Cleaning a Neglected Red Raspberry Patch

If the red raspberries are hanging heavy on the canes when it's time for harvest, and you're hearing, "I'm not going near that place" then your berry garden might be out of control, and all of your pickers could mutiny!

Maybe it's time to clean-up!

Red raspberry gardens that are overgrown and have almost returned to nature after years of neglect can be cleaned-up. Those delicious berries growing in the dense centers that always got left behind can be a thing of the past with some work and determination.

Red raspberry plants can grow into a bramble fortress thicket in a few neglected years - even one that Brer-Rabbit wouldn't go near!

Summer-bearing varieties of red raspberry plants should grow three to five canes the first year. Second-year canes will appear all around the parent plant and even between the rows, and arching cane tips will also root in soil. The space between the rows disappears.

Almost any time is a good time to work at "organizing" the red raspberry patch. Long-handled pruners, hand pruners, and a pitch fork will make the work easier. In early spring (March in our area) we begin pruning the "soon to fruit" canes down to three to five feet - and start digging and replanting the plants that are in the "proposed paths." Another way to make paths, if you feel you already have enough plants, is to prune the unneeded plants to ground level and run a mower over any new growth.

For any of the plants that are destined to be moved to another area just prune all canes down to six or eight inches, dig the rooted plant and move it. Even though you will be cutting away canes that would be fruiting that year just remember that fruit wouldn't have been reachable anyway, so, be ruthless! Cut the canes off and move the plants.

This is where the pitchfork will be appreciated. Those long canes are thorny and a long-handled fork is the most painless way to move a stack of the canes out of the area.

Soon paths will start to appear. The five foot pruned canes will still be sending out lateral branches, so allow for that. Make the paths eight feet wide and in a single row. It may take a year or two of hard work but the final outcome will be a neat "pickable" berry patch.

Once cleaned only a little maintenance is required each year. If plants are growing near or even under trees, nature will provide the work of mulching. Nature's mulching will keep the plants moist and the constantly-composting leaf layers will give homes to earthworms that will in turn cultivate the soil with their tunneling, and their castings will feed the plants.

Red raspberry plants are easy to grow with a little pruning every spring and the berries are nutritious and delicious! So lets enjoy our "easy-to-pick red raspberry garden.