Raspberry canes
The raspberry canes have finally arrived. And not a moment too soon, either. They were scheduled to turn up somewhere in the ludicrously wide window of ‘November to March’, and with March quickly running out I was having doubts that’s ever be delivered.
But delivered they were, and this morning I set out to get them planted. There’s something quite invigorating about digging the garden before work.
Raspberries are both easy to grow and quite prolific croppers. New plants usually arrive as single canes that you plant into the ground about 50cm apart. As they grow, you need to support them with wire and garden canes and, when they’ve finished cropping, cut them back to allow for new growth the next year around.
They should keep on cropping for about 10 to 12 years, after which they need to be replaced.
They don’t look at all impressive when you first put them in, as you can see from the picture above, but with each cane producing on average half a kilo of fruit, we should – hopefully – get somewhere in the region of five kilos of raspberries from our ten canes over the course of the year, which is more than enough for desserts, freezing and plenty of jars of jam.
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I have recently planted some raspberry canes, that a friend had given me. I too, was not impressed when I looked in the bag and saw and tangle of roots! Within a week some green foliage has started to show. Good blog by the way.
next year… next year… I will prepare the ground and plant some raspberry canes!
It’s not too late, Jake. Although I ordered ours online and had to wait for delivery, you should be able to pick some up at your local garden centre or DIY store.
They don’t look so good when you first get them, do they, Jonathan. They grow surprisingly quickly, though.
I planted 12 raspberry canes in January, 2 different varieties, they still look like dead sticks, no green at all, is this normal? I bought them from an online shopping channel that promised fruit this year
Hi Karen. Don’t worry – my new ones from this year still look like sticks, too, with no sign of any life. They should catch up with more established canes, though, as the ones I have been growing for a few years and cutting down every winter are only just starting to show the first signs that they made it safely through the frost and snow. You should get some fruit this year, but perhaps not much. We’ve always found that our fruit is much better from year two onwards. This applies to other fruits, too – especially strawberries.
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