rasberries - running roots and suckers

I have 4 raspberry canes about 2 years old. I went to tidy them up and found they'd run suckers about 4 feet away from the parent plants. I was staggered!

When I tried to pull them up, I found these roots were worthy of a beech tree! Very thick, gnarly and tough. In my weakened state of elderlyness, they totally defeated my attempts to cut them and/or dig them up.

But no matter as I have a nice young gardener who will do that for me (I hope!).

What I want to know is -
1. is there any way of containing these roots
2. do the suckers that spring up from the travelling roots ever bear fruit?

I have 4 good books on soft fruit (or so I thought) but nary a mention of this in any of them.

 

Just answered a similar question - which might answer yours too?

http://gardenerscorner.co.uk/forum/threads/raspberry-growth-q.65094/#post-809197

 

@Kristen - thank you so much. Obviously I should check out the forum before posting!

 

If everyone did that there would be no questions to answer

 

That's a good point!