question about black berries

[kinnisoj]

I would like to put in a small/med. size blackberry,rasberry patch. My concern is what type would be best in my area.When I lived on Olympia WA. as a kids these things were weeds! Funny I miss them now. I live in Zone 5 DRY/HOT/BAKEING/DEATH VALLEYISH(ok maybe not death valley but tell my tomatos that)....did I mention hot? Extreme southern Colorado. Would be in full sun all day. Any thoughts? Thank you in advance Jayson

[Sinfonian]

Hey there from a current PNWer. Count yourself lucky that you don't have the Himalayan weeds we have here. You can experiment with the multitude of thornless varieties like Apache that produce far more than we have out back.

Do a seaech for thornless bbs and raspberries in your area and I bet you'll find several. I have purposely forgotten all the varieties I've salavated over since our weeds would drive them out. Hehe.

Good luck!

[gardengirl72]

I have some killer blackberry plants so this year I planted the thornless Apache. I am so glad I did so I can harvest them without severe pain.

[kinnisoj]

I totally forgot about the thorns! So this give me someway to go, thank you. I think STARKBROS has the apache kind in their catatlog but I didnt see it on the web so Ill see if I can get lucky.Thanks again

[kinnisoj]

OK good news Starkbros does indeed have the Apache thornless so Ill give it a try. With 4 hungry kids to feed, any suggestion on how many plants to start with? Any thoughts on prepareing the soil? Is the balckberry a acid soil loving plant....maybe needs alot of compost....maybe dosnt like compost at all?
Also with our super dry/hot climate I was thinking of a heavy layer of mulch with a small soaker line under the mulch. Any other thoughts or suggestions?