Our poor raspberry plants were in need of a bit of care and attention. Of the ten we have in the fruit bed, three seem to have died this year before ever getting very far, and the remainders have become straggly as they’ve waited to be cut back. The plant on the right was a single stick when it arrived two years ago. Now it’s a dozen strong branches up to five feet long.
Raspberries grow on the previous year’s new wood, so it’s important to cut down the plants every winter once fruiting is over. Admittedly we’re a bit late this year, but I headed out with the clippers and cut them down to around 6in from the soil. They look a lot neater now.
Pruning the raspberries
We also managed to bag a couple of bargain raspberry canes at Homebase, which were on a ‘buy two get one free’ offer this weekend, so have used them to replace the ones that didn’t take. Fortunately these were already two years old, so should be ready to fruit in summer 2010.
Growing fruit seems to take a lot more planning, patience and time than vegetables, but where raspberries are concerned, it’s well worth it.
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Raspberries are hungry feeders – they need a dose of something like growmore or chicken pellets once a month (not the fresh stuff but well rotted) from February till October. A dose of Epsom Salts at the start of the season and also a seaweed feed to ensure they have enough trace elements periodically will also help. Along with regular watering in dry periods.
You also need to mulch generously with a good compost every season so that the soil is in good shape. If you don’t keep the soil right raspberries can sulk – especially as their roots are near the surface rather than deep growing.
But they do take a couple of years to get established as well – right treatment helps this.
Thanks, Christine. I’d been reading up on feeding them, and with chickens in the garden I think 2010 may be a good year to start properly collecting and rotting down their waste for just this reason.