Planting raspberries

[Bex2012]

Something occured to me last night... The raspberry collection that i bough contains both early (summer) and mid/late canes. Am i right in thinking that you treat them differently? Ie summer plants fruits on last years canes, so i wont get a crop this year?
Also is each cane a individual plant, or would i treat each group of three as an individual plant? This will make a difference to how i eventually plant them out (in pots at present)

[planetologist]

Raspberries sucker. So if by groups of three you mean that you have three canes that are connected by a horizontal root, then I'd plant those out by stretching out the root in a line.

I don't have summer raspberries, but I think they might produce on the canes you bought this year. Autumn raspberries will fruit twice, in the autumn of their first year and again next summer. So I prune them directly after the summer fruiting. This then gives space for the new canes that are already there to grow on and fruit.

[Aberdeenplotter]

each individual cane will eventually throw up numerous canes. For that reason, you need to plant them individually about 18in apart(5ft-6ft between rows). Each clump of new canes i.e. the numerous ones thrown up should be restricted to a maximum of eight so cut out any straggly ones and keep the most robust.

There's some excellent guidance in the RHS publication "Fruit" by Harry Baker. ISBN 0 85533 193 3.

There are frequently second hand copies on Amazon for a whole penny plus postage

[Bex2012]

I think each plant was one cane with a clump of roots - i dont recall them being connected. So each plant will throw up additional canes, a bit like bamboo? Hence why you give them the space, for those suckers to pop up?

[vixylix]

Hi Bex, I bought a selection of three raspberry canes - two autumn and one summer. As yours are also a mix I'd assume they are separate 'plants' rather than one.

Summer ones won't fruit until next summer (they fruit on canes they grow this year). Autumn ones fruit on canes they grow this year. I don't think you'll want to prune the summer ones this year, as you only prune back the canes that have already fruited - you may want someone to confirm that though!

One of my autumn ones has already thrown up a new cane - exciting!

I've planted them in separate pots so they have lots of room (hopefully) to grow LOTS of new canes

Good luck!

[WendyC]

What length of cane were they supplied with? Both types will grow new canes this year. Your Autumn type will fruit this year, summer ones the following in 2017. However if the summer ones were supplied with a reasonable length of cane you might get a few fruits on that old cane. Not a crop as such but perhaps a few for a taster!

[Bex2012]

Thanks for the responses! Each cane is About 30cm long. Theres buds on all the canes, but as they arent in their final position I havent cut them down yet. I thought they'd be better off in a pot temporarily, rather than left in the packaging they came in.

[chrisdb]

The key thing is, whatever you do, dont plant the summer and autumn raspberries in the same place. As others have said, autumn raspberries fruit on new canes, whereas summer ones fruit on canes that grew last year. It's normal practice to cut back autumn fruiting raspberries every year to encourage growth of new canes. Since raspberries sucker, if you plant the summer and autumn ones next to each other you will struggle to keep track of which to cut down after one year and which to leave into their second year. The different varieties will end up jumbled up and impossible to distinguish.

I have a 4m gap between my summer and autumn raspberries which is occupied by a vigorous blackberry trained along wires. Within a given category (summer/autumn) I dont bother trying to keep the varieties separate, so while I did plant 2 - 3 varieties of each type I have no idea which cane is of which type now.

[Bex2012]

Thanks for the heads up, i didnt think of being able to distinguish between them! May have to rethink my layout then.

[WendyC]

You don't really need to. Just cut down the canes when they have fruited, whenever that is.

[Root66]

I have the same issue. I inherited canes last year and have no idea whether they are summer or autumn, so have planted them in rows and cut down all the canes except some that appeared to be strong and maybe a sign of summer ones? (not sure if this is accurate at all). Anyway I will wait to see what happens this year and rearrange after fruiting. Most have little green shoots of new canes appearing at the their base. As they were all free I will be pleased with whatever happens.