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nafex - [NAFEX] Zone 3 Black Raspberry

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  • From: Jim F <bonfire58_2000@yahoo.com>
  • To: nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Cc: jfruth@uslink.net
  • Subject: [NAFEX] Zone 3 Black Raspberry
  • Date: Mon, 17 Nov 2003 08:54:14 -0800 (PST)

     Several people wrote asking for more information about the zone 3 black raspberry that I developed:  My wife and I own/operate a fruit and berry farm.  We sell fresh fruit, jams and jellies and more.  We had red raspberries but I wanted black raspberries too so I headed down to a farmers' market in zone 5 where black raspberries thrive.
     Once there, I purchased everyone's fresh fruit coming home with two five-gallon pails full.  My first task was to wash the seeds from the druplets.  Then the still-wet seeds were put into the freezer at its coldest setting.  I started with, what I estimated to be several hundred thousand seeds.  I planted them and a couple hundred grew.  Then, after one winter in the ground, I was left with thirty hardy survivors which I planted three feet apart in rows six feet wide - I soon learned that four feet apart in eight foot rows would have been a better choice.
     We now have nearly 500 plants.  They do not spread via rhizomes like red raspberries, rather they propagate themselves by tip-rooting.  The primocanes grow to length of up to 15 feet and wherever the growing point hits the ground, they sprout a new plant. 
     After the first killing frost (22° F), usually sometime in late October, I start pruning.  I save the tip-rooted plants, put them in pots and have growing plants ready for sale the following May.  I only once sold bare-root plants, sending them to Fairbanks, Alaska, where we learned that they need to be mulched for snowless winters where temperatures plunge to -50° F. 
     I mulch my plants for moisture retention, using pine needles in swaths of about one foot wide on either side with leaves in mid-aisles (I'd use only pine needles if I could get enough of them).  I use drip irrigation with tapes on both sides of the plants and have the soil analyzed during every mid-summer.  Fertilizer gets spread after the plants are all pruned and the melting Spring snow takes it down.
     I mulch my plants but mulching doesn't seem to be needed for winter protection because bird-planted volunteer plants come up all over the farm - I don't mulch them and most make it through every winter.  We have deer wantering through the farm and while they do nibble on the black raspberriey plants, they do minimal damage because they prefer eating red raspberry canes.
     As for volunteer plants, I try to always let them grow to see what they produce because I never know what I'll get.  Several noticeable volunteers bear purple fruit and the plants look very different.  I'm starting to propagate one that bears really delicious fruit and I'll report on it when I know more.
     I have always sold growing potted plants in May for $3.00 each (+ Minnesota Sales Tax), advertising locally so customers will pick them up.  As for selling bear-root, we are asking $1.50 each plus shipping.  Complete planting and care instructions go with every order.  We've got between one and two hundred plants to sell bare-root.
Sincerely yours,
Jim Fruth
4002 Davis Street
Pequot Lakes, MN  56472 


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