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| Is it okay to buy Raspberry and Blackberry bushes from Home Depot or will they probably die or not do as well as bushes from a garden center? |
Follow-Up Postings:
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| It's OK to buy them in the spring. I see you are in OH, it's too late to buy them now, they have been there too long! Unless it is new stock. The first time i saw them there was in April. If from April, they are dead! They tend to keep bad plants out, very sad. Try the Fall Gold! I bought mine there, and it is a fantastic raspberry! Here's a photo I took today, I planted it in 2011. It is an everbearing raspberry, on the right are flurocanes and that is the summer harvest. The primocanes all moved left to fight for the light. It has over 150 berries on it at present. Some suggest to forgo this harvest, I'll take the berries thank you very much. I'll get another harvest in the fall off the primocanes. |
This post was edited by Drew51 on Mon, Jun 24, 13 at 14:54
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| Thanks for the info! I think I will try the fall gold. Also how could i tell if it is new stock? and is the best time to buy them in april or early may? |
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| What Drew said. Plant stock at the big box stores is likely to be perfectly OK when it arrives, but it might not get the care it needs, so it declines in health quickly. To get good stock, you have to visit once a week in the late winter/early spring, and grab what you want when you know its fresh. |
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| If it's fairly new stock, it should have green leaves, or green buds, no white buds from lack of sun, or no buds because they all died. The plant should look alive at least. I suppose if it has any growth, it should recover. If nothing green or even white, it's dead. Sometimes bare root raspberries have no growth, but they sell rooted plants, in a dirt ball. Nobody is selling bare root right now. Plants grow slowly at first, it has to get used to it's new home. You're going to have to baby it, and if you do buy now, even more so as we are about to enter into the hot summer. Water heavy let it dry out to almost dry, and water again. Under or over watering is the biggest problems. We live near each other and Fall Gold seems to do very well here, it is a yellow raspberry btw. It is has fantastic flavor, much better than any yellows you can buy. No much, much, much better!! If you do not buy now do what ericwi said and go there weekly late winter, early spring and you will see them come in! Other good cultivars I like are June bearing: Blackberries: Some are not that good, so I'm not sure what they have if it's good? I have limited experience with blackberries. |
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- Posted by lawanddisorder 6 (My Page) on Mon, Jun 24, 13 at 23:41
| I bought a number of berry bushes this spring that came from Lowes and Home Depot, and they are all very healthy and producing berries. If you have a Lowes nearby, they have a bunch of them on clearance right now for $5. |
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- Posted by CharlieBoring 7 (My Page) on Tue, Jun 25, 13 at 13:45
| I have often bought fruit trees/bushes from HD after the planting season was over and the plants were placed on sale (in N. Virginia) and I have never lost one. I have a plum, a peach and a fig that were bought that way. |
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- Posted by CharlieBoring 7 (My Page) on Tue, Jun 25, 13 at 13:46
| I have often bought fruit trees/bushes from HD after the planting season was over and the plants were placed on sale (in N. Virginia) and I have never lost one. I have a plum, a peach and a fig that were bought that way. |
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| "If you have a Lowes nearby, they have a bunch of them on clearance right now for $5." That's way too much! You can order online and get great berry plants for less than that at peak times too! Currently most are not selling berries till fall or spring. Encore Encore and Prelude were from Indiana Berry |
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| Berries Unlimited, and Norse Farms are also good places to obtain plants. Burpee has Double Gold and Crimson Night, but they are expensive. Rare raspberries though! |
This post was edited by Drew51 on Tue, Jun 25, 13 at 14:22
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| What kind of soil do you guys plant your raspberries in? |
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| What kind of soil do you guys plant your raspberries in? |
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- Posted by lawanddisorder 6 (My Page) on Tue, Jun 25, 13 at 14:41
| I'm not sure I agree with Drew for a couple reasons. The plants you get from HD/Lowes are potted with established, strong root structure and will bear plenty of fruit in the first year. $5 is a lot less than prices I see at all other retail locations. I ordered a bunch online, too, and, at least in their first year, the ones I got from HD/Lowes are bigger, stronger, and are bearing WAY more berries than the ones I ordered online. I got mine from Stark Bros and Henry Fields, so maybe Drew's source (Indiana Berry) has better/more mature stock. Plus, an extra $2 to get them now, rather than wait until the fall or next spring when online nurseries start shipping again seems like a fair price to me. I also have no patience, so... |
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| Yeah I agree you could probably establish the Lowes/HD plants easier, so I think I may even disagree with myself! Well at least you have other sources if you want a particular type. I have heard many say they all taste the same, and I would strongly disagree with that. Although all raspberries are decent! Some blackberries are not! Soil I like to use 1/3 potting or garden soil or both. 1/3 peat moss, and 1/3 compost. I also mix in trace minerals. I use rain water to water, and also add some sulfur to the soil, to keep it below 7.0. My city water is 7.8, and at times I have to use it, so the sulfur keeps the PH under 7. Just a touch. I have sulfur for my blueberries, but what the hey, share the wealth! Currently on the new plants I'm using a water soluble inorganic fertilizer at 1/2 dose recommended, but next year once plants have established will switch to organic. I use fertilizer meant for raspberries, but a good one is Holly tone. Meant for acid plants, raspberries and strawberries don't like severe acid, but some is OK, counteracts my 7.8 water PH. Contains sulfur and microbes. |
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| C-BUSOH, If doing in a pot, whatever potting soil you are already using, if planting in a raised bed or yard, don't worry about the soil. I have given away a lot of my overflow plants and they do pretty well in every soil I have put them in, even crappy yellow clay. Raspberries are almost as easy to grow as grass. (speaking from zone 5 mid west) |
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| "Raspberries are almost as easy to grow as grass." I agree that raspberries will grow in just about anything, but I want high yields of at least 50 berries per cane. I expect to raise it a lot higher too as I fine tune growing techniques. |
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| "The plants you get from HD/Lowes are potted with established, strong root structure and will bear plenty of fruit in the first year. " Sure for the first week they have them. But 6 weeks later when still there, they are anything but how you describe them. So I would not just go out and buy from them without having any idea of how long they have been in the store. I have seen the 6 week old brambles, and they looked really bad! I noticed they are pre-packaged too, so they are not even watering them. Good luck with that! |
This post was edited by Drew51 on Wed, Jun 26, 13 at 2:03
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