Blackberry bushes

[Creepy]

I have recently become a keen veg. gardener and have fast learnt that most crops should be rotated in order to keep it all healthy - how is it that the likes of Blackberry bushes (or similar) grow in the same place for years and years with no apparant problems ? I am aware that some years are better than others as is with rotated crops ?
Hope that makes sense !

[Thunderbird+]

Thats a very good point Creepy, I cant say I've noticed wild blackberry bushes keeling over, but I'd say they are extreamly robust plants and although they do have many pests and diseases they also have the resiliance to live throuhg it. Raspberry canes however seem more vulnerable and the best ones are grown in Scotland, as do potatoes, the soil apparently being more disease free for those crops.

[heathfield]

There are many pests that are specific to a particular plant. By rotation of crops, you remove their food source from a particular piece of ground, and that keeps their numbers down. But this applies to annual crops. Think of the lifespan of the plant. Blackcurrant bushes grown commercially are usually removed after 10 years, and the ground is given a 2 year rest if they're to be re-planted in the same place. And 1000-year-old giant redwoods haven't been rotated recently! It's just that they last longer, despite the pests.

[WendyS]

I have three blackberry bushes which have been in the same location for about 15 years. Every year I cut back the dead canes and fork a little rotted manure around the base of the plants and they provide more blackberries than I know what to do with. I suspect it's because their roots don't attrack the same diseases as other annual vegetable crops. Beans for example leave nitrogen in the soil for plants being grown the following year. Carrots and other root crops & cabbages have diseases which can lurk in the soil which is why they should be grown in a different location everyyear. Happy gardening. You can bet your bottom dollar something will happen to stop all your crops growing perfectly every year but anticipation is part of the pleasure (or the agony) of going through the process.