Hamilton Betchman

In addition to the great soil building recommendations, since you are starting from scratch, I would try digging swales, buried hugelkulture, and greywater recycling.



You should get a copy of Gaia's Garden, chapter 4 and 5 discuss building soil and storing water.

These solutions will work perfectly for you.

[quote=Alder Burns]Apparently the US Fish and Wildlife Service has just officially declared the Eastern Puma extinct and had it removed from the Endangered Species list. See http://www.planetexperts.com/eastern-puma-declared-extinct-removed-from-endangered-species-list/
So who out there East of the Mississippi and North of Florida has seen or heard reliable account of a Puma in the wild recently?  I for one have heard multiple accounts.  Our own neighbor saw one in backwoods central Georgia five years ago, and what's more, she found a footprint which was confirmed as that of a puma.  Before then I read believable stories of them in the Upper Peninsula of MI and also in New England.  Personally I think that just because nobody has succeeded in shooting, trapping, or running over one in 75 or 100 years doesn't mean they're not out there, but that they've simply gotten savvy about how to live around people.   Here in the West, where they are obviously officially not extinct, they sometimes turn up in rather large cities.  One was discovered not far from downtown Sacramento, CA last summer, as I recall....[/quote]


After further research, this was mostly a re-classification thing. Florida Panthers have not been declared extinct, which would probably be the subspecies being spotted in the southeast.

https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2018/01/north-american-eastern-cougar-mountain-lion-extinct-spd/

From the article: "(The de-listing did not impact the subspecies of Florida panthers, a big cat considered to be one of the world's most endangered mammals.)"

There is a very large, very dark cat that has been regularly spotted around the Manchester State Forest.

I have personally seen it once from a deer stand. The cat was easily larger than the does in the field, but moved quickly, remaining in a ditch the entire time.

We are yet to get a game camera picture, but we did find a "scratch post" nearby.


There were claw marks over 7 feet up on a rotting pine tree.

From the people I have spoken with, the cat is always spotted near a creek, ditch bank, or swamp; but these are prevalent in my area.

Bryant RedHawk wrote:For those of us in the Southern States the preferred (best fruiting and heat tolerance) species is; Mysore raspberry (Rubus niveus), unlike the other commonly planted species, this one needs no winter chill to flower and fruit.

Since you already have a species more suited to more northern climates, you will need to do some sun shading during the hottest parts of the summer months.
Good luck, my experience is that the more you leave these sorts of berries to their own devices, the better they reward you.

Pruning is just like for black berries, cut the canes back in the fall, leaving around 3 feet of old cane. That way they don't turn into a "bramble patch" Like Brer Rabbit loved to live in.

Redhawk

Thank you very much for this useful information. I will look into adding some Mysore Raspberries in the future, I wish I would have known of these earlier.

Your pruning answer was just what I was looking for, simple and practical!

Thanks!

Hello everyone. This is my first post to the Permies forum, so first I just want to say hello, and that I am every excited to be joining this community.

I Reside in South Carolina, zone 8a, and I have been gardening for about ten years.

I have recently begun adopting more principals of permaculture, so I have begun trying to grow more than just the conventional "truck crops."

Last year, I planted some Glencoe Thornless Raspberries on the east side of a metal building, in a raised bed.

The initial fruiting this year was lacking, as was to be expected; However, the plant has really exploded in growth since then.

I had read somewhere that it was difficult to get Raspberries to produce this far south. I heard that raspberries need a certain number of freezing hours, per winter, in order to fruit. I also heard that they needed protection from the heat of the summer.
In order to try and avoid some of these shortfalls, I took several steps; including using a raised bed and planting on the east of the building.

I was hoping the raised bed would expose more of the roots to the cold, while the east side was chosen to provide afternoon shade.

I also use a kaolin clay/DE mixture to provide sunburn protection.



Anyways, I was wondering if anyone had any tips or advice for raspberry growing, in general. When is it appropriate to prune? Should the plants be staked or caged? What are good fertilization schedules? Anything would be great appreciated!