Raspberries are easy to grow and ideal for family fruit and veg plots. Surplus crops? Freeze or make into jam.
Summer-cropping types fruit in July on stems (known as 'canes') that grew the previous summer. Each year the previous year's old fruited canes are cut out, leaving the new canes to grow on through the winter. They usually require some form of support - stakes or post and wire.
Autumn-fruiting types (also known as 'primocanes') fruit in the autumn on canes produced earlier in the year, and are really easy to grow, requiring no staking or support. If planted in spring, they will usually fruit in their first autumn. After cropping, cut the stems down to the ground; new canes will grow in the spring. With a little pruning you can get two crops in one year: leave the fruited canes over winter, then remove the top part of the cane in early spring, just below where the fruits were produced the previous autumn. These shorter canes will then produce berries in early summer. After fruiting, cut the canes to the base to allow space for young stems to come up, which will produce more fruits a few months later.
All raspberries prefer an open, sunny position and moist but well-drained soil, but will produce fruit in less than perfect conditions. After planting, cover the soil around the plants with well-rotted manure or homemade compost. Add a dose of liquid seaweed feed if the leaves start to yellow as the plants mature. Cover with netting to prevent birds getting them first. After ten or more years in the same place, crops will be lighter as the soil is exhausted, so move the plants to a new position.
Primocane varieties:
- Autumn Bliss: well-known, reliable variety.
- Allgold: unusual golden berries that crops at the same time as Autumn Bliss.
- Heritage: large red berries appear later in autumn and may need covering with fleece in some areas.
- Polka: reliable, heavy cropper with sweet, tasty fruit in early autumn.
Garden centre or nursery magazine? 2014.
