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Growing raspberries
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Our Heritage raspberries starting to ripen. The darker red one
at the bottom is almost ready to be picked
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This is a fruit whose habits I'm still learning. But it is one of the
best tasting fruits that can come from your garden - so stick in there!
You see raspberries normally need many hundreds of hours of winter chilling
to break dormancy and flower. In subtropical Queensland this is impossible
as we have a relatively mild winters. So we grow a variety of raspberry
called Heritage which only needs 250 hours of chilling below 10° C (50°
F) each year. This variety reportedly does well in the American south.
It's still pretty rare for Queenslanders to grow raspberries so there's
not a lot of information out there for us to plan our growing. This means
we have some truly wonderful experiences learning what to (and not to)
do. So the information below is based on our limited knowledge and the
many volumes already written about raspberries.
Growing conditions
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Raspberries grow well in full sun or partial shade, although in climates
with hot humid summers try to plant for the morning sun but with shade
from the hotter afternoon sun. Mulch to retain moisture and keep down
weeds.
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They're happy with most acidic free draining soils although digging
in more organic matter should improve yields.
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Raspberries send up spiky canes and also creeping roots which shoot
more canes. Because of its invasive nature you might need to confine
them with some edging (we use concrete terracing) so they don't take
over the garden.
Garden care
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In winter local nurseries will carry raspberries best suited
to your local climate.
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If possible maximise their exposure to sun by planting rows
running north to south.
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Here's some advice from experience. Raspberry canes need support
so build a trellis to tie your canes to before planting them
out. It's a lot easier than waiting later. Trellising is important
to boost yields, reduce the risk of disease and makes picking
easier.
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Word of advice no. 2: when planting your first canes make sure
you cut them to the ground. We didn't and in our first year
of growing raspberries lost 4 out of our 5 canes in a couple
of months.
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Try to space your initial canes about 60-90 cms (2-3 feet)
apart. Over a few years this space should be filled by extra
canes coming up from the soil.
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There are essentially two types of raspberries: fall (or autumn)
bearers and everbearers (or summer bearers). The difference
is:
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fall bearers produce at the tip of the first year canes
(called primocanes), and later on branch laterals in summer
of the next year;
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summer bearers only fruit on second year canes (called
floricanes).
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The canes (as mentioned earlier) should be tied to a trellis.
There's no fancy way of doing this. You can tie them individually
or in clumps.
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Remember to organically fertilise raspberries toward the end
of winter before new canes sprout.
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Don't forget raspberries need frequent watering during the
spring and summer growing season. Supplementary drinks of liquid
manure won't go astray during this time.
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OK, here's the point that most raspberry growers debate - when
do you prune the canes? Some gardeners will tip prune the canes
when they're just over 2 feet long (65 cms), others let the
canes keep growing. The theory behind tip pruning is it will
encourage fruit to form on the laterals. What's our experience?
So far we've left our canes keep growing. In our first year
we got fruit on the tips, but no lateral growth. We're waiting
to see what happens in the second year. Other raspberry growers
cut all their canes, whether fruited or not, to the ground each
winter. Most gardeners wait until the end of the second year
before doing this. We started doing a little experiment about
this issue. Of our four canes, two we left untouched, the other
two we pruned to the ground during winter. In the spring/summer
growing season we planned to then see how things progressed.
But then we through the experiment out the window by selling
our house, moving and restarting our vegetable patch and raspberries.
So you'll have to wait a bit longer (actually a lot longer -
at least until March 2004) to see how the experiment went.
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While raspberries can get diseases we haven't had any problems
yet.
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Some gardeners have problems with birds eating their raspberries.
If you experience this you might need to invest in some bird
netting. We've found the odd small grub in some of our raspberries,
so keep an eye out when chomping into these delightful berries.
Harvest time
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You can tell your raspberries are ready for eating when the
fruit's colour changes from a light red to a deeper, darker
red, almost maroon.
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The second test is to lightly try pulling off the berry. If
it slips off easily it's ready. If you need to use any pressure
to move the berry it's not ready yet.
Last Updated
17 November, 2008
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