permaculture

[Paul Cereghino <paul.cereghino@comcast.net>]

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.