Edible perennials?

Other plants we have or landscape elements like ponds.

Moderator: needmore

johnw
Posts: 1617
Joined: Sun May 06, 2012 1:28 pm
Location info: 0
Bamboo Society Membership: EBS - Germany
Location: HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA

Re: Edible perennials?

Post by johnw »

I can't believe you guys are planting blackberries. I've spent years trying to eradicate them in the south here. I've mowed them down and come back 2 weeks later and they're up 2+ feet. Sprayed with 2-4D and they just gallop in the other direction. It along with horsetail & goutweed rank near the top. Dense shade seems to be the only partial solution.

I hope you grow them solely in pots.
johnw coastal Nova Scotia
stevelau1911
Posts: 3088
Joined: Sun Nov 23, 2008 9:15 pm
Location info: 42
Location: upstate NY zone 6B
Contact:

Re: Edible perennials?

Post by stevelau1911 »

johnw wrote:I can't believe you guys are planting blackberries. I've spent years trying to eradicate them in the south here. I've mowed them down and come back 2 weeks later and they're up 2+ feet. Sprayed with 2-4D and they just gallop in the other direction. It along with horsetail & goutweed rank near the top. Dense shade seems to be the only partial solution.

I hope you grow them solely in pots.

These blackberries are the clumping kind unlike my raspberries which ended up spreading as much as 5ft in the 1st year forcing me to move them away from some of my other stuff. One thing I've found out about them is that they cannot out-compete the lawn so it's not that big of an issue.

I have a different species of thornless blackberry already which I made sure was the clumping type with upright canes that wouldn't require staking.
johnw
Posts: 1617
Joined: Sun May 06, 2012 1:28 pm
Location info: 0
Bamboo Society Membership: EBS - Germany
Location: HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA

Re: Edible perennials?

Post by johnw »

Steve - Just watch out for every seedling that sprouts, they are the problem.

john
johnw coastal Nova Scotia
stevelau1911
Posts: 3088
Joined: Sun Nov 23, 2008 9:15 pm
Location info: 42
Location: upstate NY zone 6B
Contact:

Re: Edible perennials?

Post by stevelau1911 »

johnw wrote:Steve - Just watch out for every seedling that sprouts, they are the problem.

john
That's not going to be an issue as I only plan on growing a few bushes, and intend to harvest every single berry. If birds start eating them, then I can just throw some bird netting on. The only time I have ever had a plant that was so invasive that I couldn't control it was with my black locust tree which started pushing suckers as far as 70ft away causing an invasion along my neighbor's fence causing him to have to take it out, and lots of suckers on a different neighbor's bush. It's not an issue when those roots are in the lawn since the suckers can be mowed over, but it's tough to remove when it got into other stuff especially when the root circumference exceeds 70ft in diameter.

I have since taken down the tree and injected tree poison in too every root/rhizome that I could find, digging out whatever I could. It may try to come back again this year, but as long as I don't let it produce leaves, it should expend all its energy in a few years.
canadianplant
Posts: 803
Joined: Sat Aug 08, 2009 1:36 am
Location info: 0
Location: zone 3a-4b

Re: Edible perennials?

Post by canadianplant »

johnw wrote:I can't believe you guys are planting blackberries. I've spent years trying to eradicate them in the south here. I've mowed them down and come back 2 weeks later and they're up 2+ feet. Sprayed with 2-4D and they just gallop in the other direction. It along with horsetail & goutweed rank near the top. Dense shade seems to be the only partial solution.

I hope you grow them solely in pots.
I grew "chester" in the ground (this wouldve been its third year). They are apparently upright and "clumping". They never spread out of bounds or seeded. The only reason they arent in the ground is because I never staked them, and I have better use for that spot. I pulled up a small shoot and potted it up, and also took a few cuttings, and cut the stems to the ground, put a 3 layer of plastic, and then put 3 cinderblocks on top. I havnt had any surprises yet... I will say that if you dont top the canes and let them sprawl, theyll take over fast.

Ill agree with steve on the raspberries. I tried heritage, and it just wasnt the right type for what I wanted. I pulled the whole thing up and potted it and im pulling up about 3 shoots a day 5 feet away from the original clump.
User avatar
Iowaboo
Posts: 3121
Joined: Sat Oct 01, 2005 9:21 pm
Location info: 32
Location: West Iowa
Contact:

Re: Edible perennials?

Post by Iowaboo »

johnw wrote:I can't believe you guys are planting blackberries. I've spent years trying to eradicate them in the south here. I've mowed them down and come back 2 weeks later and they're up 2+ feet. Sprayed with 2-4D and they just gallop in the other direction. It along with horsetail & goutweed rank near the top. Dense shade seems to be the only partial solution.

I hope you grow them solely in pots.

I think the same thing is said about bamboo :lol:
stevelau1911
Posts: 3088
Joined: Sun Nov 23, 2008 9:15 pm
Location info: 42
Location: upstate NY zone 6B
Contact:

Re: Edible perennials?

Post by stevelau1911 »

My blackberry bush grows just like clumping bamboo except the old stems can continue to get a bit larger after they grow the first year, but I think I'll keep them no more than 8ft tall so it will be easy to pick the berries. They can basically be grown like a bush or small tree. This year, I have 2 5/8 inch shoots from my my blackberry bush which only had 3 1/4 inchers last year. I can get a photo once it looks more impressive. I have one of these 10ft metal poles that I sunk 3ft into the ground to give this bush the initial stability to grow upright.

My ginger is finally popping out of the ground after about 6 weeks so it is definitely viable, but I'm surprised that it took this long to break the soil. These are entire chunks of garlic from the store so I'm hoping they get much bigger when they are harvested in 4-5 months.
Image


Here's the garlic starting to swell. I took off most of the scapes so the bulbs get a bit larger.
Image
stevelau1911
Posts: 3088
Joined: Sun Nov 23, 2008 9:15 pm
Location info: 42
Location: upstate NY zone 6B
Contact:

Re: Edible perennials?

Post by stevelau1911 »

Those ginger plants are surprisingly slow growing as they are barely putting out their first leaves despite being planted nearly 2 months ago.

One plant that has taken off in about 2 months are my peach trees grown from seeds. They came out about 2 months ago, but they are way faster than the apple seedlings as they are already getting up over 1ft tall, and filling out their 1 or 2 gallon pots.

I'm not sure if I should take off some side branches to encourage upwards growth, but they appear to be doing fine as they are so I intend to leaves them alone.
Image
canadianplant
Posts: 803
Joined: Sat Aug 08, 2009 1:36 am
Location info: 0
Location: zone 3a-4b

Re: Edible perennials?

Post by canadianplant »

Damn you and your luck with peach seeds! How did you go about that? I wouldnt mind trying peaches here, but they are impossible to find... I tried 2 batches of them, even stratified in the fridge with no success...
User avatar
Iowaboo
Posts: 3121
Joined: Sat Oct 01, 2005 9:21 pm
Location info: 32
Location: West Iowa
Contact:

Re: Edible perennials?

Post by Iowaboo »

Yeah, peaches are a lot faster than apple seedlings, and flower fast too, and die a lot sooner too, so just live fast, die fast thing.
User avatar
Iowaboo
Posts: 3121
Joined: Sat Oct 01, 2005 9:21 pm
Location info: 32
Location: West Iowa
Contact:

Re: Edible perennials?

Post by Iowaboo »

I think you have to remove the outer shell of the peach seed to get uniform germination. I planted seeds in the garden in 2008, and have had seeds germinating every year since.
canadianplant
Posts: 803
Joined: Sat Aug 08, 2009 1:36 am
Location info: 0
Location: zone 3a-4b

Re: Edible perennials?

Post by canadianplant »

I tried some with the shell on, some with the shell cracked, and some without the shell, nothing happened. They could have dried out.... Oh well, ill grab some more in the fall! you toss them in the fridge or leave them outside iowa?
jd.
Posts: 359
Joined: Tue Jun 09, 2009 1:11 pm
Location info: 0
Location: Midwest, USDA Z5 / AHS Heat Z5

Re: Edible perennials?

Post by jd. »

johnw wrote:I can't believe you guys are planting blackberries. I've spent years trying to eradicate them in the south here. I've mowed them down and come back 2 weeks later and they're up 2+ feet.
From a fellow with running bamboo in the ground, there's a bit of irony in that. :)

I have noticed the persistence of blackberries. For example, after removing a blackberry plant here it took most of the following season of regularly cutting off new sprouts before the remaining roots succumbed to the attrition.

Now, Phyllostachys virella grows vigorously where those thorny blackberries once grew. :D
stevelau1911
Posts: 3088
Joined: Sun Nov 23, 2008 9:15 pm
Location info: 42
Location: upstate NY zone 6B
Contact:

Re: Edible perennials?

Post by stevelau1911 »

The difference with raspberries is that they are a shrub, and not prone to rotting like bamboo rhizomes so they can keep trying to sprout until they completely run out of energy. My blackberry bush doesn't have any thorns, and doesn't show any signs of being hard to control as it is supported by a 10ft pole sunk 2-3ft into the ground. I intend to make sure canes don't exceed 8ft in height by much for easy picking without having to jump or get on a chair. The sprouts from last year only got to 5-6ft in length, but the new canes this year are 2-3 times thicker, and already past 6ft.

Those peach trees were actually from seeds last summer which were vernalized in a semi-moist environment, buried about 4-6 inches in the ground before they were taken out in the spring, and potted up for sprouting. I didn't remove the shells at all because I wanted to avoid risking fungus or pests that could wipe out my seeds.

The problem with the fridge is that you really can't simulate the freeze/thaw cycle, or other factors in a natural environment that would support sprouting.

These are growing so fast that they may need to go into 5 gallon pots in a couple weeks so they can stay healthy.
canadianplant
Posts: 803
Joined: Sat Aug 08, 2009 1:36 am
Location info: 0
Location: zone 3a-4b

Re: Edible perennials?

Post by canadianplant »

STeve, if you top the canes now, at 6 feet, you will force it to produce fruiting laterals.... and get more fruit. Also, thanks for the advice on the peaches!
Post Reply