Early Raspberries

[sarraceniac]

Hi Everybody. I just joined today and am a fairly old hand at growing palms, half hardies and exotics.

But with the way things are going in the supermarkets in both price and quality, and having a fairly large garden, I fancy trying my own veg and soft fruit in unused areas now. Will have loads of questions on various things but to start, as it is the right time of year to plant canes of my favourite soft fruit, a simple question. What early cropping raspberry should I look at and any planting tips? N. Yorkshire. USDA zone 8b. Rich clay soil.

[kitchengardner]

Hi Everybody. I just joined today and am a fairly old hand at growing palms, half hardies and exotics.

But with the way things are going in the supermarkets in both price and quality, and having a fairly large garden, I fancy trying my own veg and soft fruit in unused areas now. Will have loads of questions on various things but to start, as it is the right time of year to plant canes of my favourite soft fruit, a simple question. What early cropping raspberry should I look at and any planting tips? N. Yorkshire. USDA zone 8b. Rich clay soil.

I would recommend Glen Moy, with a bit of luck you should get your fruit from the last few days of June until mid August. If you also plant Autumn Bliss you'll get fruit from mid August until early November as well.

This is the perfect time to plant bare rooted canes. Ideally you need rich, free draining, slightly acidic soil but it is easy enough to grow on clay. Simply dig a 12" wide and 12" deep trench as long as you need (15" between plants), aerate the soil below by pricking with a fork and then put down a 2" layer of sharp sand/horticultural grit to aid drainage. Fill the ditch with good compost and a little bit of well rotted dung. Make sure the cane is planted to the old soil mark (no deeper or it will rot), firm in well & water. Cut the cane back to 10" high and leave to grow. It is important to provide support so make sure you have a suitable system of stakes & wires. Feed with BBF meal in late March and again in June for the Autumn Bliss. Whilst flowering/fruiting feed weekly with tomato feed (or comfrey tea).

Regards

Kitchen Gardener

[sarraceniac]

Thanks KG I will look at those 2 varieties which would give us rasps for the whole season. And thanks for the planting tips.

[bobleponge]

Those are 2 of the varieties I have, and my soil is heavy clay. It took a lot of digging to get the bed ready, filled it full of manure and refilled with clay, I have 2 poles about 15ft apart with 3 sets of wires spaced out going up the poles. My rasb's are good croppers, get plenty of fruit with loads enough for jam as well as eating. Comfrey tea is a real good bit of advice, its good to keep feeding them once they start producing fruit.

[sarraceniac]

Looks like the voting is 100% then. Thanks for the clay advice bobleponge. I've ordered 5 of each.

[Beetroot Bob]

we've just taken on our fist allotment and have cleared a bed for rasps and just added a few barrows of well rotted dung.

I've just got a couple of questions to add ...

1. How far apart should the rows be ?

2. Do you net you rasps to stop the birds nicking all your fruit ?

[sarraceniac]

Having attempted strawberries this last summer (if that is what it was) and having had them all nicked by the birds, Bob, I don't yet know much about soft fruit growing, or what the experts say, but I'll be netting mine. LOL

[kitchengardner]

we've just taken on our fist allotment and have cleared a bed for rasps and just added a few barrows of well rotted dung.

I've just got a couple of questions to add ...

1. How far apart should the rows be ?

2. Do you net you rasps to stop the birds nicking all your fruit ?

Ideally you should space rows 2'6" apart but 2' is ok if space is tight

The best way to stop birds nicking them is to use a fruit cage but these are quite expensive and take up a lot of room. Personally I don't bother netting, I simply tie scraps of cloth to the lines and post tops which flap around and put them off. I also harvest the ripe berries every morning and evening so they don't get a lot of chance

Regards

Kitchen gardener

[bobleponge]

BB If I was rich I would buy a cage. If I was poor, but DIY able I would construct a cage. Sadly I am a poor DIY mollusc, so I just run around shouting at the birds and hoping they stay away.
When I left home for work this time I still had a few die hards growing, but the birds would have had those for sure.
Any form of scarer will work better than no scarer. I have tried CD's (sadly they appeared to like my taste in music) and I did net them last year, just chucked the net over the top. Found it a real pain to harvest though, as obviously the plants grow around,through etc the netting.

[kitchengardner]

BB If I was rich I would buy a cage. If I was poor, but DIY able I would construct a cage. Sadly I am a poor DIY mollusc, so I just run around shouting at the birds and hoping they stay away.
When I left home for work this time I still had a few die hards growing, but the birds would have had those for sure.
Any form of scarer will work better than no scarer. I have tried CD's (sadly they appeared to like my taste in music) and I did net them last year, just chucked the net over the top. Found it a real pain to harvest though, as obviously the plants grow around,through etc the netting.

I have also tried CDs but the local blackbird used to use them to sharpen his beak on

[Beetroot Bob]

Ideally you should space rows 2'6" apart but 2' is ok if space is tight

The best way to stop birds nicking them is to use a fruit cage but these are quite expensive and take up a lot of room.
Kitchen gardener

Will 2'6" give me enough room to walk between rows (on boards) or would I have to pick through the bush?

I've got a bed 18' x 7' which I'd hoped to be able to plant 2 rows of canes and be able to squeeze down the middle of them on boards. Do you think that will be doable ??

[bobleponge]

Sounds feasable to me BB. If the canes are planted towards the outsides of the bed, then that should leave ample space to walk through the middle.

[Beetroot Bob]

One more thing ...

If I go for a few varieties to cover the full season how should I plant them ?

one row of one variety one row of the other or alternate the canes in a single row ?

Sorry for what may seem really basic questions. I'm really new to this (about 2 weeks to be exact )

[Izi]

Whatever you do, don't do as I did last year and plant your rasps in the front of a bed with Tayberry and a large thornless blackberry.

Picking the rasps was the easy bit - being at the front.
Picking the Tayberry was difficult, getting past the rasps and not being able to fully tell the difference between a tayberry and a rasp till it was in your mouth ( Yeuk)
And the tayberry is a sharp opponent at the best of times.

At least I had cut down the rasps before I picked the brambles.

The worst of it is that now I know it doesn't work and I need to seperate them they have sent runners into each other and I cannot tell one from the other when it comes to the rasp and the Tayberry. Aaaaaaargh.

So I may have to ( if I can't identify them in spring ) ( she says hopefully) battle it out another year till they fruit and tie coloured string on them or something.

So plant yours with some space inbetween.
Izi

[sarraceniac]

Thanks for the warning Izi. And if anyone sees this and is confused, the tayberry advice is transfered from another thread.