Growing raspberries

Our raspberries were here when we moved in. I kept thinking those bushes were raspberries. They had raspberry leaves, but they didn’t produce any berries. So I didn’t bother with them. I didn’t have time to do much gardening then, so I just left them alone.

We’d been here one or two years when we had a wet spring. Berries appeared. Oh, so they are raspberries! We were delighted.

I’ve been tending them carefully ever since.

Raspberries want lots of water, especially during blossoming and fruiting seasons. However, I can water all I want and only have fair results. For a good crop, we must have rain, especially during blossoming. This year, we received no rain during blossoming. I watered, but the blossoms were sparse. Last year, we did have rain during blossoming and blossoms were everywhere. Blossoms produce berries, so the more blossoms, the more fruit.

Rains during fruiting time make the berries larger and juicier than they are with only watering.

Raspberries do require some work.

Pruning

If you don’t prune, your raspberry patch will soon be overgrown. After years of neglect, our raspberry thicket was nearly impenetrable. Once I began to prune, we received better yields — and I could get through the canes to reach their fruit.

Pruning is very important for raspberries. Otherwise, they become a tangle and have too much competition for sunlight and nutrients. I leave my canes intact until late February or early March in order to trap as much snow as possible. I then cut off all canes about 18 inches from the ground. I remove all the old, dead canes.

Red raspberry canes should be pruned to the ground.

Make sure to wear plenty of protection when pruning, including safety glasses. My face has been badly scratched when I hauled off the prunings.

Propagation

Black and red raspberries propagate themselves differently. Red raspberries send out suckers. To propagate red raspberries, sever the sucker from the mother plant and plant it in its new location.

Black raspberries start new plants from the canes of the old ones. Canes grow long enough to bend over and touch ground. The tip grows roots and up comes a new raspberry plant. If you wish to propagate the berries, cover the tips with 2-4 inches of soil to encourage rooting. Next spring, sever the new plant from the mother cane and transplant it.

Do not propagate any plants from diseased canes. The new plant will be infected with whatever infected the parent.