Different coloured rapsberries and fruit sleeves

[w33blegurl]

Morning!!

OK, I have space for another row of raspberries at the lottie and was pondering whether to go for something slightly different from the norm. I'm considering either raspberry black jewel or the apricot coloured raspberry valentina. Just wondering if anyone has tried them and what the flavour is like? I have space for 3-4 plants so could have a couple of each, but if they taste dreadful I'll proable just stick to "normal" rasps since we eat so many of them!!

Also...our cherry tree is covered in blossom this year and am considering getting some of those tree sleeves (or making them if I can be @rsed) on the off chance we may actually get to sample some of the cherries (managed to eat one last year before the birds stripped the tree!!). Do they work...are they worth the prince if you buy them or are they relatively easy to make (given my limited sewing ability - was thinking of getting some cheapo net curtains which are a fraction o the cost!)

Ta muchly!

[monkeyboy]

Also...our cherry tree is covered in blossom this year and am considering getting some of those tree sleeves (or making them if I can be @rsed) on the off chance we may actually get to sample some of the cherries (managed to eat one last year before the birds stripped the tree!!). Do they work...are they worth the prince if you buy them or are they relatively easy to make (given my limited sewing ability - was thinking of getting some cheapo net curtains which are a fraction o the cost!)

Ta muchly!

I can't answer the first question but can answer the second. We have a cherry tree in the back garden. I had no idea it was a cherry tree as it was there when we moved in, even after it had blossomed. Some fruit grew on it two years ago and it turned out to be cherries. I planned to harvest them but the birds had beaten me to it.

Last year, I bought some fruit tree sleeves from harrod horticultural. It came with reusable zip ties so I duly put it on as many branches as I could. Result? Two mixing bowls full of cherries were the total harvest. It was, however, expensive. I reckon if you can get insect mesh netting and sew it into sleeves, it'll work. I don't know about curtain netting but I imagine it'll last long enough for one season.

[Jungle Jane]

That’s a really good idea,I found cheap net curtain offcuts in the range,other curtain places might have some too. If you make them to a width allowing for roundness maybe 14” wide piece of net? Depends how big the tree is? You can always tie string on the ends so nothing can climb in but it would be nice if it’s wide like that so all the leaves don’t get squashed.

[monkeyboy]

That’s a really good idea,I found cheap net curtain offcuts in the range,other curtain places might have some too. If you make them to a width allowing for roundness maybe 14” wide piece of net? Depends how big the tree is? You can always tie string on the ends so nothing can climb in but it would be nice if it’s wide like that so all the leaves don’t get squashed.

The ones I bought were 17.5cm diameter:
https://www.harrodhorticultural.com/...s-pid9436.html

That gives a circumference of 55cm which is 21.6" so a material 21.6 inches wide (plus a bit extra for stitching) should be enough.

If you went for the 30cm diameter sleeves, that's 94cm which is 37" wide.

14" wide material would give a sleeve diameter of 11.3cm which might be a bit tight.

[w33blegurl]

OK...I'll try making them then. Might go with measurements similar to those Monkeyboy quoted. WIll head off to the charity shop before school pick up to see if there are any in there, otherwise I've seen some cheap ones on Amazon that would probably do the job!

[flynch]

Flavour can be very subjective but I have red raspberries, yellow, valentina, black jewel and glenco. My favourite is valentina. I like black jewel but much prefer purple glenco.

Bare in mind that black and purple raspberries have a different growing habit to the red, yellow and apricot coloured ones and requires different pruning methods. Black raspberries are in fact a different species and purple are a hybrid of the two. It's also recommended to grow them as far away from each other as possible as red raspberries can transmit disease to them.