Advice on starting a raspberry patch

[AllotmentMummy]

Please can I get some advice on starting a raspberry patch? I had planned to fill one of my main beds with raspberries. The beds measure about 4.5m by 1.5m. Looking at the raspberry spacing requirements it looks like I can only fit about 8 raspberries across (using 50cm spacing as an approximate average between summer and autumn varieties) and that I would need to deepen the bed to 1.8m or a bit more to fit a second row in. Is that right? Is tighter spacing used in practice? Other raspberry patches at our allotments seem to have much tighter spacing. I don’t want to have them too close and affect yields, but equally I would like more than 8 plants. We are a family of four (who go through at least half a kilo of raspberries a week). How many plants would you recommend having? If I need more than 8 plants might one option be to join two of the individual beds so I have an area 4.5m wide and 3m deep? Thanks for any advice! Hoping to order plants soon but don’t want to order too many!

[Scarlet]

Raspberries grow like weeds and I would grow them in a row - not 2 plants deep unless you were leaving a deep path between rows?
Mine started as a single row, each cane two foot apart....the row is now difficult to contain at 3ft deep...I'm always cutting out the stragglers! Honestly they grow fast. Give them plenty of space and they will soon look like the others on the allotment.

[Scarlet]

I've tried to find a few photos of mine but all I can find is one end.
The cross pieces are 3ft wide and the upright post is 6ft. I tie wires on the cross piece ends to keep the canes in. They don't take long to fill their allotted space.



This started as 1 cane deep, 2ft apart.

[Doncasterpaul]

I just used cuttings from someone else’s patch. Placed them into the ground about 6” and about a foot apart to make a border. As scarlet says that border very quickly became a bush. A very healthy bush my I add. So basically don’t worry about the spacings as they will soon fill up anyway

[AllotmentMummy]

Raspberries grow like weeds and I would grow them in a row - not 2 plants deep unless you were leaving a deep path between rows?
Mine started as a single row, each cane two foot apart....the row is now difficult to contain at 3ft deep...I'm always cutting out the stragglers! Honestly they grow fast. Give them plenty of space and they will soon look like the others on the allotment.

Thanks for the advice Scarlet. Yes it would be a deep row between the plants (about 1.8m). Thanks for your pic - really interesting to see how yours have developed. How many do you have in your row and what sort of yield do you get?

[veggiechicken]

What sort of raspberries do you want to grow - summer or autumn fruiting?
I'd recommend 2 rows, one of summer and the other of autumn. Plant the summer ones in the sunny row and the autumn ones in the less sunny spot.
As the others have said, they multiply quickly, not matter haw far apart you plant them. I've also found that most of the suckers will be on the south side of the plant.

[4Shoes]

Sure there will be folks on your allotment site that have stray plants. I've a row of Autumn Rasps, with stray plants over 1m away. Keep coming back even with constant mowing You just have to dig them out.

The distance between plants is a compromise for a new bed. Cost benefit thing. They beds fill up quickly. So if you have extra plants, pop them in any you'll get higher yields of fruit faster. Will just mean you'll have to start thinning the plants at end of each season harder and sooner than would be the case otherwise.


Two rows in the bed is going to be an ask, but if you have a reasonable path down each outer side, may be doable. Just a tight squeeze down the middle.

The Wild Option.
Treat whole bed as a one. Support wire round the outside and let the inner canes support each other.

[Scarlet]

I've got a lot of space....one patch is 20ft long and has grown to about 10ft deep these are winter fruiting. I wouldn't ever plant like that again....it's a forest and difficult to pick.
Then I have my conventional rows. I have 2 which are both over 20ft long.
If I was to start again I would only have autumn fruitingcanes. You don't need to prune all of these and you get to pick from them during the summer then the autumn.
Summer fruiting canes need to be tied in or they fall over.
Like VC say they stray every where and I am constantly digging them out. I use the lawn mover to keep the rows from spreading out more.
I don't weigh the fruit. I have a job keeping on top of picking, it takes a lot of time when there are so many other jobs to do. I make lots of jams and I freeze lots.

I would also get cuttings from your neighbours.

[nickdub]

Some sensible advice given already - I'd just add one word of caution about accepting offsets from other people's plants, make sure as far as you can that the donor plants are really growing well and productively, as raspberry virus is fairly common, and really means that plants that are infected are not worth growing.

[Snadger]

I had a setup like Scarlets. Stout post at each end of the row, small cross piece at bottom and longer cross piece higher up. Stretch wires between the ends of the cross pieces and tie canes into the cross wires at alternate sides. Keeps rasps tidy and easy to pick.

[marchogaeth]

I don't think anyone has said this yet but they don't like to be planted deep, some as shallow as 1 1/2" so check for the cultivar you buy. Cold roots in the winter promotes fruiting.

I only grow Autumn ones - nobwires necessary. You should cut them off at ground level at the end of the season which can just be done with a brush cutter or hedge cutter. I cut half of mine off half way and pull out the last season canes - this gives fruit earlier. Also if you cut them down after Christmas, the dead canes make a good wildlife habitat.

[4Shoes]

I find the Autumn fruit are too late here in Wigtownshire to get a good Autumn crop, so I've started to grow them as "Summer Fruiting". i.e. You treat them like summer canes - cut out the old canes and tidy up this season - you'll get a reasonable summer crop followed by limited fruit into the Autumn.


I have summer canes too, so plan that when I move them to just retain the summer stock.

[AllotmentMummy]

Thank you everyone, those are really helpful tips!

[MarkPelican]

I second Marchogaeth - just grow autumn fruited. I grow Polka and they crop from July through to November and I chop them down to the ground in December/January. They don't need any other work. No need for supports.

As regards being too close together, I've got two rows of (originally) 10 canes in a bed 20ft x 5ft and pick from the edges. Because there are no supports its easy to reach across.

[Kirk]

I would also advise to just grow Autumn ones, simply easier to manage as the basic principle is to let them grow, they produce fruit then you cut them back to ground level. That sort of covers March to November. You have a break over Christmas and the cycle stars again the following March.

They will spread and they will thicken up, a single cane will become say 3 canes in a group next year, the next year the same occurs. And while thickening up they are throwing out runners.

Do not mix Autumn and Summer varities, pruning becomes just about impossible then.

They are shallow rooted so add a layer of mulch to maintain moisture. They are actually woodland plants.