How We Grew Red Raspberry Plants (Rosaceae) in Our Back Yard Garden

Growing raspberries is easy. After all, they grow wild in nature and no one is out there cultivating and feeding them. Nature does the work. And how many times have we been woods-walking and seen beautiful wild raspberries growing profusely on thick healthy canes and without a single gardener around?

So, lets grow some berries.

Red raspberries are the heaviest-bearing and most popular. There are two kinds: summer bearing, which bear annually in summer on 2-year-old canes, and everbearing , which bear twice on each cane.

Now that we know they could be easy to grow, why would we want to grow raspberries?

Most of us want to be healthy, avoid the cardiologist, have lots of energy, and in general just stay out of the doctor's office as much as possible. There are a lot of things we can do for ourselves to slow aging and have lots of energy, and eating right is at the top of the list - avoiding the trans-fats, additives, preservatives, MSG, dyes, hormone-laced meats, and other unknown surprises in packaged and boxed, refined, enhanced supermarket foods.

What's so good about eating raspberries?

They're natural. Grown the right way they don't need sprays, chemicals or even bagged fertilizers. They're pretty to look at whether bubbling away in a purple frothy jam-pot, or decorating the corn flakes, and they're packed full of healthy substances like polyphenols, called catechins (strong antioxidants that are good at reducing heart disease and cancer in the digestive tract).

According to The American Association of Naturopathic Physicians, raspberries also contain flavonoids (keep blood vessels healthy, faster healing of bruises, fewer varicose veins, less swelling of feet and ankles - joints too). They have ellagic acid , a natural substance that may help prevent certain types of cancer (this ingredient can withstand heat - so even cooked jam is healthy). Berries have compounds that help kill off viruses and are powerhouses of vitamin C, potassium, and fiber.

So let's grow berries, and get healthy!

First, Prepare the Soil for the Raspberries:

If your soil is compacted or worn-out, spend a little money. It will be a good investment ,and your new little raspberry plants will get a head start.

We add peat moss and compost to new gardens (a bale of it around here is around $16). If our new garden area has soil that looks like fill-dirt we just remove the old stuff completely, and fill the hole/trench with our new amended soil. The new plants will grow and thrive, providing prolific crops of juicy, red raspberries for you, your children, and grandchildren.

We mulch everything heavy, just like nature. Mulch takes a lot of work out of gardening. It keeps the soil moist, and soon earthworms will find the nice environment and move right in. As they tunnel around they will be "free cultivators", and their castings will feed the raspberry plants as they turn the annual layers of leaves into black compost.

Most of our raspberry plants are near and even under maple and wild cherry trees so the autumn/fall leaf drops do all the work of automatic mulching and leaf composting.

We like that.

Next, Choose the Raspberry Plants:

Some of the summer bearing raspberries are: Boyne, Canby (thornless), and Latham (older variety and very hardy for colder regions.

A few everbearers are: Bababerry, Durham, and Indian Summer. ( Sunset National Garden - by the editors of Sunset Books and Sunset Magazines).

Our raspberries are summer-bearing, providing continuous, bounteous berry-picking adventures and jam and pie-making through June and July here in southcentral Pennsylvania. Raspberries need winter chill or cold. Our winters are generally cold with temperatures down to rare drops of zero and below, and springs are cool, long, and lingering, just what raspberries like.

After selecting your raspberry plants (ours came from a local ad in the paper--assurance that the plants are already growing well in your area), it's time for a little work.

We give all raspberry plants, especially bare-root or mail order, a good soaking in fresh water before planting, sometimes overnight. Plant them in your previously-prepared garden area. Water, mulch well, and keep checking them daily for water needs until they show new top growth.

Sometimes new starts and/or bare-root plants will concentrate on root growth first. Be patient. It won't happen overnight. Eventually the new canes will be prolific with new greenery.

Once the raspberry plants have settled into their new home, there is not much to do for a year or two until the berries are ready. Then the harvest begins over and over again.

Sources:

The American Association of Naturopathic Physicians
Sunset National Garden - by the editors of Sunset Books and Sunset Magazines