raspberry canes - spacing and number

[tomsloc]

I have both autumn bliss and polka.I have found polka to be bigger (very large ) and the flavour is far superior to autumn bliss .I think if raspberries are healthy and happy they will produce suckers -- I have made a deep brick enclosure to keep mine in one place ,but you can cut off the suckers to produce new young plants.

Tom

[Croila]

Hi, can I ask a silly question? What on earth are "suckers", please?

With reference to raspberries I mean

I just bought five canes of Autumn Bliss and five canes of All Gold today, going to plant them tomorrow!

[Two_Sheds]

Suckers are the offshoots that grow away from the main plant. Many plants produce suckers. Either keep them, or dig them up for friends, to increase your own stock, or pull them up if you don't want to use them.

[crazii_c]

ive ordered some canes of Polka, its claimed to be better than autumn bliss. i will be growing mine in a long container and will be spacing mine 30cm apart.

it also says in one of my books that if your short of space you can plant 3 canes to a 30cm pot.

[Croila]

Suckers are the offshoots that grow away from the main plant. Many plants produce suckers. Either keep them, or dig them up for friends, to increase your own stock, or pull them up if you don't want to use them.

Thank you Two Sheds! It just sounded vaguely creepy, like these plants are taking over the world or something?? Ugh!

Oh and by the way, I didn't get my raspberry canes planted today after all cause I was so busy planting out garlic and onions and blueberry bushes.

And now I'm not sure I still want to put them in the spot I'd originally prepared for them ... I've got two kind of trenches dug in my back garden and had earmarked the larger, sunnier bit for peas and the smaller slightly more shady bit for raspberries. Now I can't decide whether I'll put a larger number of raspberries along the bannister edge of my decking which faces south-west and is very open, or whether to put fewer canes against the shed wall which faces west and doesn't get so much sun.

I like raspberries better than peas but ... Gah. Decisions, decisions!

[chris]

I've planted my All Gold (Autum Fruit, Yellow Raspberry) a bit closer than recommended - but think I'll dig one out in all honesty - it's a bit of a pain to pick them.. not had any problems with mould or whatever - but it may have been because I tied them up a bit late too (they were flopping over).

Both my summer and autum canes are in the same bed - aganst a wall that runs pretty much north-south along my garden (on the east side of the wall) - so they get sun up until around mid day, when only the tips of them poking over the all do - they've ripened fine... I've got All Gold as above, and also Glen Ample (spineless-summer fruiting).

Can't remember how much we got from the Ample, but the All Gold has been extremely prolific. On top of my little one muching a handful every day she goes out there - we've had a large (2.5L ?) tupperware container of fruit from it.. There's still probably another pound of fruit left on the canes to ripen - and it's still fruiting despite the recent frosts we've had (GH temp was 0.1C - so I assume outside must have been around -1C odd?) - looking forward to making yellow jam with them, the taste is a bit more milder than normal raspberries but the fruit (All Gold) is EXTREMELY fragile - so I'll be replacing them with Autumn Bliss most likely (still not decided - unless I come across a spineless autumn fruiter that comes up in my local garden centres)

So easy to grow though - bang em in, harvest the fruit! (in a perfect world )... you'll definately be happy you've bought them.

Once I've sorted our back garden, I'm going to line a fence with them - I was never keen on raspberries before, but after making jam (Raspberrry+Blueberry is amazing!) in the summer just gone - I'm a changed man!

[Glutton4...]

Have tried Joan J for two years. A much better cropper than Autumn Bliss but my wife and me are both disappointed in the flavour. No supermarket will sell Joan J which must say something. Yes there will be plenty of suckers with this variety but so what, one needs new canes for the next year. Will be trying Polka next year

I would suggest that is more down to price and availability, than taste!?

I was told that Raspberries are far hardier than Blackberries, and for this reason you do not see Blackberries growing wild in much of Scotland. Is this true?

We have a run of post and rail fence here, about 20 or 30 metres in length. It is quite exposed to the elements, and the ground is heavy clay. Would this be suitable for growing a Raspberry hedge?

[Croila]

I was told that Raspberries are far hardier than Blackberries, and for this reason you do not see Blackberries growing wild in much of Scotland. Is this true?

Glutton, that's not actually true ... "brambles" as we call them are pretty prolific in Scotland, even high up in Highland Region where I'm from originally - it's a nasty climate.

[Glutton4...]

Glutton, that's not actually true ... "brambles" as we call them are pretty prolific in Scotland, even high up in Highland Region where I'm from originally - it's a nasty climate.

Thank you. I thought it strange when I was told. They seem very hardy round here, even in high up exposed areas. OK they're not as high up or exposed as Scotland, but even so...

[chris]

G4 - my wall is there for a wind break as well as a seperator... but it gets BATTERED by the wind (that's why I tied them in) - we live 1/2 way up a mountain.. exposed all the way from that side garden down to the bottom of the mountain and it works for us - but it's probably more like 5m where the rasps are in length!

Clay wise - they're quite shallow rooting I believe, so if you can sort the ground by mixing in some organic stuff - i'm sure it'd be fine - if it's waterlogged, maybe line with grit?

Mines quite clay-y (is that a word?) - I just mixed in chicken poo pellets and a couple bags of MPC- seems ok so far!

[Two_Sheds]

No supermarket will sell Joan J which must say something.

It might simply say that they aren't suitable for the long travelling and shelf-life that supermarkets need.

There are many tasty strawberry varieties for instance, that you won't find in the shops because they don't keep well.

[drichard12]

I planted 2 rows of Heritage Everbearing Raspberries, each row is about 4 feet apart and spaced about 2 feet apart.

[valmarg]

Hi, can I ask a silly question? What on earth are "suckers", please?

With reference to raspberries I mean

I just bought five canes of Autumn Bliss and five canes of All Gold today, going to plant them tomorrow!

I think Twosheds answered your question, but the best example I can give of what suckers are, was when I bought my plants and OH planted them at the side of the greenhouse. The plants suckered into the greenhouse, and I should have to say we got the best crops from those plants, but they did severely interfere with our tomatoes in the greenhouse.

valmarg

[BUFFS]

i planted 10 polka and 10 tumaleen early last year ,had great late crops(picked last berries on 1st nov,now have extra 18 dug up suckers to find room for, although this years crop was a little later due to cold spring..,with all the suckers,we wont run out of fruit anyway,most is now frozen down..

[Croila]

Oh dear. I've still not planted my raspberry canes. Meant to do it last weekend but never got round to it. I've been keeping them watered, but I MUST do it on Saturday