Strawberries and Raspberries

I have inherited a big area of well established strawberry plants on my allotment. They look quite healthy, considering I first laid eyes on them in January - but they are quite tightly packed in and have been invaded by couch grass. I've checked my RHS Encyclopaedia which says remove and transplant plantlets but doesn't give a time to do this. Also what is the ideal spacing (in general since I don't know the variety) and how can I tell which are the younger (and I assume better?) plants. :o

There are also 8 raspberry bushes, but I don't know what type they are. If it helps, they are more like bushes than canes, and they aren't tied in to anything or staked. I imagine one of my neighbours will be able to help but it's been deserted every time I've popped over so far, and as I am on here today, I thought I would see if there is any general rule of thumb for identification or propagation. I don't want to wait to bump into a nearby plotholder in April and find out I should have pruned them down to ground level in February or something!:DOH:

Thanks in anticipation!

 

Well, with too much time on my hands, I've managed to answer my own questions thanks to an advertising link to a well known supplier of young plants on this very website! I don't want to break any rules by promoting them too much but their first name begins with T and there is an "and" in the name. There is a wealth of information on how to grow, space and care for the plants. For those, lets be kind and say "more naive" gardeners like me, it is an excellent resource if you want to avoid looking stupid!

And by the way, my raspberries are autumn fruiting and by pure coincidence, I was right about needing to cut them down in February! :yess:

 

You can take "Runners" off your strawberries after they have fruited. They will grow a sort of long-stem with a leaf on the end, if you peg that (e.g. with a hair-pin) into a small pot it will root in the pot (you need to water it, because otherwise the little pot will dry out), and in the Autumn you can cut off the stem to the parent plant, and then plant out the plant-let over the winter. The general idea is to regenerate your strawberry bed over about three years, so 1/3rd each year. You will get a light crop the first year, and then two good crops, and then they start to go downhill.

The fact you have plants already is a great leg-up, but personally I'm fussy about variety. I want two things:

1. I can buy Strawberries in the shops ... so I want incredible flavour, I don't care about the "weight" of the crop. A commercial grower / supermarket chooses the other way round - weight of crop is more important than flavour - so you ought to be able to beat them hands-down for yummy-ness - but the variety you currently have may, or may not, be yummy.

2. I want a long season, so I have three varieties for Early, Main and Late. (Actually I have a very early one too, in pots in the greenhouse).

So you may want to replace you existing strawberry bed, over time, with varieties that you, personally, "rate" the flavour of, and that give you an extended season.

Raspberries: Not sure about the advice from your "T" and "and" site ... cutting them down in February is not quite the advice that I would have given you, but it may be no different in practice.

Summer or Autumn fruiting doesn't matter as there is a "foolproof" method of pruning them:

Cut down (to the ground) any "cane" that has fruited.

That's it!! After fruiting you will be able to see the remains of the fruit on the canes, and you can use that as a guide to know which Canes have fruited, and those are the ones to remove.

What actually happens is that for Summer fruiting varieties you will take out about half the canes, and for Autumn fruiting 100% of them.

However, the longer you leave it into the Winter the harder it becomes to see the remnants of the fruiting, which is fine if you know what type you have! but if you don't, or you have a mixture, the sooner after fruiting you do it the easier it is.

 

Kirsten, thank you for your detailed reply. I realise the website I found wont give me all the info I need, but I felt guilty that I had asked a question without doing a basic search for the info first.

I've made the assumption the raspberries are autumn fruiting because they aren't very tall and there is no framework in place to tie them into even though they look well established. It seems that the summer fruiting ones need supports?

I understand what you are saying about the strawberries' flavour and season and it does look as though there is only one variety at the moment. I think I will just thin them when I weed for now and see what they are like this year as I only have a half plot so I've got a lot to fit in - to say nothing of a lot to learn!!!

By the way, what varieties do you go for? It will be so nice to eat a proper strawberry like I remember from childhood...

 

Nah, no need. Worth mastering the "search" here perhaps, but folk here who remember a good thread will be able to find it easily (because they will remember the salient facts) and can then post a link for you. If they think you are asking a boring question they can press NEXT !!

"I've made the assumption the raspberries are autumn fruiting because they aren't very tall and there is no framework in place to tie them into even though they look well established. It seems that the summer fruiting ones need supports?"

probably not a safe assumption (although you may be right). Unless you can clearly see the stalks where the fruit ripened last year (there would have been a white-cone with a little frilly-skirt of leaf-like material around it which the fruit was picked from) I wouldn't cut them down - if they are Summer fruiting you won't get anything this year if you do. However, by now it will be very hard to see that fruit-stalk (it will have rotted off or dropped off) so if you can't see it I don't think it tells you anything definite, sadly.

Here's what the "white bit" (cone-shaped thing, top left) that is left after you pick a fruit looks like:



My hunch is that because they are small plants they are Summer fruiting - Autumn fruiting would have finished, so what was left would be "full height", Summer fruiting only started growing last Summer, so will be "half height" and will put on a bit more height this season.

Put some rotted manure round them, if you have any.

"I think I will just thin them when I weed for now and see what they are like this year"

I think that's a good plan, it will ensure you get a crop - and they may taste fantastic!

"By the way, what varieties do you go for?"

Actually I don't know. I bought them on the advice of a specialist nursery and can no longer remember the names. I've been meaning to do the same thing again so as to replace mine with some certified "clean" stock. Worth asking a specialist to recommend something for you, based on your soil conditions, where abouts in the country you are, what flavours etc you like and so on. I've got a catalogue somewhere, when it surfaces I'll post the company name here (but Google will be faster!)

Now ... if you'd asked me what varieties of Raspberry I have then that I could have told you as I definitely have them written down! I've got 10 varieties with 10 plants each, and they provide a succession of fruit right from the first early through to when the frosts arrive :thumb:

 

For what it's worth, my favourite strawberries are Royal Sovereign and Cambridge Favourite.

 

I will have to have another look at them, but there are definitely some decaying remnants on the ends of at least some of those raspberry canes. If I had to make a choice between just cutting off the canes with definitely withered looking ends or waiting to speak to a neighbour and being a bit late with the pruning - which is the best option?

My husband is a big raspberry fan, so he would be delighted to have a constant supply! Do you mind sharing this info? If you could limit it to the ones with fewer seeds, I might be converted too!

 

Why am I the only voice here? Maybe everyone agrees with me, but I somehow doubt that? 10 folks telling you "I agree with Kristen" would be helpful, as would 10 folks telling you that I have no idea what I'm talking about ...

"If I had to make a choice between just cutting off the canes with definitely withered looking ends or waiting to speak to a neighbour and being a bit late with the pruning - which is the best option?"

No rush, they aren't going to burst into life for at least a month. Doing it late-autumn / early-winter would be best, but it really isn't going to matter if you do it "a bit late". Might cost you a bit of the crop's vigour, but that's better than costing you "all" of the crop :thumb:

"If you could limit it to the ones with fewer seeds"

Do you have to take your teeth out at night then? !!

"My husband is a big raspberry fan, so he would be delighted to have a constant supply!"

There is a cropping plan on my Blog, click on the thumbnail-picture for an picture enlarged enough to read and the Raspberries are in the first row, Earlies on the left, Lates on the RIght

Vegetable Patch « K's Garden

 

I agree with Kristen! - cutting down anything showing signs of previous fruiting is the way to go.

The problem I have is that last year's 'funny weather' meant that both our summer and autumn fruiting raspberries were both producing into late autumn and I can't tell which of the escapees between the two beds are which/whatever.

 

Thank you once again, Kristen and to Scrungee too for adding a voice!

I looked at the planting plan and have spent a happy hour exploring your blog, which is quite fantastic Kristen. It has given me great inspiration for my own (somewhat smaller) garden as well as my allotment!

And no, I don't have to take my teeth out at night. I just get irritated by those seeds in my teeth!!!

 

That's good to hear - I'll adjust the mental picture I have of you!

I love Raspberries and the pips have never bothered me but I do understand "different folks, different strokes" :thumb: