Best Raspberry Varieties

Al Varado · Joined: 06 Sep 2004 Posts: 4 Location: Alvarado, TX

I live on 4 acres in Alvarado, TX and I'm going to start an organic raspberry farm. My land consists of gently sloping sandy loam soil with patches of clay. I have acidic soil on the front of my property and alkaline soil on the back of my property (that gets very damp after a rain) along with a creek that's full of water and a full 100 foot deep artificial pond adjacent to it .

I was wondering how much it would cost, roughly, to amend the soil for an acre of berry plants and, also, what the best varieties of early and everbearing, thornless varieites are.

I have read that raspberries "don't grow well" in this climate, but I think that's a load of nonsense. If you have any advice, I'd appreciate it.

Thanks,
-Al-

dragonfly · Posted: Mon Sep 06, 2004 8:39 pm Post subject:

I was going to say that raspberries don't usually grow well in this climate until I read the end of your question. If you would like more information on growing raspberries, go to the following link for information on growing them in North Carolina. I couldn't find a good site on growing them in Texas.

http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/hil/ag569.html#climatic

Al Varado · Joined: 06 Sep 2004 Posts: 4 Location: Alvarado, TX

Hi,

I did some research and found a company in in TyTy, Georgia (TyTy Nursery) ( http://www.tytyga.com/index.htm ) which sells all manner of raspberry plants and other berry plants. His nursery in Georgia shares almost an exact spot on the Climate/Plant Hardiness Zone as the DFW area ( http://www.tytyga.com/zonemap.html ) and when i called the proprietor about it, he said that any raspberry variety can grow in this area, but he did recommend to me the Dorman Red cultivar which can be grown in Climate Zones up to 11a (DFW area is 8a).

I wanted to ask you essentially two things. Do you think his advice squares up with what you know about this area, climatologically and horticulturally, and if so, why do the "experts" in the dirtdoctor.com forum say it is virtually impossible to grow raspberries?

Sincerely,

Al Varado[/url]

Bluestem · Joined: 08 Mar 2003 Posts: 169 Location: N. Texas

I tried Dorman Raspberrys years ago. I think it can be done. You will need a water supply and shelter from the dry wind. Most zone ratings take into account the cold only. I'll bet most years North Texas is hotter and dryer than GA or NC. I ended up growing Blackberrys which do very good in N. Texas.

dragonfly · Posted: Mon Sep 13, 2004 1:31 pm Post subject:

Al- I'm sure I'm not one of the experts you refer to, but I do have a grasp of the chilling hours concept. It's the same reason that we don't grow cherry trees well here and have a limited variety of apple trees that will produce. If you want to try them, by all means go ahead. It's your money and time.