Growing raspberries under well established fruit trees?

[BertieFox]

We garden in France on a very heavy and largely dry clay soil. A south facing slope goes down slowly to a large pond, and there are two rows of very old widely spaced fruit trees (apples, peaches, damsons etc) across the plot.

This area tends to be a frost pocket, and is obviously fairly shaded. But at least there is more moisture in the ground here than the rest of the garden which can get very dry in summer.

My attempts at growing raspberries here have met with very limited success, compared to the way they grew back in the UK. I am wondering whether raspberry canes would succeed among the trees or whether there would be too much shade. I have noticed in quite a few permaculture books that they recommend growing cane fruit at the drip line of trees.

If you have experience of growing raspberries in these kind of conditions I would be grateful if you could let me know if you think it would work.

[boundtothesoil]

I'd give it a go. Sources often state that raspberries do well in semi-shade, and the wild raspberries round where I live are often found on the fringes of woodland, although not usually under fully mature leaf canopies. The moisture should certainly help. Further, the leaf cover on apple trees is usually not sufficiently dense to stop grass growing right up to the trunk.