New Zealand Garden Swap Newsletter
Garden Swap Website - Newsletter Cover - Page 6 - Page 8GROWING RASPBERRIES
REPRINT OF AN ARTICLE BY A NEW RASPBERRY GROWER .
Growing conditions
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. They're happy with most acidic free draining soils although digging in more organic matter should improve yields. 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
In winter local nurseries will carry raspberries best suited to your local climate. If possible maximise their exposure to sun by planting rows running north to south. 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. When planting your first canes make sure you cut them to the ground. 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. There are essentially two types of raspberries: fall (or autumn) bearers and everbearers (or summer bearers). The difference is: fall bearers produce at the tip of the first year canes (called primocanes), and later on branch laterals in summer of the next year; summer bearers only fruit on second year canes (called floricanes). 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. Remember to organically fertilise raspberries toward the end of winter before new canes sprout. 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. 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're doing a little experiment at the moment about this issue. Of our four canes, two we've left untouched, the other two we pruned to the ground during winter. In the spring/summer growing season we'll see how things progress. For any new canes we'll also experiment with tip pruning. While raspberries can get diseases we haven't had any problems yet.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.