Care for raspberry bushes

[johncinquo]

What do you do to tend or care for raspberry bushes?  I read through some threads and saw different methods ranging from nothing to brush hogging them down.  We started with 4 plants, which with transplants became 15, and now I dont think I could count how many.  I have cultivated them into rows about 20' long and 4' apart.  Thinking I might put wood chips down between the rows.  I'd hate to just mow them down, but if that makes em produce more fruit, I'll go that route.  I have a feeling there is science to it all, I'm just not aware of it yet. 

The canes are getting so long they are crossing the rows.  I am thinking if putting in wood posts on the ends and running wires across to lace the canes into. Gte em up in the air instead of stretched across all over.   It would be nice to keep it a little more organized too, as they are really a mess and its getting hard to get in between the plants to pick. 

We also have some Thornless blackberries, but they have been growing 2 years and I havent seen a berry yet.  They have really long canes, but they do not multiply like the raspberries do.  I am thinking I might put them up on wires as well, but if I dont see some berries next year they are getting yanked out. 

Thanks

[Reddog]

Here is one that tells what we did for Raspberries:
http://gardening.about.com/od/berries/a/Prune_Raspberry.htm

Blackberries:
http://gardening.about.com/od/berries/a/Prune_Raspberry_2.htm

[beenthere]

A bit of your decision may come with your variety of raspberry.

A good friend had an unbelievably good raspberry patch, that he mowed off every fall. They were an everbearing variety, and were in rows (under 12" in width and rototilled in between). They would not bear fruit until late August/early Sept but the berries were plentiful, the canes 7' tall, and the berries large.

He said he did it that way because they didn't need picking at harvest time for the rest of his garden, and they were easy to care for by not having to go in and cut out the old canes every year (that is the part I didn't like).

And he had wires to hold the canes up...I think 3 high and two wide to keep them between the two. They were a dream to walk the rows and pick berries at chest high and up.

[Jasperfield]

Hang on to the blackberry brambles. You'll begin getting berries next year, and by year five you'll have berries of very large size and quantity. They outproduce the thorned varieties tremendously.

You'll be amazed.

[johncinquo]

Thanks.  Sounds a lot like rose bushes, once it produces, cut it off.  I'll go with staking them up with posts and wires.  Maybe 2 per row 12" wide and let them grow between. 

Next year should be a bumper crop!

[IMERC]

passing this along...

A general rule of thumb is to prune out (to the ground) all canes that bore fruit this year.  I do that this time of year.  The remaining canes will bear fruit next year.  As Denny mentioned, you can refine that rule by treating summer bearing canes differently from fall bearing canes, to maximize your yield:

How to prune summer-bearing red raspberries

In March or early April, remove all weak, diseased, and damaged canes at ground level. Leave the most vigorous canes, those approximately ¼ inch in diameter when measured 30 inches from the ground. When finished, remaining canes should be spaced about 6 inches apart. Also, prune out the tips of the canes that have died due to winter injury. Cut back to live tissue. Maintain plants in a 1- to 2-foot-wide hedgerow using a rototiller or spade.
After the last harvest of summer, prune off the old fruiting canes at the soil surface. Remove the pruned material from the garden and destroy it.


How to prune fall-bearing red raspberries for two crops

In March or early April, remove all weak, diseased, and damaged canes leaving only the most vigorous canes. Also prune out the tips of the canes. The summer crop will be produced on the lateral (side) shoots of the remaining portions of the canes. Maintain the plants in a 1- to 2-foot-wide hedgerow.
After the summer crop has been harvested, remove the old fruiting canes and destroy them.


How to prune fall-bearing red raspberries for one crop

(Total crop yield is typically larger using the one-crop system instead of the two-crop system.) In March or early April, prune all canes back to ground level. This eliminates the summer crop, but the fall crop matures one to two weeks earlier. Maintain the plants in a 1- to 2-foot-wide hedgerow. No summer pruning is necessary.

[Paschale]

I'm going to be killing off all of my raspberries this fall.  Or attempt to do so.   :

I bought one plant about five or six years ago...waited a couple of years for it to produce berries, and I simply don't like the variety.  It doesn't taste raspberry enough for me, if that makes sense.  It has a really funky taste to it.  I think it might be latham...not really sure.  Anyway, I'm killing these puppies off, and going to use some Round Up brush killer to get 'em, and try again, but first, I'll make sure I like the variety.

I have some wild black raspberries that I transplanted from my folks' place--I love the flavor of those!   8)

Any suggestions on some tasty varieties to consider?

Dan

[Jeff]

I bought a lonely forsaken raspberry plant in walmart thus spring There was only one of them left and it looked rather sickly, but it was in the 50 cent rack.  It was a Golden Raspberry.  Well, its done quite well this year and it has great big golden berries, the best I have ever tasted by far. Problem is I don't know what class of berry it falls in, so I don't know how to prune it.  It still has new berries on it every day. Because its just a new single plant, its only enough for me and Icey to go out and have a sample every day. Icey gets the ones that have ants on them. 

So my recommendation would be the golden Raspberry for taste. its amazing.

[SwampDonkey]

I have raspberries to. I just keep a path mowed around the outside of the main patch. I have lots of berries starting in mid July for a couple or 3 weeks after. I can't begin to pick'em all and by no means try to. :D But, I store up a bunch for winter in the freezer unit of the refrigerator. I also pick a bunch for the folks. I don't cut the old canes out, I used to, but couldn't see the benefits of it. The patch is rather wide and I also end up crawling through it. The biggest ones are always in the middle. :D The patch is advancing beyond the outside path and I say so what. :D It's not in a spot that matters much for unsightliness. The earthworms like it in under the raspberries, if anyone needed angle worms for trout fishing, could practically hand pick them off the top of the sod. :D

[IMERC]

Problem is I don't know what class of berry it falls in, so I don't know how to prune it. 

   
They are identical to red raspberries except for the color.  Prune summer-bearing and fall-bearing yellow raspberries the same as you would the red ones.

[SPIKER]

I have ~2 acres worth that I brush hog off at the end of year in paths through the centers of the areas and he best ones are always on the north side of white pines (damper/cooler.)  or down by the creek..

mark

[SwampDonkey]

Today I picked my first bunch of red raspberries from the garden this year. Picked five boxes, the kind strawberries are sold in. In another couple days I'll be picking twice that much if it isn't wet. The coons are already in them. I'm going to make some raspberry shrub (a spicey drink) from the first few. There's not as many berries this year, but way more than enough for me. A lot of the old canes where destroyed by snow load last winter. That means next year will be overwhelmingly plentiful. :D

Nice thing about raspberry picking is you can stand up to pick'm, the canes are 6-7 feet tall.  8)

[Coon]

 I picked our patch over for the first time yesterday as well.  I don't have all that many here but still have more than enough for frozen berries, jam, and wine. 

As a youngster that was my summer job... picking raspberries.  My folks had close to 15 acres of rows that were 4 feet wide and about six feet apart.  I really don't ever care if I ever pick another berry let alone see them ever again, but I am sure I will sometime again today.   :   :D 

[SwampDonkey]

Ah, but wild raspberry picking in brush piles and rough woods terrain is such a joy. NOT!! I like cultivated berries, although they are not as sweet as wild ones. But, usually 2 or 3 times bigger and plenty of juice. Picking raspberries in the garden isn't too bad.

[Corley5]

I noticed some ripe wild raspberries today.  They were right by the skid trail and dust covered  ;D  A raspberry patch is on the list for the new division at Whittaker Farms 

[Jeff]

First crop of Golden Raspberries.

[SwampDonkey]

I've picked 11 boxes this week so far and juiced all the pickens so far. As soon as it dries out today, I'll be picking 6 or 8 more.

Those yellow ones look nice Jeff. That little cane sure produced a lot of berries.

But I have found I can stand by a clump of 6 canes or so on the better spots and fill a berry box and hardly move.  8)

When I was straining the pulp from the red ones I noticed they have a portion of yellow pulp to them.

Unbelievable how dark the juice is.

Mom says she likes picking raspberries, but never knows what to do with them all. She does, but the work has just begun at that point.  :D :D

[Jeff]

This is what that  little cane turned into already in just a year. 

More berries this morning. 

[SwampDonkey]

Wow, did those rhyzomes ever spread, must be good soil. ;D

[Jeff]

That's the thing. It's not. very little top soil on top of sand and gravel.

[SwampDonkey]

Well, they sure grow well in that glacial sand out back in Deersdale, so makes sense.  ;D But makes you wonder.

[shelbycharger400]

same here... mostly sand soil, with maybe a foot of black dirt.
few years ago.. i kept moving wild plants i found around the trees, putting them in full sun in the garden.  well, now i have 2 different species. one is a short plant about 2 ft tall, has 1/4 dia berries,  other is about 6 to 7 ft tall and 3/8 dia berries.  they are all black berry.   i do absolutely nothing to them, just give them water during the dry spell just before and during berry production.

now i have another patch growing in the shade by the shed, 40 ft away , due to its hard to mow with the trees.

[Jeff]

My golden raspberries have had another blush of fruit. They still dont bear enough at one time yet to make wine or jelly, but they sure do make a tasty snack.

 

[Clam77]

Those are lookin yummy Jeff - is "Golden Raspberry" the variety they are or are they called something else??

[SwampDonkey]

Jeff you need 2 or 3 fifty foot rows if your going into the jelly and wine business. This was not a good year up here for raspberries. The weird spring screwed them up and I had a lot of dead canes. But they sure will be hanging next year, I have a thicket of new canes. I also picked some of the grapes this year that have been growing and going wild for 30 years. Not many, just one bunch that set. Last year with all the wet they got a fungus and withered up. Joys of gardening, eh?  :D I don't spray chemicals on stuff.