Tips for Growing Raspberries

Last year's raspberry patch produced a couple of berries, but not enough for this berry lover. So this year I moved the patch. I'm expecting more than a handful of berries, because I'm doing things differently. Here are some tips I've learned about growing raspberry plants to be producers.

Full Sun for Raspberries

Raspberries love a nice sunny spot. They can tolerate a little shade, but they thrive in the sun. Shade also brings with it a greater chance for fungus or disease. My previous spot saw only a couple of hours of sunlight per day. Raspberries can use at least 8 hours of full sunlight for optimum growth.

Soil Conditions for Raspberries

I removed sod and spaded up my clay patch with a shovel, leaving dirt clods. Wrong! It's best to put the patch in a place not recently stripped of sod and one that had good groundcover the year before. In addition, I hadn't worked any organic matter or fertilizer into the clod-filled soil. It was wet clay, not well-drained, was not slightly acidic in ph, and was far from the sandy loam soil that raspberries love. I planted the transplants deeper than 3-4 inches and I didn't mulch or weed. No wonder my patch didn't produce.

Raspberry Cane Support

Last year's patch was also too wide and not well-supported. Some canes grew over 10 feet long. Since the canes were new canes, I was worried about cutting them for fear of losing potential fruit. But I've since learned to cut canes to about 5 feet before fruit sets on, and make my hedgerows not wider than 18 inches--with cross trellising.

Thinning Raspberry Canes

Thinning and suckers were no issue in that patch. But in my next one they should be. Thinning of canes keeps air circulating around other canes and discourages disease. Approximately 4-6 canes per square foot is sufficient, and weaker canes need to be thinned out. Since raspberries are biennial, first year canes in the spring don't fruit. They might fruit in the fall, if they are everbearing, but second year canes are where you get the fruit.

Raspberry Cane Recognition

Greenish canes are first year. They are next year's fruit--which means over-thinning cuts down your future berries Grayish canes are dead and need to be removed and disposed of. Brownish canes are second year, and after they produce fruit, they can be cut out. To leave them only taps nutrients from other raspberry canes and invites disease.

Raspberry Patch Enemies

Where I moved my raspberry patch has the sun advantage, but it also has a few disadvantages. It's 20 feet from the neighbor's blackberry brambles. It ought to be hundreds of feet away or I could see blackberries in my raspberries and diseases introduced from infected berries.

In addition, my new patch is along the neighbor's fence. If the neighbor sprays any suckers that sneak under fence, I may lose the parent plant or be introduced to poisons. But the fact that there is a fence is a good thing. It and all my great trellising should help support top-heavy fruit-producing canes in the event of wind.

Another possible disadvantage for my new raspberry patch is that it's inside the vegetable garden and certain vegetables have been known to share diseases with raspberries--potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant. Although the raspberry patch is not directly where I have grown these vegetables, it's in the proximity.

In my small yard, I did the best I could for new patch placement. At least now that my raspberry patch is behind the garden fence, I won't have to share the raspberries with the dog. Birds will still try to get at the raspberries, but I can toss a net over the raspberry trellis when the fruit comes on.

Raspberry Watering Conditions

If I water my new patch a couple of inches of water per week it should do fine. Raspberries do survive drought-like conditions, but fruit bearing plants need more water when berries come on or the berries will be small. My new raspberry patch isn't in a raised bed. That's good for not needing as much watering, but poor because it may not drain as well. Hopefully, the soil additions I plan to add will help the soil in that respect.

My everbearing raspberry transplants, now in their second year, should produce some berries for me mid-summer to early fall. But if not, at least I know they stand a much better chance of surviving and thriving in their new spot for years to come. Meanwhile, my raspberry bucket is waiting.