Is it too late to plant raspberry canes?

[Tomato Head]

I planted a couple in pots but the squirrels have completely stripped them so I need to start again. Is it ok to start them off at this time of year? They are autumn fruiting raspberries.

[veggiechicken]

I hope not as I planted mine yesterday!! They'll be fine

[FB.]

You can plant raspberry canes at any time of year.
Autumn fruiters will crop in their first autumn after planting, but summer fruiters will not usually crop in their first year.
Summer fruiters crop on woody stems which grew the previous season but autumn fruiters crop on young green shoots and on older woody canes (if left unpruned).

[rustylady]

When you say start again, do you mean buy new plants? You say the squirrels have stripped your others, but if the roots are still alive they should regrow come Spring.

[Tomato Head]

When you say start again, do you mean buy new plants? You say the squirrels have stripped your others, but if the roots are still alive they should regrow come Spring.

well they have dug in the pots too so I thought they were probably done for but I haven't got rid yet so will leave them and see if they regrow. I still want to put a couple of new ones in though and I will cover those ones.

[rustylady]

What size pots are they in Tomato Head?

[FB.]

When you say start again, do you mean buy new plants? You say the squirrels have stripped your others, but if the roots are still alive they should regrow come Spring.

Wot the lady said.

Will squirrels actually eat the prickly stems of raspberries?
I've never heard of it before, but there's a first time for everything (hence why I didn't question "death by squirrel".
I've had squirrels eat the flowers of my crocus in spring, and I've often seen squirrels strip bark from trees, but eating raspberry canes?

Tomato-Head: can you post a picture?

[Tomato Head]

Will squirrels actually eat the prickly stems of raspberries?

Apparently yes! I'm pretty sure it's squirrels. I have lots out the back (I live next door to a park) and they dig in every pot I put out. I've caught them with their bum sticking out of a pot many a time! When I planted them they were dark in colour and now the outer bit seems to be stripped off so that they are pale in colour, plus the roots are exposed due to the digging. I don't know how long they have been like that as it's dark when I go to work and dark when I get home so I only really have an opportunity to examine things at weekends. will try to get a photo tomorrow.

they are in 40cm pots.

[FB.]

Older raspberry canes often go dry, brittle and flaky.

I'm no fan of squirrels, but the squirrels may only be guilty of digging; the appearance of the canes might just be their natural "aged" look.

Raspberries come back from quite substantial root systems, and some squirrel damage to the roots probably won't kill the plants unless the squirrels manage to break off the soft new shoots which will be emerging from roots a couple of inches down and slowly making their way up to the surface at this time of year - just like spring bulbs.
Even then, any damaged raspberries will usually try to grow new shoots at least one more time before they run out of energy.

So don't give up on them; most, if not all, have a chance to recover - even if they don't come back to life it might be that the plants died from something else. Raspberries would definitely be much happier in open ground with a decent compost mulch each year.
In a pot, the soil will soon become depleted by vigorous hungry feeders such as raspberries (and the roots can't explore outside the confined pot to search for what they need). Not to mention the problem of keeping them adequately watered in hot dry summer weather (again, the roots can't explore for water if confined to a pot).
Soft berry-type fruits are the first to start suffering if the soil is losing fertility or doesn't have the right moisture balance.
I would say that if you want to keep raspberries permanently in pots and maintain their productivity, they'll need re-potting into fresh compost every couple of years, and maybe splitting when re-potted.

My raspberries are such hungry feeders that I can either grown them in raw compost (like potatoes!) or water them with pure urine about once every couple of weeks and they don't suffer the "fertiliser scorch" which makes the leaves of many other plants wilt and die from over-feeding.
On the other hand, my young Golden Harvey MM111 apple tree is particularly sensitive to any fertilising at all; it prefers to be left unfertilised in poor soil. Strange but true.