Raspberries

Hello. I'm new to this forum and wonder if someone can give me some advice on raspberry canes. Two summers ago I bought some raspberry canes from my local garden centre here in Bristol. They were marked as autumn-fruiting. They did precisely nothing last year but this year they have shot up canes from the base that are now around five feet tall. Only one of these canes has produced any fruit - about three (very nice) raspberries. Now in August there is no sign of flowering at al. What should I do with these canes?

Many thanks.



Andrew

 

I would leave 'em.

My hunch is that they are Summer rather than Autumn fruiting. Summer fruiting is on "last years canes". So in year one you get zilch (indeed, the recommendation is to cut the "twigs" that you get down tot he ground to encourage new "suckers" to be produced, those grow into the canes for fruiting the following year).

You have got lots of new canes this year, but no/little fruit. Maybe they didn't produce many canes last year? particularly if you planted them late in the season (Autumn before would have been best time to plant, any time after late Spring and they would most likely have done "almost nothing" in their first year IME)

They do take a year or two to get established, and depending on how much soil preparation you did when you planted them, how much water and mulch they have had etc., will have had an influence on how quickly they get going. Unless you were able to pamper them?? then taking a couple of years to "get going" would be normal.

Pruning of Summer and Winter fruiting varieties is different, in terms of timing, but both follow a simple, single, rule:

Any cane that has fruited should be cut down to the ground after it finishes fruiting. (Any time afterwards, including during winter, is fine but the longer you leave it the more of the original fruit stalk will drop off, and the harder it will be to see what has fruited, and what has not).

If you find, next year, that you are cutting down 100% of the canes, as they have all fruited, then it is indeed an Autumn fruiting variety. If you are cutting half then its Summer fruiting, and if someone in between it is likely you were sold a mixture of varieties :(

Either way, leave them another year, mulch with rotted manure or similar and water well from early Summer onwards next year if you get very dry weather. A Potash feed in the run up to fruiting will help, but I would put much more emphasis on "feeding the soil" with a good organic mulch, rather than "feeding the plant" with specific fertilizers.

 

Dear Krsiten

Many thanks for your advice. I shall do as you suggest. The only problem is that I can't remember now which of the canes gave us the three raspberries...

Kind regards.



Andrew

 

They should still have the little stalk and central cone-shaped core that you pulled the fruit off - but the longer you leave it the less of those that will be visible.

If you aren't sure leave them. If a cane stays for an extra year its not the end of the world, just a bit less than ideal

 

Dear Kristen

Thank you for suggesting that. As long as I don't do anything I shouldn't. If a new cane comes up from the ground rather than off an existing cane, should I retain it or cut it out like you would a sucker from, say, a rose bush?

Kind regards.



Andrew

 

Leave all the suckers, that's how Raspberries "grow". You get a sucker and then (depending on fruiting type) later in the season it fruits (Autumn type) or it fruits next year (Summer type) and then, after fruiting, you cut it down to the ground and leave the other newer suckers to grow, and to deliver the next crop.

Only time to "thin" the suckers is if you have too many of them - after a few years once they are established they may come up so thick that there are too many of them, or they spread into the path etc., so that would be a reason to "control" them

 

Hello, again, Kristen

Thank you once again for that advice. I shall, of course, leave the suckers but they are getting very tall and thin. They're over five feet in height now. Presumably I have to leave all that height as well?
Kind regards.



Andrew

 

You can shorten them if you like, but I'd keep anything up to the height that you can reach to pick. Normally they are tied in (to some horizontal wires, or the like) to stop them flopping about, but I don't bother. I expect they will be "stouter" in years to come, once they mature a bit more, but they might well still flop about a bit - that's the nature of the plant.

 

Hallo Andrew,
welcome to Gardeners Corner. So glad you chose this site to get good advice. Hope you are enjoying it ,
Jenny namaste

 

Kristen as you seem to be a fountain of knowledge re raspberries i am hoping that you can answer the following, i am needing to move mine in the new year firstly because they are too close together and secondly because they seem to be in quite heavy shade for lot of the day, so i am wondering if there is a reason why i couldn't use them at the end of the plot where i need a wind break and also it would help with making a physical boundary so do they have to be planted in a block or can they be planted in a row like hedging, look forward to your advice on this

 

Mine are in a row (well, its a double row). But the new canes that come each year, from suckers, spread about a bit, so that will thicken the row - you'll have to just chop out any once it starts to get too wide, but they don't spread all that far - a grass strip along the "front" of the "Hedge" that you can mow will take care of any that get a bit too adventurous

Summer Fruiting ones will have canes all year round [only the old canes - i.e. 50% of them - will be cut to the ground in Autumn] (albeit they are not evergreen) and Autumn fruiting ones will have nothing in the Winter [100% will be cut to the ground in Autumn]

I think:

You need enough plants to get a meal. No sense having 1 plant which, over the whole time it fruits, will create quite a lot of fruit, but not enough on any one day for a bowl-full. I have 10 plants of each variety (no idea whether that is too many, or just-right, for ordinary folks, but I very much doubt that it is "too few" for anyone - except a hotel!)

So if you have room for more than 10 plants I would suggest you get more of a different variety that is either earlier or later. I would avoid the really late ones - the latest late ones I have we rarely harvest - they ripen in October most years, and its not sunny / hot enough for them to ripen well, they have normally had some drought during the summer and thus are "suffering" and in any case we've gone off Summer fruits by October.

Also, my really REALLY early ones (fruit in July) carry a very light crop.

So perhaps a mid-to-late Summer fruiting one, and an Early-Mid Autumn fruiting one, and then more in-between if you have room for more than 20 canes.

I have 100 canes, 10 each of 10 varieties, but as I said the very first earlies and very last lates are a bit of a waste of time

 

Kaz,
We don't grow rasps. but we do pick them at our local PYO Fruit farm. The Tulameens(lovely flavour, whoppers and very bountiful) have just finished and we are picking Octavia right now which are also in abundance but we prefer the taste of the Tulameens,
Jenny

 

Good idea to visit local PYO (or supermarket if they label the fruit with the specific variety .... which seems improbable though) to taste-test before investing in varieties for home-grown