Growing Berries in Southern California: Varieties and Care

By Richard Flowers, ACCNP, Green Thumb Nursery, Ventura

Let’s talk about raspberries, blackberries, and boysenberries. As the names suggest, they are berries, right? Wrong. They are fruit, but they are not really berries. Meanwhile pumpkins, oranges, and bananas are all berries, botanically speaking, even though none of them have the word “berry” attached to their names. Confused? Good. For years and years the term “berry” stuck to certain fruits because people called them berries long before scientists came up with a precise definition for the word. It is time for a miniature botany lesson, and it ends with delicious fruit you can grow in your own Southern California yard.

What Is a Berry, Really? (Yes, Grapes Are Berries)

Most fruits develop from a single ovary, one of the female reproductive structures of a flower. To be a true berry, a fruit must develop from one flower with one ovary, stay fleshy, and not split apart when ripe [5]. A grape is the textbook example of a true berry, so the answer to that favorite trivia question is yes, grapes are berries. So are blueberries, bananas, and even oranges and pumpkins (botanists file those last two under special berry categories called hesperidia and pepos).

Blackberries, raspberries, and boysenberries work differently. Their flowers carry many carpels, so each “berry” is actually a conglomeration of tiny individual fruits called drupelets, which is why botanists call them aggregate fruits rather than berries [5]. Now that we have that out of the way, let’s just call them berries for simplicity. Below you will become familiar with yummy, healthful, and vigorous berries.

Meet the Cane Berries: Rubus Fruits in the Rose Family

Boysenberries, raspberries, and blackberries all belong to the rose family of plants; in other words, they are related to such common plants as the rose, apple, peach, cherry, and Indian hawthorn. These berries share the same genus name, Rubus, so if you lump all the raspberries, blackberries, and boysenberries together you can call them Rubus fruits, named after their genus. They are high value fruits, sought after for their delicious flavor and real health benefits.

Before berries were domesticated they were foraged, and there are records of the roots, leaves, stems, and fruits being used in all sorts of folk remedies. Modern research focuses on the fruit itself: these berries are particularly high in dietary fiber, vitamin C, vitamin K, and manganese, and they are rich in anthocyanins and other phenolic compounds that give them their color and their antioxidant reputation as superfoods [8]. They are usually eaten fresh, with cream or ice cream, or turned into jams, jellies, and pastry fillings. I love eating berry pie. It is delicious. It is berry good.

Blackberries, raspberries, and boysenberries are commonly known as brambles or cane berries and generally grow as deciduous, vine like shrubs with biennial canes that rise from a perennial root system. The canes often have spines ranging from hair like prickles to sharp thorns, though some varieties have none at all. Growth forms can be erect, trailing, or more vine like, and some types can spread aggressively if you let them. Once a plant is established, fruit ripens roughly a month to six weeks after bloom, depending on the variety and the weather.

Primocanes, Floricanes, and Multiple Bearing Berry Plants

Berry plants produce long stems that grow from the ground called primocanes and floricanes. Primocanes are canes in their first year of growth, and floricanes are canes in their second year. A new primocane grows green and fleshy its first season, develops brown bark, rests through winter, and becomes a fruiting floricane in its second season. After fruiting, that cane dies and new ones replace it [1].

You will sometimes see certain varieties called multiple bearing berry plants, multi bearing berries, everbearing, fall bearing, or primocane fruiting. All of those names describe the same useful trick: the plant flowers and fruits on the tips of its first year canes in late summer or fall, then can ripen a second, earlier crop lower on those same canes the following summer [1] [3]. If you want the longest possible berry season, plant a multiple bearing variety (Caroline and Baba Berry below are good examples) alongside a classic summer bearing type.

All the selections described below should be able to produce a crop within two years of planting, depending on conditions and care, and all are self fruitful except where noted.

When and How to Plant Berries in Southern California

In our mild winter climate, plant bare root canes during the dormant season, roughly December through early March; container grown berry plants can go in the ground most of the year [3] [4]. Bare root season is the least expensive way to start a berry patch, and the plants settle in before summer heat arrives.

Berries flourish in full sun in most climates but appreciate some afternoon shade in hot interior locales [3]. They prefer rich, moist, well drained soil on the slightly acidic side, about pH 5.6 to 6.5 [1] [2], so till in compost or other organic amendments well before planting. You may have heard to use the same acid mix you would give azaleas and ferns. Save that for blueberries, which really do want much more acidic soil; see our blueberry growing guide for those. For cane berries, good garden soil with plenty of organic matter is just right.

Set raspberries about 2.5 to 3 feet apart and blackberries about 3.5 to 4 feet apart, and if you plant rows, leave 8 to 10 feet between them so you can reach the fruit from both sides [3]. The plants can be treated as freestanding shrubs, but they are more satisfactory trained on a fence, a set of wires, or a trellis. Support keeps the canes from wind damage, bending over, cracking, and getting out of control, and it makes the patch easier to manage and pick. Trailing types like Olallie and Boysenberry truly require it [2]. Berries are pollinated by bees, so a berry patch is good news for your whole garden.

Watering, Feeding, and Mulching

When watering, it is good practice to keep the leaves dry so they are less likely to develop foliar diseases like rust. I suggest drip irrigation instead of overhead watering [1]. Berries prefer regular watering from spring until after harvest. Because they are shallow rooted, with most of the root system in the top foot or two of soil, regular watering is better than an occasional deep soaking [3]. Established plants need about 1 to 1.5 inches of water per week during the growing season [1].

Fertilize 4 to 6 weeks after planting. In subsequent years, feed in early spring (late March into April is ideal) with a second, lighter application around early July [1]. Adding a 1 to 2 inch side dressing of compost or well rotted manure around each plant in spring improves the soil’s texture and adds nutrients. Berries also love mulch: a 2 to 3 inch layer of organic material helps keep the soil moist, reduces evaporation, suppresses competing weeds, and improves the soil as it breaks down [11].

How to Prune Berry Canes

When pruning, keep this concept in mind. In spring you should see new green sprouts coming up from the soil and on some of the old canes. The sprouts from the ground become canes that will fruit the following year; old canes with new growth emerging should fruit this year. Leave all the new shoots from the ground and the old canes with green leaves emerging, and cut all the dead canes with no new growth off at ground level.

Remember that berry canes grow to full size their first year and bear fruit their second. After a cane fruits, it dies, so once harvest wraps up, cut the spent floricanes at ground level (berry growers call this caning out) and leave the new primocanes in place for next year’s crop [1] [2].

Raspberries vs. Blackberries: How to Tell Them Apart

Both raspberries and blackberries are perennial shrubs that produce sweet red or black fruit, and the easiest way to tell them apart is at picking time. A ripe raspberry detaches from its receptacle (the part of the flower stalk the fruit sits on), so the picked berry is hollow inside like a little cap. A blackberry and most of its hybrids keep the receptacle, so the picked fruit has a solid core [1] [2].

Blackberries have a smoother texture, while raspberry skin carries tiny hairs, and raspberries generally ripen a bit faster. As for eating, I prefer raspberries fresh and on their own, while blackberries run more tart and shine in pies and jam.

Berry Varieties for Southern California

Here are the varieties I recommend most often at the nursery, and how they bear.

Variety	Berry	Thorns	Bears on	Typical harvest	Habit
Caroline	Red raspberry	Thorny	Primocane (multiple bearing)	Summer into fall	Upright, 4-6 ft
Jewell	Black raspberry	Thorny	Floricane	May-June	Clumping, arching
Baba Berry	Red raspberry	Thorny	Primocane (multiple bearing)	May-July, again in fall	Tall canes, heat tolerant
Raspberry Shortcake	Red raspberry	Thornless	Floricane	Midsummer	Dwarf bush, 2-3 ft
Baby Cakes	Blackberry	Thornless	Primocane and floricane	July, again Sept-Oct	Dwarf bush, 3-4 ft
Olallie	Blackberry (olallieberry)	Thorny	Floricane	Late May to early July	Trailing, needs trellis
Marion	Blackberry (marionberry)	Thorny	Floricane	June through summer	Trailing, vigorous
Black Satin	Blackberry	Thornless	Floricane	July	Semi erect
Triple Crown	Blackberry	Thornless	Floricane	Late season	Semi erect, heavy yields
Thornless Boysenberry	Boysenberry (hybrid)	Thornless	Floricane	Summer	Trailing, needs trellis

Caroline Raspberry

Caroline is a summer through fall bearing red berry with exceptional flavor. It is a primocane (multiple bearing) type, meaning it produces on new wood, and it gives large yields while standing up to root rot better than many red raspberries. Best with afternoon shade inland. If you are going to eat one raspberry fresh, Caroline would be the one: firm, juicy, and rich with a sweet, full bodied flavor. It is very adaptable and well suited to Southern California, and in many areas you can pick berries for 6 to 8 weeks. Plants reach 4 to 6 feet tall when mature.

Jewell Black Raspberry

Unlike most other raspberries, Jewell produces compact clusters of large, glossy black fruit with a rich raspberry flavor, seedier and firmer than the reds. The fruit starts reddish, turns maroon, and finally ripens dark purple black, and you can see all stages of color at once on an upright vine, which adds an interesting effect. Harvest usually runs May and June on vigorous, hardy plants that are among the most disease resistant of the black raspberries, with no support required. Jewell grows in clumps or “hills” that stay where you plant them and do not produce root suckers; set plants about 4 feet apart. The long canes can arch down and take root where they touch the soil, so keep them in check. This selection adapts well to our area.

Baba Berry Red Raspberry

Baba Berry is a fine flavored, multiple bearing raspberry that carries a heavy crop from May into July with a smaller late summer crop through fall. It bears extra large, sweet, firm fruit up to 1.5 inches long, handles heat well, and prefers full sun even in hot areas [3]. It is a longtime Southern California favorite, equally at home in our mild coastal locales and hot inland neighborhoods.

Raspberry Shortcake

This dwarf, thornless bush raspberry thrives in a patio pot or in the landscape. A compact plant about 2 to 3 feet tall that requires no staking, fits limited spaces, gives full size berries, and grows happily in containers or in the ground: what more could you ask for? It produces an abundant crop of sweet raspberries in midsummer and is rated for zones 4 through 9 under U.S. plant patent 22141. The breeder lists roughly 800 chill hours [9], though in my opinion it does fairly well and adapts in our milder winter areas, especially planted where it gets its coolest possible winter rest.

While on the subject of dwarf berries, let me introduce the companion that pairs beautifully with Raspberry Shortcake: a dwarf blackberry with an added benefit.

Baby Cakes Blackberry

What a good name for a dwarf, thornless bush blackberry that is perfect for a patio pot. Baby Cakes grows 3 to 4 feet tall and produces large, sweet berries on both old and new canes: floricane berries ripen in July, and primocane berries ripen from September into fall, so in most regions it fruits twice in one season [10]. It is protected under U.S. plant patent 27032. Baby Cakes is most at home in inland areas, but I sincerely believe it can adapt and be well worth the effort in cooler coastal spots too.

Olallie Blackberry (the Olallieberry)

This trailing, early variety bears elongated, medium to large shiny black fruit with no hollow center. It is very sweet, and undoubtedly my favorite blackberry for fresh eating, with fruit from late May to early July. Most people just call it the olallieberry. It is a hybrid berry, selected in 1938 and released in 1944 by the USDA berry breeding program in Oregon, a cross of the Black Logan blackberry and the youngberry, with loganberry in its ancestry [6]. That complex parentage gives it a depth of flavor that has led some to call it the king of blackberries.

The name comes from a Northwestern Native American word, olalli, which simply means berry. Hence, when translated, olallieberry equals berry berry. Funny enough, it never did as well in Oregon where it was bred as it does here: Olallie found its real home in California, where it became a commercial staple [6]. It offers medium size berries, sweeter than tart, with an old fashioned wild blackberry flavor.

Marion Blackberry (the Marionberry)

Marion is medium to large, firm, and sweet, and one of my favorite pies is made with the mouthwatering marionberry. It was released in 1956 by the USDA and Oregon State breeding program, a cross of Chehalem and Olallie, and it went on to become the dominant blackberry of the Pacific Northwest, where it is still the most widely planted cultivar [6]. It provides a long harvest from June through summer on vine like trailing canes.

Black Satin Thornless Blackberry

This heat tolerant selection gives you honey flavored, medium to large blackberries in July on heavy yielding, thornless, semi erect canes that are vigorous, minimally suckering, hardy, and disease resistant [3]. The glossy black berries run 1.5 to 2 inches and fade from shiny to dull as they ripen. Black Satin is self fruitful, but unlike most varieties it is noticeably more productive with another variety planted nearby. It fruits on floricanes (second year canes), so time your pruning to that two year growth cycle.

Triple Crown Thornless Blackberry

Triple Crown is named for its three crowning attributes: flavor, productivity, and vigor. Large, firm, flavorful berries grow on thornless, semi erect plants that can produce up to 30 pounds of fruit per plant, according to breeder and nursery trials. It is a late season USDA release and one of the best adapted blackberries for our area [2]. This heat tolerant plant can grow in partial shade but prefers full sun. Hands down an excellent tasting blackberry.

Thornless Boysenberry (a Southern California Original)

When I was younger I loved to put Knott’s Berry Farm boysenberry jam on my toast. It was yummy, and it brings me back to my childhood. The boysenberry is our hometown hybrid berry: Rudolph Boysen bred it in the 1920s and grew it in Anaheim, and Walter Knott later revived the abandoned vines in Buena Park, named the fruit the boysenberry, and began selling the berries in the early 1930s [7]. Boysen never recorded his cross; it is usually described as a blackberry, raspberry, and loganberry hybrid, and USDA berry breeders consider a loganberry crossed with a trailing blackberry most likely [6]. Cordelia Knott’s boysenberry pies and chicken dinners became so popular that they grew into Knott’s Berry Farm itself.

The thornless form we carry bears very large berries, up to 2.5 inches, dark maroon with an intense, tangy sweet flavor, excellent quality, few seeds, and a pleasant aroma. It has a vine like trailing habit, harvests through summer, and has no trouble growing here. Boysenberries are larger than blackberries and comparable to blackberries and raspberries in taste.

I encourage you to stop by your favorite Green Thumb Nursery and consider these nutritious and popular plants while supplies last; you can read about the berry plants we carry at Green Thumb Nursery, and bare root canes arrive in winter. Berries also earn their spot in a year round fruit harvest plan, and when the patch outruns your appetite, it is easy to freeze or preserve the extras without canning. Nothing beats the delicious taste of homegrown fruit, especially the joy of picking a delectable berry and knowing you are eating a superfood. I encourage you to plant berries. They are berry good.

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Growing Berries in Southern California: FAQs

Are grapes berries?

Yes. A grape fits the botanical definition of a true berry: a fleshy fruit that develops from one flower with a single ovary [5]. Blueberries, bananas, and even oranges and pumpkins count as berries too. Raspberries and blackberries, surprisingly, are not true berries; they are aggregate fruits made of many small drupelets.

How do you grow raspberries in Southern California?

Plant bare root canes December through early March in full sun, with afternoon shade in hot inland areas, in slightly acidic, compost enriched soil with a trellis for support [3]. Give them about 1 to 1.5 inches of water per week and a 2 to 3 inch mulch [1], and choose heat tolerant varieties like Baba Berry or Caroline for the most reliable Southern California crops.

Can you grow raspberries in a pot?

Yes. Dwarf, thornless Raspberry Shortcake was bred for containers: it grows about 2 to 3 feet tall, needs no staking, and produces full size berries in midsummer [9]. Use a large pot, keep the soil evenly moist, and feed in early spring. The dwarf blackberry Baby Cakes grows the same way.

How do you grow blackberries?

Plant dormant blackberry canes in winter in full sun and well drained, slightly acidic soil, spaced about 3.5 to 4 feet apart [3]. Trailing types like Olallie and Boysenberry need a trellis, while semi erect thornless types like Black Satin and Triple Crown need less support [2]. Water regularly through harvest, then cut each cane that fruited down to the ground.

Do you need two blackberry bushes to get fruit?

No. Blackberries and raspberries are self fruitful, so a single plant will set fruit on its own [2]. A few varieties, like Black Satin, simply produce more with another variety nearby.

What are multiple bearing berry plants?

Multiple bearing berry plants, also sold as everbearing, fall bearing, or primocane fruiting varieties, fruit on the tips of their first year canes in late summer or fall, then ripen a second crop lower on the same canes the next summer [1]. Caroline and Baba Berry raspberries and the Baby Cakes blackberry all bear this way, which stretches the harvest across two seasons.

Are berry plants perennials?

Yes. Cane berries grow from a perennial root system that lives for many years, while the individual canes are biennial: each cane grows its first year, fruits its second, then dies and is replaced by new canes [1].

When should you plant berries in Southern California?

Plant bare root berry canes in the dormant season, roughly December through early March [3] [4]. Container grown plants can go in the ground most of the year in Southern California, though fall and winter planting lets the roots settle in before summer heat.

Sources

• [1] Oregon State University Extension, Growing Raspberries in Your Home Garden (EC 1306)
• [2] Oregon State University Extension, Growing Blackberries in Your Home Garden (EC 1303)
• [3] UC Cooperative Extension, Sacramento County, Growing Berries (EH Note 86)
• [4] UC Master Gardeners of Santa Clara County, Berries
• [5] Colorado State University, Is That a Berry?
• [6] Finn and Strik (USDA-ARS and Oregon State University), Blackberry Production in the Pacific Northwestern US
• [7] PBS SoCal, Lost LA: When Knott’s Berry Farm Was an Actual Farm
• [8] NC Cooperative Extension, Nutritional Value of Blackberries
• [9] Bushel and Berry, Raspberry Shortcake
• [10] Bushel and Berry, Baby Cakes
• [11] University of Minnesota Extension, Growing Raspberries in the Home Garden