that said this is bad. Do I need to move my raspberries to another spot farther away?

Did the article say why it was bad? And how far away did they want you to keep them?

It said that raspberry could potentially give a virus to blackberry. I want to say it said 500 feet away

It’s worth mentioning I’ve also now seen articles saying how wonderful it is lol. I actually planted them there last year but some jerk raccoon or something kept digging them up until they finally died. Only one was apparently not attractive enough to warrant attention so 4 are new

On the property I've owned for four years, there is a decades-old (I suspect) raspberry patch that supplies more berries than we need each year. I live on Blackberry Ln -- named for the ubiquitous wild blackberry bramble all over the place, and there is no spot on my property that's 500' from blackberry weeds. It doesn't seem to be a problem here, but it might be different if you're buying both in.

I've heard anecdotally that wild black raspberries should be kept away from blackberries because of the above-mentioned concerns. I don' think it applies to cultivars.

j

I have alternating rows of wild red raspberries and blackberries and the only problem I have is keeping them pruned and trellised! No irrigation of course.

Ok I guess I’ll keep them in place then. I really didn’t want to move them anyways. Thanks

Joe Hallmark wrote:Did I screw up?

I have 2 rows of established blackberry and this year planted raspberry pretty much right next to it. I randomly came up on an article that said this is bad. Do I need to move my raspberries to another spot farther away?

Don't feel bad: I didn't know either, but blackberries do not grow well in Wisconsin, so I was never tempted to plant them together. I only have raspberries.
I had no idea but the reason I would not plant them close to each other is that they both like to "wander" and you may end up with a tangled mess of berries and that would make harvesting or pruning a real nightmare.
So now, how to correct it? figure out which kind you want to keep there and make cuttings of the other one at pruning time. Move the cutting to their new bed farther away and then remove them from their old bed [mercilessly].
I don't work with blackberries, but raspberries are very easy to move: layer them in the spring, when they are growing well [Scratch the soil, lay the branch or stem in the little trench and cover the whole length]. Next year, along that buried stem, you will have a number of new plants. Dig out the whole branch, clip in as many new plants as it made and plant them where you want them. Cuttings are a just a bit harder, but ...
https://plantura.garden/uk/fruits/raspberries/propagating-raspberries

Hi Joe,
I wouldn't bother moving them. I had raspberries right next to Blackberries and it worked fine. The argument about spreading virus is like when the poultry people say to keep chickens away from ducks, because the ducks can make them sick. This only applies if there is a sick bird... and then it doesn't matter if its a duck or chicken, they both can spread it easily. Same with the brambles. If one is sick, a blackberry can spread to a blackberry just as easily as a raspberry can. Are you going to keep all your blackberry plants separate just because? I don't think so. I wouldn't.

I had read that you should isolate black raspberries (no mention of whether they're wild) isolated from other raspberries because of a virus they carry, never that you shouldn't put blackberries and raspberries together. And 500 feet is unrealistic for most people. But here's my experience:
I never used to plant either because there are a lot of wild blackberries and raspberries, they're mostly unhealthy and unproductive, and I figured they'd give the diseases to my plants. But then I saw my neighbor's highly productive red raspberries, and got starts from him. These are everbearing, that is, they put out a little fruit halfway up the canes that bore last year if you don't cut them all to 6" in fall; then, starting in August they bear until it frosts, even if that is November 1st. Unfortunately I don't know the variety name as my neighbor doesn't pay attention to that. Over the last 14 years, I've moved my patch twice--this seems to benefit them. Each time I gave away quite a few extras, including to the neighbor I'd originally gotten them from. Propagating them is actually easier than the previous poster said--no need to bother with trenching and layering, they do it themselves, just dig up the extras that are in your pathways.
So a few years ago, I decided to try thornless blackberries as my neighbor was doing well with them, but someone else offered me starts from her huge plants. I put them next to the new raspberry patch. It takes them three years to produce. After three years, they were productive, but the berries were extremely sour, so I ripped them out and replaced them with starts from my neighbor. Last year was the first year they flowered--but the berries withered and turned black before ripening, all of them. By then they were actually partly interwoven with the raspberries, but the raspberries were productive as usual, unaffected. I got no response to my query to the Extension about what could have caused that--it was a drought year, but that didn't affect the raspberries, and the blackberries were ripening in July, the only month that had normal rainfall. Maybe it was the dread virus you read about. I'll have to see what happens this year. Incidentally, the neighbor had the two about ten feet apart and never had this problem.

Just to add my 2 cents- I alternate blackberry and raspberry plants in a row and haven't had any noticeable problems.

I'm nothing remotely approaching an expert, but no matter the plant, it seems there are always some sort of warnings about disease or pest or some other dire consequence of not following the industrial recommendations they make.   If we develop our properties to be healthy from the soil up, shouldn't that reduce / eliminate disease and pest pressures?  We'll never eliminate them, but if we have an abundant landscape that is in balance, that should improve overall resistance to all the nasties.

I'd rather worry less and work toward a resilient landscape.  What works, works and what doesn't work can be a learning experience.

Derek--I've sure noted that phenomenon with advice books about livestock! I'd never have gotten chickens if I'd read the books first. I'm reading one now that talks about four kinds of worms, five kinds of external parasites and a few diseases and suggests checking each chicken daily. Another one listed even more diseases and gave instructions for doing an autopsy if one dies--I am NOT doing amateur chicken autopsies!

From many years' experience, red raspberries will try to crowd out and overtake/kill golden raspberries (fragile but the best tasting!) so give the goldens another foot or two away from the reds than normal spacing.

Joe Hallmark wrote:It’s worth mentioning I’ve also now seen articles saying how wonderful it is lol. I actually planted them there last year but some jerk raccoon or something kept digging them up until they finally died. Only one was apparently not attractive enough to warrant attention so 4 are new

if racoons are still bugging you I recommend spraying hot pepper extract with water or just buy some really hot hot sauce and spray them on the plants and it would do the trick

Joe Hallmark wrote:Did I screw up?

I have 2 rows of established blackberries and planted a raspberry right next to it this year. I randomly came up on an article that said this is bad. Do I need to move my raspberries to another spot farther away?

I'm a plant pathology expert and instances of viruses being transmitted from blueberries to raspberries are rare. if you practice good intercropping strategies you're safe don't plant different raspberry varieties next to each other and you'll be fine