Planting Raspberry Canes
Raspberry canes are a great addition to the allotment or the garden then can produce fantastic crops year after year. If they are controlled right you can increase your crops every year from new canes produced. Here we will be explaining about growing raspberry canes, varieties of raspberry canes , planting raspberry canes and also how to prune your raspberries.
Raspberries are extremely expensive to purchase as they do not have a long shelf life once picked, they only last a couple of days. One of the great reasons for growing raspberries is that you can freeze them until you actually need them.
Allotment and Kitchen Garden Book
Are you starting an allotment or planning on growing your own fruit, vegetables, herbs, and flowers in a kitchen garden? If so we highly recommend the book Allotment Month By Month. This does exactly what it does on the cover to help you with what you should be doing in the allotment and kitchen garden each month. Below you can see the link for Amazon where you can purchase the book directly. This book is extremely popular with all allotment holders as you will read in the reviews:-
You can check out all the allotment and kitchen garden books we recommend here.
Best Location for Raspberries
The UK has perfect temperatures for growing raspberries. They like to be grown in climates that are cool and also the rain will help them produce. In the UK you can plant them in sunny positions as we don’t have too hot days. If you live in a hot climate you will need to plant your raspberry canes in areas that are slightly shaded to protect them.
Raspberry Soil Conditions
When choosing the right soil to plant raspberries in you need to look at soil that drains well but can also hold water. They do not like to be planted in soil that is made up of clay. When you are planting raspberry canes you can add well rotted organic matter to the soil to help improve the quality and also the drainage for the raspberry canes.
Raspberry Cane Varieties.
When choosing your raspberry cane varieties to plant there are a few you can choose from. You can get Summer producing raspberries, Autumn producing raspberries, Golden Yellow Raspberries. You can even get black raspberries now.
A great variety of raspberry to grow is Autumn producing raspberries. This is because they can be pruned to the ground each year and they actually produce bigger raspberries than th summer raspberries.
When to plant raspberry canes
The best time of year to plant your raspberry canes is from Autumn through to Spring. This is because the ground will be wetter so they will not dry out and they should hopefully root better than in summer. If you have purchased some raspberries and the ground is frozen solid store the canes somewhere cool and keep them moist until you can plant them out in the ground.
How to plant raspberry canes
Before your plant raspberry canes you need to improve the soil conditions for the plants. You can do this by digging in plenty of well rotted organic matter to the soil. You can also sprinkle some blood fish and bone over the soil – this can be mixed in with the soil to help it break down in it.
If you are planting summer raspberry varieties you will need to provide some trellis or support to fasten the plants to. If you are growing autumn raspberry canes these do not need support to hold them up they should stand up on their own.
Before you plant the raspberries dig a trench along where you are going to grow your raspberries. The trench needs to be around 30cm deep and around 40cm wide. The reason for this depth is so that the roots can be spread out in the trench and the raspberry cane cane be put to the depth that it was planted before. You will be able to tell from looking at the plant where it was planted before and the depth.
You can now plant your raspberry canes as mentioned above in the trench. Space the plants around 60cm apart. Once you have planted the raspberry canes cut them down do around 25cm. This will encourage the plant to send out new shoots and concentrate on growing a healthy plant.
Once you have planted and filled the soil back in you can cover the area in a organic matter to help feed them. Do not get it on the stems though as this could rot them.
One word of warning if you are growing Autumn and Summer Raspberries do not grow them near each other as when it comes to pruning it can be quite complicated.
How to Prune Raspberries
Autumn and Summer Raspberries need pruning different to each other. Summer raspberries grow on the can that has grown the year before but Autumn raspberries grow on the same cane that has grown that year. So Autumn Raspberries can be cut down each year. Summer raspberries only need pruning on the canes that have had the fruit on that year. My advice is the best option to purchase is Summer Raspberries.
We hope you have found these tips on planting raspberry canes useful. You can find out how to freeze raspberries here.