Raspberries

[Dingle]

I planted a row of the autumn raspberry - Polka. I chose it because it had won loads of awards. The first year of fruiting (last year) the canes produced very large, firm berries that looked fantastic, however, they turned out to be virtually flavourless . Is there any way of improving the flavour or did this variety win prizes for looks alone..?

[FB.]

I'm not an expert on raspberries, but I've often found that with many fruit types, reports from growers trials tend to strongly emphasize the good points and not mention the bad points.
Growers trials are often conducted in specially selected locations, where the soil and climate will give the most impressive result.

Newer varieties of fruits need strong marketing hype, otherwise they would not sell and the developers would not earn their living.

Modern fruits are basically bred for supermarkets.
The fruits generally need to have as many as possible of the following features:

1. Good size
2. Colourful
3. No blemishes
4. Nicely shaped
5. All the same size and shape
6. Fruits all ripen at the same time
7. Fruits tolerate rough handling during transport
8. Fruits store well


Sadly, flavour is often overlooked and the heavy use of chemicals by commercial growers means that disease resistance doesn't matter to them.

The above is why I have listed my hard-earned experiences with various apple types; because the old, traditional varieties are often better than anything that modern breeding can offer, if you don't mind not ticking all the "boxes" above.
Certain varieties of fruits tend to be better in different parts of the country. I'd be willing to bet a few beer tokens that my home-grown apples; "Discovery" and "D'Arcy Spice" taste better than when grown almost anywhere else in the UK. Not surprising, since the varieties are fairly old and are varieties that were found fairly close to me and the seedlings would have been selected for their performance.

[Dingle]

Oh dear, I was hoping it was something i was doing wrong but it looks as though i just fell for the marketing hype , they certainly ticked all the above boxes but what's the point if they have no flavour? I was so looking forward to the delicious raspberries i remember eating as a child.

I do have one good thing to say about Polka: i left them unnetted last year thinking at least our feathered friends would benefit from them but they never went near them... says it all really... the birds have more sense than i do .

[FB.]

they certainly ticked all the above boxes but what's the point if they have no flavour?

When people go shopping, it's the appearance of the fruit on the shelf that sells it. Mis-shapen, small, pale, blemished, bruised will be rejected by naive consumers.

I do have one good thing to say about Polka: i left them unnetted last year thinking at least our feathered friends would benefit from them but they never went near them... says it all really... the birds have more sense than i do

When I grew raspberries, the birds couldn't get enough of them. In fact, it was the hassle of needing to net the raspberries that made me decide to dig them out and give the canes away!
From memory, of the varieties that I had, the birds especially liked Malling Jewel.

[rana]

I have found with raspberries it is the smaller fruited varieties that have the best flavour and as FB says the birds will go for them first while leaving larger less tasty berries alone.

[Lavenderblue]

oddly, its Polka that aren't performing for me. I am hoping that the nursery will replace them with something else.

[GrubbyGirl]

I bought Polka too, so I think I'll leave it potted for this year and if all the predictions are true I'll not have the trouble of digging it out.

A question to all you experienced raspberry growers, which autumn and which summer fruiting raspberries would you recommend?

Angela

[Alison Adams]

Oh rats, I have gone for Polka this year, based on description alone, never having tasted them. Shall have to wait and see, you never know different growing conditions may also affect the flavour (ever the optimist !).
I'll report back in autumn...

[rana]

Summer Raspberries - Glen Moy, and apparently Malling Jewel is good
Autumn Raspberries - Autumn Bliss

What I dont know is how virus resistent they are but I had some canes called Glen Gary for over ten years before they succumbed to disease and they produced masses of excellent intensly flavoured fruits. Can't find the variety now though.................

[FB.]

Malling Jewel is reported to be fairly tolerant of disease.
Diseases are mainly transmitted by aphids. Growing a rose or apple nearby will draw the aphids away.
My Raspberries never had a single aphid on them; the aphids were far more interested in the Rosaceae.