Retiring raspberries?

[poppybrighton]

Hello

3 years ago I inherited a large patch of Autumn fruiting raspberries. Last year they were mostly full of shield bug larvae... this year there's less shield bugs but they are tiny. It is hardly worth picking them. Do raspberries reach a certain age and need retiring or should they just keep going?

I would like to replace the patch with a variety that is firm but this is going to be quite expensive I think so I want to be sure it is worth it.

Thanks!

[ameno]

They do get tired after a while. It's usually 10-15 years, though.
Do you feed and mulch them every year?

[burnie]

If you do decide to remove them, it might not be a good idea to replant in the same place, crop rotation applies here as you could be building up problems. I usually plant new replacements in a new area, let them establish next year, then if the originals are still under performing at the end of next years season, you will have established plants already in place.

[Can the Man]

Have the old ones thrown out new runners. I have replanted them as new raspberry bushes. I have found that 8-10 years is kind of the life span of the canes and then they need replacing, I generally use the runner shoots as new plants, they take typically 2 years to fruit.

[nickdub]

raspberries are prone to get virus infections - if this has happened to yours its probably best to get rid of them either by burning or binning them, and then after a gap plant some new canes in a slightly different place - viruses are usually spread from old plants to new ones by some sort of vector such as an insect.

[poppybrighton]

Thanks all, thats handy to know about 8-10 years. They could well be that old as the previous owner of the our allotment inherited them also.

I feed them seaweed extract and mulch with bark and last years prunings.