Raspberry Canes

Raspberries are related to brambles. The difference being that with raspberries, the fruit is hollow and comes away from the plant when ripe. With blackberries, the individual fruit buds are attached to the central core and stay that way even when ripe.

The best time to plant raspberry canes is in the autumn, and from bare root plants. If you’re not quite ready to plant them, they can be kept in the fridge to help them stay dormant until they’re ready to go in.

You need to clear the site of weeds and dig in a good amount of well rotted manure. This needs doing a good few weeks before you intend to plant your raspberry canes to allow it time to settle and for the extra nutrients to leach into the soil.

You will need quite a bit of room if you want to plant more than just a couple of raspberry canes. You don’t have to plant loads mind you, but if you are going to do them in rows, a good spacing guideline is to have the rows 6-12 feet apart. The raspberry canes themselves should be planted about 18 inches apart.

It’s quite a good idea, if you can organise it, to plant them in raised beds. Raspberries don’t like wet feet, and unless your soil is quite sandy and free draining they may well get root rot. By putting them in a raised bed, it’s a bit easier to get the soil composition right from the start. Raspberry canes like a soil with a ph of about 6. You may need to add some lime if your soil is too acidic.

It’s also important that you place your raspberry patch somewhere where they will all get full sun, and plenty of air, so up alongside the hedge is not very good.

The good airflow will also help keep disease down. Moisture helps the spread of disease, so by doing what you can to allow the leaves to dry quickly will help keep things healthy.

Diseases that raspberry canes can suffer from include cane gall, spur blight, cane blight, mosaic virus and orange rust; among others.

Please don’t plant your raspberry canes in a patch that has previously had peppers, potatoes or tomatoes growing there. These vegetable can carry Verticillium Wilt and your raspberries will catch it.

Once you’ve planted your raspberry canes, a mulch of straw or sawdust or bark chips etc will help keep the weeds down.

Raspberry canes will need some support. If you have the room, 2 x 8ft tree stakes in the ground about 10 feet apart should do the job. You will then need to drill holes through the posts and thread three rows of hefty galvanised wire.

Good heights for the wires are about 36inches, 46inches and 66inches. The wires will need some tension and the plants can be tied to the cross wires as they grow.

If you don’t have much room, a good idea for small gardens is to just have a single tree stake and plant 2 raspberry canes at the bottom, again, tieing them in as they grow; but not to tightly. You could even plant them in good sized garden pots.

To be sure of getting the best run of fruit you can, it’s important to ensure that your raspberry canes get an even supply of water whilst they are flowering and setting fruit. Of course, it goes without saying that the soil needs to be at least reasonable.

To ensure that you get a supply of raspberries for as long a season as possible, mix the varieties that you plant. You can now get varieties that will fruit from early summer until late autumn. It’s also possible to get raspberries in different colours; all manner of pinks, reds, gold and even purple!

Your raspberry canes will be hungry and thirsty plants so it’s important that you give them what they need. A general purpose fertilizer in the spring and regular water when it’s dry will reward you many times over.

Raspberry canes will reproduce abundantly; but this isn’t such a bad problem. It’s possible to remove some of the underground runners and give them to friends or sell them at the school fete. Or simply cut them off just under the surface of the soil with a hoe.

When it comes to pruning, don’t get in a panic about it. It really isn’t rocket science. It used to terrify me to bits!

When it comes to harvesting; what do you need to know? Pick them, eat them, give some away or swap them for bottles of white wine!

Seriously though, try to pick the fruit when it’s still firm, this will help it keep a little longer, and try to leave the white plug on the plant.

Growing raspberry canes successfully isn’t difficult. There are generally 3 areas that need attention.

You may like to try these.

Glen Prosen is a mid summer type.
Malling Admiral is a dark red fruit in late summer
All Gold is a yellow fruit in the Autumn
Glen Moy has no prickles but lots of fruit in the early summer
Autumn Bliss is a large dark red fruit in the autumn.

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·	The canes that had raspberries on last year- cut them down to the ground.
·	Select about 8 of the strongest looking ones and tie them into the wires- these will fruit next.
·	Cut off the rest.
·	Sometime in mid-winter, chop off the lanky looking tops so they are about 6 inches above the top wire.

·	Selecting the right types of plant for the results you want. (Growing season, colour, disease tolerance etc.)
·	A good support system.
·	Aftercare- nutrients, water, pruning.