[Dill The Dog]

Hi all,

I've decided to try my hand at growing some soft fruit have bought a blackcurrant bush, which I'm going to grow in a large pot.

In addition, I have bought a thornless blackberry and a summer raspberry.

I only have a little room left in my garden plot, but have set aside a small bed 1m x 0.5m.

Will the blackberry and raspberry happily grow next to each other in this small bed or do they need different soil conditions, will they need different feed or am I better off putting one in the bed and potting the other up?

Both plant are 'infants', so I don't expect a fruit crop this year.

Thanks 

[paintedlady]

raspberry "travels" by sending runners underground, so planting the blackcurrant & raspberry together is not such a good idea.  If you get a nice big pot, I would suggest putting the raspberry in there as they are much hardier than you think, and planting the blackcurrant in the garden.  Dig a hole deeper than the pot with the blackcurrant so that it ends up with a soil level above it's original level (they seem to like this for some reason)  You can add compost/manure to the bottom of the hole so that the roots get a good feed and encourage growth. 

Re: fruit - you might get a token taster but you should really let the plants establish themselves in the first year and let all the energy go into growing new wood.  I'm presuming you have a summer fruiting raspberry so you may well get fruit off this cane, and new canes that come up will fruit next year