Poorly Raspberries

[kermit]

I got given some raspberry canes which I planted out last year and they have just started to fruit however I have noticed a few strange things!

The first is that the fruits seem to have hard bits at the bottoms even though the rest of the fruit seems to be ripe - should I just leave them longer? or is this a problem??

Also I now appear to have a problim with aphids (?) and ants which is causing the leaves to shrivel - how is the best way to treat this??

Thanks in advance!

[burnie]

For the "hard bits" try waiting as I dont think they're ripe yet,the aphids it's it's not so straight foreward.I'm organic so don't use sprays,I've found the cottage gardeners approach of companion planting does help.Basically you put plants in to distract the bugs away from the edibles.I grow most things in smaller groups or blocks and intersperse with flowers.An example(I grow in the raised bed system that was put foreward by the late Geoff Hamilton) one bed has a Gooseberry bush with some Foxgloves for neighbours,then some late Raspberries,then some peas,a few more foxgloves and aquelegia,then some more peas and Raspberries.This seems to cut down on the attacks,marigolds are supposed to be very good for this type of system as well.