Raspberries

[Doggler]

Thinking of putting some raspberries on the lottie, just not sure which type and how many canes I need. Ideally we'd like to be eating raspberries as long as possible. Can I grow some Autumn ones in the same area as earlier berries? Totally clueless!

[valmarg]

I bought some Joan J canes this year from D T Brown. They are a primocane variety which means they fruit on newly produced wood. (That's a quote from the catalogue.) They are an autumn fruiting variety.

I can thoroughly recommend them. The fruits are large, with a wonderful flavour. They started fruiting at the end of July, and according to the catalogue, should keep going to mid-October.

valmarg

[GeordieVik]

Same here...

... I just signed up for a lottie last weekend, and really want to get rasps & blacks from it next summer - if I planted bare root rasps in January, would I get a crop in 2007?

Am thinking of putting some calabrese in for the winter, and just getting the rest ready for spring.

Vik

[nick the grief]

Hi GV welcome to the Vine. You won't if you just get ordinary ones. You'll need to buy what they call long canes as summer Raspberries fruit on the previous years wood. The Long cane ones have been grown a bit longer so you'll get a taster next year & then loads the following years

[GeordieVik]

Hi GV welcome to the Vine. You won't if you just get ordinary ones. You'll need to buy what they call long canes as summer Raspberries fruit on the previous years wood. The Long cane ones have been grown a bit longer so you'll get a taster next year & then loads the following years

Thanks for the welcome Nick.

Where would I buy long cane ones? Or would I be better off buying a rasp 'plant' from a garden centre, or wouldn't it make much difference?

Absolute beginner, can you tell?????

Vik

[nick the grief]

I know one of the seed catalogues has them in (damned if I can remember which one!!) but Welsh fruit stocks do them as well

http://www.welshfruitstocks.co.uk/ac...nts.html#rasps

They're not cheap but at least you'll get some crop & they will be better than Garden centre bought ones which you won't get anytjong off for two years (plant this year, grow next, fruit the following) I'd get a mixture as well Early, mid & the autumn croping . that way you'll have them longer. The autumn ones will fruit next year so that 's a bonus.

Blackberries - I never answered your query - They are pretty prolific any way. If you've got a shed on your lottie you could get a particularly viscious one & train it so it acts a shed security

[GeordieVik]

thanks Nick, I was thinking of ordering a full season collection (3 each of Glen Moy, Glen Ample & Autumn Bliss) from Thompson & Morgan.

It looks like the welshfruitstocks long canes are for collection only - but if I'll get fruit from at least some of my plants next summer, it's not too bad.

So, now to get up to the lottie & get rid of the weeds - the old roundup versus smothering in cardboard dilemma... still can't decide!

Vik

[skegblade]

I bought an Autumn Bliss raspberry plant in a container from a local nursery; it had three decent length canes, one of which had a couple of fruits on it. When I planted it up it wilted for a few days before perking up. To allow it to bed in better I pruned it back to the lowest bud. The canes were cut into two feet lengths, a bud at each end and stuck in the ground. Out of six cuttings, four have taken; so I now have five raspberry plants for the price of one; not bad for six quid.

[Doggler]

Oh Vik, we've had the same dilemma with our lottie. I'm all for being organic but after reading a load of threads on this site I came to the conclusion that as I couldn't guarantee the previous owner hadn't used chemicals and I'm fairly sure the guy next to me does I went for the round-up. Sure I read somewhere on here that according to the Soil Association it takes at least two years before you can be classed as organic anyway so one more application won't hurt! Once the ground is cleared I'm definitely going to try not to use chemicals though. Might mean I don't win the annual pumpkin competition though!

[sewer rat]

Doggler
T'was I who mentioned the Soil Association and their two year rule. One of the reasons they give is that if the ground you wish to be classed as organic is full of rampant, perrenial, hard to shift, bloody deep rooted weeds, they advise you to spray them off with glyphosate, as hand weeding them when you have anything bigger than an alotment size patch is not an option - imagine trying to remove all the nettles, thistles, dockens, couch grass from 10 acres or more ! The two years then gives sufficient time for any traces of the chemical to all but vanish, as well as any artificial fertilisers, herbicides, insecticides that had been applied to the crops or ground previously

[Snadger]

I believe the active ingredient in Roundup is glyphosate. It is best sprayed when the weeds are actively growing as it is systemic. It can be sprayed at any time, just it will take longer to work the less growth there is. I would suggest that now is a good time to spray as weeds are still growing and it should then die allowing you to get on with your winter digging. Don't be alarmed if nothing seems to be happeniing for a while as it takes at least two weeks to start taking affect at this time of year...the grass will yellow first followed by the deep rooted weeds

[Protea]

Ken Muir do an excellent selection of raspberry canes, with good descriptions (as well as all manner of other fruit and nut trees) - i got mine from them last year and they've given me a good crop - even had some summer rasps which i wasn't expecting!

www.kenmuir.co.uk

[denise]

This 2 year clearing is great news. Took over a plot in June and was told it hadnt been worked for 3 years so I have a good start then as I hope to garden the 'organic way'. This will keep me going when fighting the weeds.

[Alison]

We have a row of autumn bliss in the garden (about 8 years old now I should think) which produced a large summer crop as well as a smaller autumn one in their third year. After mentioning this to the old boy next door he informed me that it was because I hadn't cut them back properly in the spring (general laziness and a wet start to the year I should imagine!) and that autumn rasberries fruit off new stems and should be cut to the ground the following spring. If you don't they fruit again (summer rasberries on year old stems so you only prune the stems which have fruited) the following summer but you won't get as much in the autumn. A good compromise if you only have 1 variety is to thin the stems in the autumn so that you get some fruit in the summer and some more in the autumn which is about right for us and the number of canes we have - think we had 6 canes originally, bought as part of a "fruit orchard" set from the garden centre.