Planting raspberries - preparing plot with manure - why wait before planting canes?

[MJA54]

Hi,

Am currently in process of digging over newly acquired allotment plot ready for growing raspberries, blackcurrants and gooseberries.

Of course this digging and weeding is taking some time to do it properly, and my 4 year old daughter/assistant head gardener is growing rather impatient...and the nagging is starting...."when are we actually going to do some proper things and plant something Daddy." Anyway have nearly finished preparing plot now, apart from adding some horse manure to enrich the soil, which i plan to do in the next day or so.

I read the growing guide for raspberries on this site and with regards to digging and incorporating organic material it said, " Ideally soil preparation should be complete a month before planting; at the very least you should allow two weeks to give the earth time to settle."

Sorry if I am being a bit dim but what does this refer to - is it saying that there would be too much air in the ground as recently dug and therefore canes wouldnt be properly anchored in the soil? Or is it a reference to the manure/organic matter being too harsh/strong for the roots and that this needs to settle down? Sorry, am a bit new to this - hence "germinator" label

Maybe I should rephrase my question - if i give into pester power and plant the canes this weekend into ground manured a few days beforehand, will we regret it?!

Thanks

[rustylady]

If your manure is well rotted it shouldn't harm the roots.

As an alternative to letting the ground settle naturally, you could tread it over gently. My little grandson loves doing that in his size 6 wellies Just shuffle or sidestep across the site with your feet close together.

[Kristen]

I think the most likely issue is that the settling ground will disturb the roots, busy trying to re-establish themselves, and that may muck the plants about a bit.

I hate to tread soil down, after digging it, as it is removing some of the drainage, and air, in the open channels within the soil, but people would normally tread the plants themselves in - so that they don't rock about in the wind and to make sure the roots are in good contact with soil - you don;t want large air pockets next to the roots or they will dry out.

Raspberries are pretty tough (relative to other plants) so I'm not sure it is worth worrying about too much.

More important will be that with early Spring the Raspberry plants (assuming they are bare root?) will be breaking dormancy, and it will be important to get them into the ground and then they can start getting on with getting established, and growing a crop

I doubt the blackcurrants and gooseberries will mind much, and perhaps they are more likely to be pot grown? if so planting time is less critical (compared to planting anything bareroot, which would need to be completely promptly at this time of year.

[MJA54]

Thanks v much for the advice Kristen and rustylady.

The raspberries and blackcurrant are bareroot and seem keen to come into leaf - so the pressure is on from them as well as assistant head gardener The gooseberries are potted up.

Assistant head gardener is all too adept at treading down carefully dug soil and tilth without authorisation so maybe best way is to get her doing a light Riverdance (carefully!) around plants to firm them in and away we go