Guide: Growing Raspberries (high yield, NO fuss fruit)
How to Grow Raspberry Plants
At the back of my aunt and uncle's house was a berm made of heavy yellow sticky clay. It was the soil excavated from an addition to their house. The contractor just dumped soil and rubble at the back of their yard.
And it became their raspberry patch.
Raspberries are well suited to the home garden because they’ll thrive in imperfect conditions like that hard-packed berm.
A home gardener can take a very systematic approach to raspberry care…or a hands off approach. Both work with raspberries. (Though by investing some time, you increase the harvest.)
If you want to find out how to grow raspberries, get ideas for using them in the landscape, and find out top tips for raspberry care, keep reading. This post tells you how.
Primer for Growing Raspberries
Let’s start with some raspberry basics.
How Raspberries Grow
A raspberry plant has perennial roots, but the canes live for only two years.
Raspberry bushes have perennial roots (meaning it lives for many years) but the tops—called the “canes”—live for only two seasons.
First-year canes are called “primocanes.” They start out green and tender, and get brown and woody as the season progresses.
Second-year canes are called “floricanes.” Floricanes flower and produce fruit, and then die at the end of the season.
Raspberries that produce fruit on the floricanes are called summer-bearing raspberries or summer-fruiting raspberries.
But some varieties of red and yellow raspberries grow a later crop of fruit on primocanes. These are called everbearing raspberries, fall-bearing raspberries, autumn-fruiting raspberries, or primocane raspberries.
Raspberry Fruiting
Raspberries are late to flower, so flowers are not likely to be hit by late frosts.
You don’t need multiple varieties to get fruit because raspberries are self-fertile. You will get fruit even if you have only one plant.
Here’s when raspberry fruit ripens:
Fruit on floricane-fruiting varieties ripens early summer through to midsummer.
Fruit on fall-bearing varieties ripens mid to late summer. If winter is slow to arrive, you can harvest raspberries until there’s a heavy frost.
Raspberry Growth by Fruit Colour
Yellow raspberries are the same species are red raspberries.
There are red, yellow, black, and purple raspberries. The red raspberries and yellow raspberries are the same species. Black raspberries are a different species. And purple raspberries are a hybrid of red and black.
Red and Yellow Raspberries
Red raspberry and yellow raspberry plants send up new canes from the base of existing canes. New canes also grow from the roots. That means that they don’t remain in a clump, and plants spread out in all directions.
Black and Purple Raspberries
These grow in a tidy clump, with new shoots growing from the base of the clump.
Where to Plant Raspberries
Black raspberries.
If you want to grow raspberries by the book, look for full sun and a rich, well-drained soil.
But in a home garden setting, we don’t always have the ideal conditions that a market gardener might have.
You don’t have to give raspberries the prime real estate.
They grow in a wide range of soils. Very sandy or very heavy clay are the least ideal—both situations can be helped by adding lots of organic matter. The ideal pH is around 6, though they can do fine on many soils.
They don’t do well in soil that’s continually wet. So avoid wet locations. Or, if you only have a wet location, consider raised beds.
Raspberries are affected by a disease called verticillium wilt. There are a few common plants that we grow in home vegetable gardens that also get verticilium wilt: the nightshades (tomato, eggplant, pepper, potato) and strawberries. If you've been growing these and you've had wilting and dieback, this is a red flag. Put your raspberries in another part of the yard.
Planting Raspberries
Purple raspberries.
A raspberry patch can last many years. So set it up right.
Your first step is to get the soil in good shape by adding lots of compost.
Next, make sure there are no perennial weeds.
Raspberry Spacing
How you space raspberry plants depends on how you’re fitting them into your yard. However you do it, though, your red and yellow raspberries will fill in the spaces soon enough.
Rows Make Picking Easier
Raspberries are easier to pick when you grow them in rows. If they’re in a patch, you have to blaze a trail for picking…and that might mean scratched arms!
I like rows that are at least 60 cm (2’) wide. Wider than that and they’re more difficult to pick. Leave 60-90 cm (2-3’) between plants. Because black and purple raspberries have long, arching canes, you can space them a bit farther apart.
Raspberry Hedge
Your neighbours might take issue with me for mentioning this…but what about a raspberry hedge as a way to separate yards? Because they sucker, a raspberry hedge creeps outward—so be prepared to rein it in.
Raspberries in the Landscape
Beyond rows or hedges, wherever you plant them, keep in mind that raspberries spread.
This is a plant that’s perfect in a spot with natural boundaries—like a space framed by a house and a patio.
In the wild, raspberries often grow in partial shade, at the forest edge. Think of this if you’re creating a layered landscape or a food forest.
I’ve seen commercial raspberry production in high tunnels, both in the ground and in pots. This is more work than most home gardeners want, but it gives the gardener more control of conditions, meaning the chance to boost yield. It also extends the fall harvest window.
Raspberry Care
Weeding
In an established raspberry patch it’s difficult to remove perennial weeds like thistle or bindweed. So don’t let them get established!
Raspberries have shallow roots, so don’t deeply cultivate the patch. You can scuff the surface or spot-dig bigger weeds.
Even better, minimize weeding by mulching your raspberry patch. This also helps to hold in moisture.
Trellising
Trellising raspberry plants with a T at either end of the row, and wires strung in between.
A simple way to support raspberry canes in rows is to have a horizontal wire running the length of the row on either side of it. To do this, install posts at the end of the row and put pieces of wood across the posts, so they’re T-shaped. Then run wires from one T to the other. The wire can be 1 – 1.5 metres off the ground—depending on how tall your canes are (which depends on the variety and the growing conditions.)
In short, you’re just getting canes to grow between horizontal wires, which prevent them from leaning too far away from the row.
A variation for those growing a skinny row of raspberries is to have a single wire down the centre, and then tie each cane to it.
Note: Fall-bearing types can get tall and top heavy when laden with fruit. If so, trellising help keep canes upright.
Landscape with Fruit
That’s easy to grow in a home garden!
Pruning Raspberries
If you let every cane grow, you’ll have smaller fruit. If you thin out canes, those remaining give more—and bigger—fruit.
If you’re managing your raspberries more intensively, you might opt to prune twice a year, with summer pruning and dormant pruning. You’ll still get raspberries if you don’t prune, but you can optimize production (and have a nicer looking patch) with regular pruning.
Summer Pruning
Prune out weak primocanes. Thicker, more vigorous canes give more fruit.
I aim for 30 cm (12”) between primocanes, bearing in mind that in a wide row there can be more than 1 cane in a 30 cm (12”) span.
Pinch tips of new black and purple raspberry canes mid-summer to encourage side branching.
After floricanes finish fruiting, cut them out (you can also just wait to do this later, while the plant is dormant).
Dormant Pruning
These floricanes will be pruned out at the end of the growing season.
I prune in the fall. In colder climates, prune late winter or early spring pruning so winter dieback can be removed with pruning.
Prune red (and yellow) raspberries back to 1.2-1.5 metres (4-5’) high before growth begins. This encourages more side shoots…meaning more fruit.
Cut back side branches on black and purple raspberries by half before growth begins in the spring.
Here’s an Idea: If you have fall-bearing raspberries and want only the fall crop, cut all of the canes to the ground in the spring before growth begins.
Water
Water raspberries during dry conditions to prevent dry, seedy fruit.
Raspberry Varieties
Here are things to think about as you choose raspberry varieties:
Hardiness
Summer or fall bearing
Taste
For summer varieties, there are early-, mid-, and late-season varieties
When it comes to varieties, it’s worth doing your homework to see which varieties are recommended for your area. Hardiness varies between varieties. Taste varies quite a bit too—so as you’re looking at zone ratings, see how the flavour is rated.
If you have a short growing season, there might not be enough time for fall-bearing raspberries to ripen. That’s because ripening stops and plants start to shut down with the first hard frost. To find out more about taste and what varieties do well in your area, ask other gardeners—or check in with a nearby pick-your-own farm.
In areas with winter thaws followed by extreme cold, where winter dieback is a concern, an early-fruiting primocane raspberry has the advantage of not relying on overwintering canes
Black raspberries not as cold hardy as red and yellow raspberries.
Challenges
Competition
My main competition for berries is my kids. But for many gardeners, it’s birds. Because canes are fairly low, netting, or growing in a net tunnel, are options.
Decline
A raspberry patch usually goes into decline after a few years. Start a new patch, on another piece of ground.
Raspberry Propagation
This article tells you how to propagate blackberry plants.
Use a spade to divide clumps in the fall, or in the spring before new growth begins. Spring and fall are also the time to dig up wayward suckers from red and yellow rapsberries.
Black and purple raspberries can also be propagated by tip layering. Here’s an explanation of tip layering for blackberries; it’s the same process for purple and black raspberries.
Buy Raspberry Canes
Many garden centres sell potted raspberry plants. The advantage to container-grown plants is that the planting window is much wider. But they cost much more than bare-root plants.
Dormant bare root plants, with roots washed of soil, are shipped in late winter and spring. These are available from many online nurseries—and the price per plant is considerably cheaper than potted plants.
FAQ – Grow Raspberries
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Do raspberries grow in shade?
They tolerate partial shade well, though the yield is less than in full sun. My productive black raspberry patch gets only a half day of sun.
Does frost affect raspberry flowers?
It can, but because the flowers are late to open, it’s rarely a problem.
I want to renew my raspberry patch with new plants. Can I put it where my current patch is?
It’s better to choose a fresh piece of ground, if that’s an option. That’s because raspberries planted where there were recently raspberries growing might not do as well. If your old patch had disease, it can affect the new plants.
Why does my raspberry fruit crumble?
If the ripe berries crumbles when you pick them, the problem might be poor pollination. This can happen when the weather at the time of bloom is rainy or overcast.
Can raspberries grow in a pot?
Yes. Raspberries grow well in containers. As with any container-grown crop, success depends on providing a large enough container, and sufficient water and feed.
More on Raspberry Plants
And here’s more on how to tip-layer blackberries and black raspberries.
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