raspberries close to the woods

Hello, there, I joined this forum as I saw some discussion somewhere that I cannot find now on growing raspberries close to the woods. Our garden is about 75 feet from the woods and we think that viruses from the woods have done in our two twenty foot rows of raspberries. They did well for 2 or 3 years, then quickly declined. We pulled one row that was down to 10% out this year, and will pull out the second row next year. Books I have read said you must remove all wild canes for 600 feet, which is impossible for us as we live tucked between two hills and that will never happen. Has anyone else been successful with cultivated raspberries close to the woods where wild raspberries grow? We loved having lots of raspberries.... Many thanks!

Hi Laurel,

I live in west pa, so i can't speak for everywhere

I have cultivated red raspberries growing at the edge of woods and in beds in the yard,
some have mixed with wild black raspberry volunteers with no problem
they have even hydridized so I get some mixed berries - large like the reds but more of the wild flavor
I fortunately do not have any virus problems
I grow the raspberries in mixed beds with other plants and keep the ground covered with leaf mulch
neighbors include comfrey, mint, hostas, pawpaws, blackberry, black locust, staghorn sumac, june berry, autumn olive, black currant, creeping charlie, wild violets,hansen bush cherry, yarrow, asparagus and various assorted weeds.

good luck

you don't say where you are.

can you change to marionberries or honeyberries ? something that is not susceptible to the same kind of infections?

was it a virus or rootworm/nematode?
would be tempted to contact county extension folks, and see if they know what is attacking them first.

Thanks for the responses. I forgot to say I am in western NYS close to the PA border. Duane, do you have wild raspberries in the vicinity? Morgan, I will call the County Agent again. The first call was not productive, but I will see if they can help diagnose what exactly happened. I am just going on what I have read so far... We will likely try some blackberries and currants, and maybe raspberries again in a different location and see what happens.

I am wondering if being stuck between hills and that close to the woods is limiting the amount of sunhine your plants recieve. I have noticed that late afternoon shade has diminished our raspberry production and will probably move them further down our south slope next year - hoping that will restore them. The blackberries we planted further down are recieving a full days ration of sun and are thriving.

I was thinking the same thing about my place. We have a LOT of wild blackberries and wild raspberries in our property borders which are mostly wooded. I would like to bring in more varieties of berries but I was concerned about the competition, cross pollination and disease issues. There is a lot of variety in the taste, size, color, texture etc of the fruits from different wild canes so I began culling out the plants which don't have desirable fruit. At least that way if I do end up planting a cultivated variety at some point and it fails or it crosses, then I'll have some back up fruit.

If you find out what caused your problem please let us know.

For clarification, we have woods on both sides of our property but the site does get pretty much a full day of sun, minus an hour maybe at each end of the day. The plants that are there bear fine but the patch has slowly been dying out, with no symptoms that I can see. The canes that are there look fine, but they are getting fewer and fewer in number.

Laurel Buckwalter wrote:For clarification, we have woods on both sides of our property but the site does get pretty much a full day of sun, minus an hour maybe at each end of the day. The plants that are there bear fine but the patch has slowly been dying out, with no symptoms that I can see. The canes that are there look fine, but they are getting fewer and fewer in number.

What have you been doing about pruning, fertilization and mulching? Have you done a soil test? What are the other plants that surround the canes? This info may help narrow down the culprit.

i really don't know what to look for for virus problems but we have tons and tons of wild raspberries in woods on all sides of us, and we grow fine raspberries on our property..there is no way we could remove the raspberries within 600 feet without clearing our entire woods..our property is only 220 x 990 ' rectangle..

they seem to do fine but I'm not aware of any viruses

like duane hennon, we are in western Pa and have both wild and demestic raspberries growing together. We have wild black and red raspberries on the edges of our pasture and they all seem to flourish. I wonder if it is either a soil or the variety of berry you planted.
kent

When you said you did a row of berries that's where I knew things would go wrong.

What type of soil are they in? Sun ? Shade? Water? Mulch? Companion plants? Are you "feeding" them?

More clarification: in 2005 we planted two rows of raspberries (20 ft across, Prelude and August Red) in the middle of our 150 foot long garden in full sun. So it was our garden soil. We put in rotted manure and such as recommended by the place we bought them (Fedco in Maine), and mulched with sawdust. We top dressed them two years later. They did marvelously for three years, then one row started declining. No signs of disease but in the spring just fewer and fewer plants. In 2011 the first row was down to about 10% so we took it out this year. In 2011 the 2nd row started declining and it down to maybe 30% this year so it will be taken out next year. I can't quite imagine that the PH would change dramatically, would it? They did great for three years. If the mulch gets worked in and it gets weedy, would that make a difference? In the woods, raspberries grow with grass and such around them. The canes that are out there are bearing very well, but there are not that many... We live in western NYS where there is a good bit of rain. If it doesn't rain for a long period, we have soaker hoses laying around them that we can use. The confusing part is that the canes that are there bear well, we still get good berries, but just not many. We cannot see signs of disease on them. I have a call in to the Cornell Cooperative Extension that I trust will be returned...