Building a raspberry cage, how deep should it be?

[SaraJH]

Hi all,

We are growing Autumn raspberries against a fence this year and need to make a cage to protect them from the birds. We will make it the height of the fence but how deep does it need to be? Our beds are 70cm deep, is this sufficient? I'm not sure how bushy raspberries get?

Thanks

[Bigmallly]

How much space have you got to play with Sara?..........The more room you have, the easier it will be for you to pick the fruit.

[SaraJH]

Hi Bigmallly,

We have 5 canes planted evenly across the width of 1 fence panel, no idea if they are spaced correctly but 5 were on offer and 1 panel was what we have available so we just bunged them in

The cage is going to have to be 1 panel wide and go to the top of the fencing, we can take it out slightly further than the depth of the bed if needed but only by about 10cm or so. We are planning to get some of those zip access strips and install them as wide as possible, in theory we will have a full width roll up door to access the plants.

[muddled]

I don't cage my raspberries.
or blackcurrants, redcurrants or tayberries.

If the birds ever become a problem I might consider draping an old net curtain.....