New Rasp bed.... Help with spacing please

[amandaandherveg]

Decided today that the bed I had planned on using for my Tulameen Rasps is too small and will place my fruit bushes in the shade. So......

I'm now planning on using an area 4m x 4m. Can anyone recommend appropriate spacing for the rows? What I've read so far suggests 50-60cm between canes but what about rows? Do I go for 3 or is that pushing it?

[sugar]

2 m is a minimum in between rows. Don't forget Tulameen gets rather high (my canes are well over 2 m high). I would say, as long as the outer rows are also 2m away from hedges, trees, shrubs,... it should be OK.

Try to plant in rows from north to south (or south to north )

[amandaandherveg]

Thanks Sugar - 2 rows it is then, bed is bordered by wide paths so shouldn't be a problem. Can you tell me what sort of yield each Tulameen cane can be expected to produce?

[sugar]

My floricane raspberries (Tulameen, Glen Doll and Glen Magna) have given a poor harvest this year (given the poor weather), so I haven't got good dat on their productivity.
If you are really want to harvest large quantities of fruit, you shoul add some primocane raspberries. Mine (Himbotop, Joan J, Pokusa, Autumn Bliss) are delivering 300-500 gr of raspberries per day for 5-6 m of raspberry hedge (I guess about 15 canes now), and this now for about 6 weeks.

If the plot is 4 m, you can plant 3 rows (two rows on both edges of the plot, one in the middle of the plot)

[Kestrel]

Got my Tulameen in a double row. Initially planted them about 45cm apart in the row and the same between that and another row. This has not been a problem at all, still easy to harvest from each side. Besides, 5 or six new canes from each old one soon means that there is a much denser thicket of canes that is impossible to control in a single line. Pack them in, they'll soon find their own level.

[sugar]

Got my Tulameen in a double row. Initially planted them about 45cm apart in the row and the same between that and another row. This has not been a problem at all, still easy to harvest from each side. Besides, 5 or six new canes from each old one soon means that there is a much denser thicket of canes that is impossible to control in a single line. Pack them in, they'll soon find their own level.

The 2 m distance in between rows has nothing do with harvesting comfort, but with fruit quality (size) and disease prevention. When you plant those cans too close, you will get more mouldy fruit, diseased plants,...

Commercial raspberry farms keep distances of 2,7-3 m, simply because this yields the best harvest.

[Kestrel]

The 2 m distance in between rows has nothing do with harvesting comfort, but with fruit quality (size) and disease prevention. When you plant those cans too close, you will get more mouldy fruit, diseased plants,...

Commercial raspberry farms keep distances of 2,7-3 m, simply because this yields the best harvest.

Hi sugar, I understand the sentiments but a couple of things

• I have an alottment, not a commercial farm. If I had a space of 3 metres I'd struggle to fit in 3 rows on my whole plot.
• As gardeners we harvest by hand, almost everyday, taking individual fruit when at their best, thus avoiding mouldy fruit
• We don't spray or harvest with machinery (the real need for wide spacings).
• Diseased plants are far more common in a large, monocultural field or, worse still, being forced under glass, than in a polycultural alottment
• If fruit size is reduced (and I don't believe it is) it is more than made up for by having at least twice as many canes, doubling the total weight of harvest.
• Keeping the old and weaker canes pruned out is the best prevention against pests and diesease

Apologies if I seem a little indignant but many of the older spacings we are told to use (by people with large gardens) were developed for farming and Victorian kitchen gardens. We'd all love to have a large garden but most of us do not and have to increase intensity and diversity to improve production.

[Aberdeenplotter]

18" minimum between the original canes, 5ft minimum between the rows. No point in squeezing them in. better to have a good yield from a few than a very poor yield from a lot

[arpoet]

18" minimum between the original canes, 5ft minimum between the rows. No point in squeezing them in. better to have a good yield from a few than a very poor yield from a lot

Thats what i like to see, good old feet and inches.. 2,7-3 meters says nowt to me
roger

[sugar]

18" minimum between the original canes, 5ft minimum between the rows. No point in squeezing them in. better to have a good yield from a few than a very poor yield from a lot

That's exactly my point. You win on fruit quality and productivity per cane. Cramming a lot plants together is pointless imho.

A part of one of my raspberry hedges. The point is that all berries get light and air, yielding better quality

[BUFFS]

my raspberries line one side of the veg patch,they are allowed to spread to 18ins out from wall,then there is a barrier ,down to 2ft deep,that keeps the veg patch clear,still taking loads of fruit every 2/3 days but with this cold weather that will soon stop,good mulch each spring and tie in as they grow,only growing primocane now,getting better crops,trim half to the ground,other half just takke out old stems,it gives us a long cropping time and do them other way round the following year,works well...

[Kestrel]

18" minimum between the original canes, 5ft minimum between the rows. No point in squeezing them in.

Commercial raspberry farms keep distances of 2,7-3 m, simply because this yields the best harvest.

I have 1 "double" row, light can easily get in either side and I don't waste 5ft or more of planting space in between the rows. My yield is as good, if not better than my neighbouring plotter who has the same variety, Tulameen, in rows that shade one another in morning and late afternoon due to his north-south rows.

I live in London and not a rural area. Space is very much at a premium.