Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat

Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: loubylou29 on April 26, 2007, 08:17

Title: raspberries or brambles??
Post by: loubylou29 on April 26, 2007, 08:17
I was on the plot last night and the neglected plot next to mine was getting 'viewed' and is going to be taken over by a teenage boy and his mum ,so great, but when the steward was shoing them around she comented on all the brambles on their plot and said " I think those are raspberries not blackberries" I asked how she knew and she said the leaves are lighter.

I am puzzled I inspected them quite closely and they look like brambles to me, very spikey, growing all over the place,  they do have quite pale leaves like my sprouting rasps, but that said so do my  young currant bushes so I figured the are just young shoots.

So the question is how do you tell? If they are rasps I would like to salvage some for our plot before they clear it. I did a google but oculdn't find an answer.

Thanks
L.xx
Title: raspberries or brambles??
Post by: Salkeela on April 26, 2007, 09:04
Blackberries arch over and re-root themselves from the tips of the arched over branches.  Raspberries send suckers up from the roots.

So walk through the area - if you are continually stumbling over trip-wires then the plants are blackberries.  

If the old branches are all up right and brittle (woody - even if in leaf again this year) then they're raspberries.
Title: raspberries or brambles??
Post by: Zak the Rabbit on April 26, 2007, 10:17
sals right, if they are brambles they will have thick thorny 'briars' that loop or run along the ground,

raps will all appear to have grown as if from a single seed, due to the underground runners, and the old ones will be upright 'canes'
Title: raspberries or brambles??
Post by: ruffmesiter_69 on April 26, 2007, 12:17
the colour of the stems are black if they are brambles, raspberries will be green or light brown
Title: raspberries or brambles??
Post by: CJ on April 26, 2007, 14:26
Do let us know what the outcome is as this little "mystery" is very intriguing.
Title: raspberries or brambles??
Post by: GrannieAnnie on April 26, 2007, 15:39
Quote from: "ruffmesiter_69"
the colour of the stems are black if they are brambles, raspberries will be green or light brown


The stems of our bramles aren't black until they are very old, but I do know that the stems of rasps are VERY light green
Title: raspberries or brambles??
Post by: loubylou29 on April 26, 2007, 16:07
I will have  closer look when next on plot!
They looked very much to me like the looped all over with dark stems, but I will look closer in hope!!

Oh and anyone who was interested in my previous post, the latest on my mystery veg (from said steward) was "Oh that's horse radish"
I really was too afraid to cook and eat it.. blummin glad I didn't now if it is horse radish!
Title: raspberries or brambles??
Post by: WG. on April 26, 2007, 16:22
Quote from: "loubylou29"
Oh and anyone who was interested in my previous post, the latest on my mystery veg (from said steward) was "Oh that's horse radish"
I really was too afraid to cook and eat it.. blummin glad I didn't now if it is horse radish!

What this? http://www.chat.allotment-garden.org/album_pic.php?pic_id=518 Looks nothing like a horseradish leaf to me.   I'm growing it for the first time so haven't seen a complete root - always thought they were much thinner.

The thong I planted was the thickness of a pencil - can't imagine anyone wearing a thong the size of your veggie LL.
Title: raspberries or brambles??
Post by: loubylou29 on April 26, 2007, 19:42
YEs WG that's the one... maybe it is a yam then, poor old Iris ( site Steward) I don't really think she's all there!! LOL


Maybe I will eat it.. I keep changing my mind! LOL It does smell a bit 'rooty' slight parsnip-but-not- smell . but TBH I am not that fond of yams annyway if my memory serves. (I Love sweet pots though)
Title: raspberries or brambles??
Post by: WG. on April 26, 2007, 19:44
Quote from: "loubylou29"
YEs WG that's the one... maybe it is a yam then, poor old Iris ( site Steward) I don't really think she's all there!! LOL


Maybe I will eat it.. I keep changing my mind! LOL It does smell a bit 'rooty' slight parsnip-but-not- smell . but TBH I am not that fond of yams annyway if my memory serves. (I Love sweet pots though)


Try grating some on a cheese grater.  If it is horseradish, you'll be running about looking for the Optrex in no time flat.
Title: raspberries or brambles??
Post by: loubylou29 on May 01, 2007, 08:10
Well after close examination there seems to be both!
I am convinced I have dug up some rasps, although it is quite difficult to tell as some of the brambles go straight up too, but they seem alot more thorny and the ones I suspect to be rasps have few thorns on the cane that goes straight up, and is about 3/4 meter high (Although a new shoot from the bottom of one is COVERED in  fine black thorns)
So I am walking around digging up as many 'suspects' as I can find to plant out again in a few weeks once I have zapped the plot. I hope they don't mind too much, I will manure them well before going back, and keep them happy in a pot untill them.


WG the 'horsradish was't I don't think but I still didn't eat it!!!  :lol:


L.x