Raspberry fruiting twice a year

[susiewoosie]

I wonder if anyone can help. I'm sure I saw an advert for raspberrys that fruited twice a year, unfortunately I've lost the advert and a search doesn't show me anything.

Please help

[FB.]

They might be autum-fruiters which, if the older canes are left instead of cut down, will sometimes fruit in summer on the old stems and in autumn on the new shoots.
The yield is not doubled, since you have a mixture of old and new canes which fruit at different times.

Some autumn fruiters:

Autumn Bliss
Allgold/Fallgold (yellow variant - tastes different)
Polka


There are others but I've forgotten. I'm sure some other grapes can suggest alternates.

[chris]

I have not pruned my allgolds due to lack of time, not expecting much but a few extra fruits mid season will be nice. They make lovely jam (all gold that is). Infact, I think I prefer them to normal raspberries.

[Alison]

I used to prune back about 50% of my autumn raspberries (Bliss) before I had a lottie and didn't have space for both types. I used to get quite a reasonable crop off them in both seasons, probably about 60 to 70% of what I get now in the autumn (I have loads of summer ones at the plot). If you don't prune them back at all then they get a bit congested so the 50% level seemed to work well. They weren't special canes at all, just standard ones.

[susiewoosie]

Thanks for all your replies. So if thats whats happening then the people selling them are trying to make a quick buck lol. So would summer raspberrys give a better yield per cane than autumn ones? I only have space for about 5 canes.

[FB.]

Thanks for all your replies. So if thats whats happening then the people selling them are trying to make a quick buck lol. So would summer raspberrys give a better yield per cane than autumn ones? I only have space for about 5 canes.

Perhaps they have bred a new variety with improved double-season cropping.
There's always pressure to market new varieties as better than the older ones, to continue to generate sales.

Summer fruiters are considerably higher yielding, but are more prone to insect or bird pests destroying the crop. With only five canes, I reckon that there'd be nothing left for you after the raspberry beetles and blackbirds find them.

I grow only autumn fruiters - Autumn Bliss and the yellow-variant of it (Allgold/Fallgold). I grow the yellow variant in the hope that pests or diseases get confused.

As with many fruits: I've come to the conclusion that in a spray-free situation, it is better to accept a lower yield if it manages to dodge the worst attacks of pests or diseases.

[susiewoosie]

Thanks FB. Do the yello ones taste as nice as the red ones? Also do they get cut back to ground level all the time?

I'm alsp growing 2 bluebarry tophats, a jostaberry, 4 canes of thornless blackberrys, lots of strawberrys, 6 honeyberrys and various fruit trees. Everything has to go into planters. I find the black boxes that you get from the council to be very good for this.

[realfood]

Independent tests on double cropping of Autumn raspberry plants (ie leaving the old canes to fruit the following Summer), have shown that the total crop is a bit larger than for Autumn cropping alone. It also has the benefit of spreading the cropping period from July to late Autumn.

[Madasafish]

I started Polka two years ago and will see what double cropping does this year.