First time growing raspberries

[yogz]

Hello all,

I would appreciate some advice with planting out this raspberry please. Sorry if my questions sound a little daft! I am new to gardening and find it a bit daunting.
I have bought on impulse a raspberry plant from a garden centre that I would like to plant in my parent's back yard. The variety is "Malling Jewel" which is a summer cropper (pics below).

Most of the info I have found online is about bare root canes. My raspberry is in a container so do I need to do anything differently? Is it just one individual cane I have here?
I would like to plant against an East-facing wall, although we do have a South-facing wall if this is better?
I understand raspberries like fertile soil. I'm afraid I don't have any manure or homemade compost. What I do have is some bags of commercial peat-free compost (all purpose I think), fish-blood-bone and vermiculite. Could I use any of this instead? How much should I use and would I throw into the growing hole, or apply to the top?
Also, how big a hole should I dig, and how deep?
Can I expect any fruit this year? Do I only prune it if it's had fruit?

Many thanks for your gardening wisdom !

[mcdood]

Be careful where you plant it as they are quite invasive and will send up other shoots (canes) in places you may not want. Do you have a separate area where you can plant it?. Dig a hole the same size as the pot and pop it in it should be fine, they arent very fussy. Yours is summer fruiting so you will need to prune as such after it has fruited, pruning the fruiting canes. I'd expect you will get fruit this year. Hope that helps a little.

[yogz]

Be careful where you plant it as they are quite invasive and will send up other shoots (canes) in places you may not want.

Thank you. I hadn't thought of that. I would like to place it in a long, narrow bed. Is it possible to stop it spreading by cutting off any new canes I dont want?

[nickdub]

Raspberries like damp but well drained ground so close to a wall probably isn't ideal as the soil there is very often on the dry side.

The plants you have if grown on OK will produce more off shoots from the ground in years to come - you can dig these up with their new roots and so form a row of raspberry canes - the other thing to be aware of is netting against the birds - at least where I am that is essential if I want to eat any myself.

[yogz]

The plants you have if grown on OK will produce more off shoots from the ground in years to come - you can dig these up with their new roots and so form a row of raspberry canes

Yes, this is what I would like to have eventually -a wall of raspberries

[SarrissUK]

They spread, but it isn't so quick that you won't be able to keep up with them. Brambles are far faster and further reaching I think.

When I moved into my house 13 years ago, I bought a tiny little plant, much smaller than yours, and I let that spread as it wanted. It took seven - eight years for it to spread over 6 square meters. That'll give you an idea

When it was its biggest, I got a large icecream tub's worth of raspberries just about every day during the high season

[annie8]

They do spread. I have mine in a raised bed and have found shoots appearing both outside the bed and as far as the next bed. I just pull them out. Rasps are great though. I find now established they just look after themselves and give me loads of lovely fruit. Fruit never makes it as far as the house.

[fishpond]

Sorry to put a downer on it, but Summer Raspberries are biennial, so it probably will not produce much, if any fruit this year. To fruit this year it should have 4-8 foot shoots, then when fruited they are cut down to the ground leaving the new(this years rods) to fruit next year. That cycle then continues.
Summer raspberries are also sometimes prone to Raspberry Beetle(never spray whilst they are in blossom(Bees))
Pull the errant rods up, do not cut them, else you will get more rods in the same unwanted place.
But given some water/feed and tlc you will soon have plenty of canes and raspberries
Rods is technical speak
I hope this has helped

[yogz]

Thanks all for your helpful replies so far. I feel ready to go ahead and start planting! Just to check about feeding as nobody has mentioned this yet. Is it worth adding anything to the soil to give it a boost?

[SarrissUK]

I don't put fertiliser on my raspberries, but I do mulch it with lawn cuttings or leaves in the autumn. I have a feeling my cats are providing the fertiliser lol

[Losos]

Just to check about feeding as nobody has mentioned this yet. Is it worth adding anything to the soil to give it a boost?

I planted some summer fruiting varities only last month, I quite like those 'long life' granules (they claim up to six months) just take a handful and scatter them in the hole saves all the hassle with meusuring powder and mixing in watering can etc. I also agree that with summer fruiting types you will not get much (or any) fruit this year 'cos all the rods that come up will fruit next year,

[annie8]

I cut up my Xmas tree and put the needles on the rasp bed

[muck lover]

I mulched my autumn raspberries with seaweed/ grass clippings/leaves/ and they do well. Save the manure for black currants.

[yogz]

Thanks all for commenting. I have planted the raspberry. I raked in a little fish-blood-bone over the top and applied a mulch. Fingers crossed

[fishpond]

It may not appear to do very much above ground this year, but hopefully, underground is going ballistic.