North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Art Petrzelka <art@complum.com>]

On Fri, 2003-08-22 at 14:57, breen@fedcoseeds.com wrote:
> Hi there,
> My name is Heron, and I had an interesting question from a friend: 
> she asked me if Jewelweed is a host for raspberry diseases, and 

This touches on a topic that Extension staff have all told me I am wrong
about. Take with a large chunk of caked salt.

I believe that fruit loves three things: moving air, filtered light and
lots of available water. When I go out into my ravines to pick
naturalized black raspberries, I find them growing along the banks of a
stream, or along a seep on the side of a hill, or at least in the shade
of something else, usually a patriarch of a multiflora rosebush. Guarded
by a platoon or three of mosquitoes. I see very few raspberry bushes
growing out in full sunlight. If they do, they are sickly looking
critters, with spindly branches and tiny fruit.

To get back to the question, that's similar to the environment that
jewelweed likes, although jewelweed takes direct sun better if it has
enough water at its feet. I almost always am around or not far from
jewelweed when I pick berries. If I had flatter ground, jewelweed would
grow farther away, because it likes wetter ground than raspberries do.
Maybe that is what your friend is observing. Raspberries rarely grow
among jewelweed around here, although my place is steep enough that they
hang over and among the jewelweed.

There is almost always an airflow around streams. The stream is open, it
is surrounded by thicket or bramble, there are open spots on the top of
the slope. That gives an airflow from the cool stream to the hot hilltop
under the thicket. The airflow brings moisture along with it, and the
nettles, multiflora and grapevines provide the filtered sunlight that
berries like. Black cherry thickets are too much shade for raspberries.
This works especially well on east slopes, somewhat less on north
slopes.

I've picked some of the best berries entrapped by multiflora, or trying
to avoid grabbing a stinging nettle with the berry, or leaning over a
fallen tree trunk to part the wild grapevines. Some are bigger than my
thumb. The best, biggest, juiciest, best tasting berries are always
underneath. I always pick from downhill and underneath so I can see the
berries. The best berries will shift from year to year. Three years is
about the maximum for a spot. Disease should be rampant in this
environment, but I don't see it.

So, how do others get berries to grow in direct sunlight?  It's a
mystery to me, given how they like to grow when free.

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Art Petrzelka
Amana, Iowa, USA