Kitchen Garden Forum

From reading up on companion plants, several sites mention that Blackberries and Raspberries should not be planted together due to virus disease. I'm looking at planting both, but about 8ft away from each other... is this still considered close or are they meaning "in the same bed"?

Also, what is "virus disease"?

This seems to be a rather ill-founded bit of wisdom to me. By extension, we ought not plant raspberries next to raspberries, for fear of transferring diseases.

There's some excellent information on the world wide internet about raspberry virus diseases. Here's a link to the RHS page, giving sound evidence-based practical advice: https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?PID=752

Hello SC
The advice may be sound but not of much practical use to us backyard growers. Most of us simply don't have the room to separate crops by more than a few yards.
The best thing to do would be to plant where you have the space, always get your plants from a supplier that sells certified disease-free stock and keep your plants free from aphids which are responsible for spreading viruses between plants.

John

Think my old raspberries have got rust, so another thing to bear in mind when planting my new one.

This makes a lot more sense now. Going to read up on the link as well

Currently have Bedfordshire Giant Blackberries and have of yet to order the Raspberries - so will make sure they are from a nusery that sells certified disease-free stock.

Thank you for your help!