Red Raspberries Well Suited to Home Gardens

Red Raspberries start to fruit about the time strawberries finish and often continue producing until about mid July. One of the most important practices for good production, and also for keeping the plants within bounds, is proper pruning. This includes a midsummer pruning, which should be done as soon as the entire crop has been harvested. Normally this pruning is done in July.

The canes of raspberries, and other similar fruits such as blackberries, are biennial. That means they produce their growth in height during the first year but do not flower and fruit until the second year. After these canes have fruited, they die. The roots, however, are perennial and send up a new crop of canes each year during the time the old canes are bearing fruit.

The old canes should be removed promptly after fruiting. Removal may be delayed until spring, but it is much easier to work among the young canes when they are not so large and when the canes which have just finished fruiting are easily identified. Another reason for prompt removal is disease control. Raspberries are susceptible to a disease called anthracnose. It is usually not a serious problem on red raspberries, but can be very severe on the black and purple types.

The old canes may carry the disease and serve as a source for spreading it to the young canes. Prompt removal of the old canes removes this source. Anthracnose can be identified by grayish spots on the stems which may enlarge until entire stems are killed. Where it has built up into a serious problem, sprays may be used to bring it under control. These must be applied in the spring.

Some confusion in pruning may arise when red raspberry varieties known as "everbearing" are grown. These varieties produce a main crop in early summer then repeat with a crop in the fall. Generally both crops are lighter than those produced by standard varieties. The everbearing types still have biennial canes. The canes die after they have produced the spring crop. The difference, however, is that the young canes produced in early summer flower and produce fruit that same fall. These canes then produce lateral branches in the spring which will fruit again and then die.

Some gardeners use two varieties, one for the spring crop and an everbearer for only the fall crop. To produce only a fall crop from an everbearer, cut back all the canes in spring. In this way all the plant energy goes into the production of new shoots that bear the fall crop. Raspberries need full sun and should have good soil drainage. The best soil for raspberries is a sandy loam, but they are tolerant of many soil types.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_raspberry