[permaculture] Caragana, chokecherry, dewberry, boysenberry, guilds?
Paul Cereghino
paul.cereghino at comcast.net
Wed Apr 11 22:28:39 EDT 2007
Michelle Maggiore wrote:
>how far apart I should plant raspberry, blackberry, dewberry and boysenberry
>from each other so that they can keep some of their distinct flavors,etc.,
>and if anyone has included them in guilds with any of the above- mentioned
>plants?
>
I have been struggling with the position of bramble cane fruit on my
land. since each cane is a biennial, and they tend to create a bramble
over time that excludes access. I have always grown them as a zone 1-2
crop... mulched, irrigated, thinned, trained to stand in rows. In that
form they form admirable windbreaks for vege gardens, walls of outdoor
rooms, etc. Ive been scheming the following possibilities..
1. put them in zone 3-4 and use something like goats to periodically
clear out the understory on a 2-3 year rotation.
2. in zone 2 as hedges between chicken runs... chickens pick young
shoots that leave the line, chicken litter is raked to the brambles as
mulch and fertilizer, chickens pick the dead fruit to reduce powdery
mildew reinfection.
3. in zone 1 and traditionally managed.
4. as part of a modified chinampas so that saturated soils provide a
barrier to spread, and each moist island becomes an accessible bramble.
our local dewberry is Rubus ursinus and forms a groundcover in sunny
woods following disturbance, but female plants are shy bearers. I have
had raspberries with really variable rust suceptibility... I'd watch out
for rust succesptible raspberries infecting succeptible trees.
To get Rubus to really fruit I'd consider organizing your forest with a
series of canopy gaps, and planting the rubus on the sunny side of the
gap (N in North hemisphere), and less shade sensitive members of your
guild on the shady side of the gap.
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