Growing Raspberries – 12 Things You Need to Know

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Raspberries are a common sight on the shelf in the supermarket but they can also be a common sight in your garden.  Growing raspberries isn’t too complicated and makes a great place to start growing your own food.  Here are the most important things you need to know to grow raspberries and have a successful crop of those cheerful red berries.

Types of raspberries

There are plenty of varieties of raspberries out there so how do you know which types will work for your garden?

There are two big groups that the raspberries fall into – summer fruiting and autumn fruiting.  This is based on when they produce the fruit with summer fruiting being from mid to late summer, June until August while the autumn or fall fruiting ones produce their berries in September and October naturally so they are finished for late winter.

Some of the notable summer fruiting types of raspberry include:

• Glen Moy – large, food flavoured fruits, spine free canes
• Malling Minerva – easy to grow and to pick, lots of large, tasty berries
• Ruby Beauty – a thornless variety that reaches around 90cm so ideal for container gardening
• Glen Ample – large fruit, excellent flavour, spine free canes
• Glen Prosen – medium-sized fruits, better if you are in a wetter region
• Cascade Delight – handles difficult conditions well including heavier and wetter soils

Some of the notable autumn fruiting types of raspberry include:

• All Gold – yellow berries, a good amount of crop
• Autumn Treasure – thornless canes, conical berries and tolerant of poor soils
• Joan J – easy to grow, upright growing pattern, lots of flavoured berries
• Polka – large berries before the first frosts but need canes for support

There is one other definition often given to different raspberries:

• Primocane – these product flowers and fruits on the stems grown in the same year; most autumn varieties are this type and will produce fruit in their first year
• Floricane – these have stems that grow for one year before bearing flowers and fruit; most summer varieties are this type

When is the growing season for raspberries?

Different types of raspberries have a preferred growing season.  This means planting them at the right time to get those harvests.  Generally, planting for the summer crops will start in October while planting for fall crops will start in spring.

This means the question of what is the best month to plant raspberries depends on the variety that you are planting.  Its label should give you this information.

A basic harvest calendar would look like this:

For summer-bearing (floricane) red, yellow, black, and purple raspberries:

• March: For red and yellow raspberries, cut canes back to 4-5 feet tall before growth begins
• March: For black and purple raspberries, cut side branches back to 12-18 inches; prune all but 4 to 5 canes per hill to the ground
• April, May: Plant bare-root transplants as soon as the soil can be worked
• May, June: Plant potted transplants after threat of frost has passed
• June through August: Keep an eye out for spider mites and Japanese beetles
• July, August: Pinch purple and black raspberry cane tips
• July, August: Harvest
• August: Cut fruit-producing canes to the ground after harvest
• November: Apply mulch for winter protection
• November: Set up fence around plants if rabbit damage is expected during winter

For fall-bearing (primocane) red and yellow raspberries:

• March: For fall-only primocane raspberries, cut all canes to the ground before growth begins
• April, May: Plant bare-root transplants as soon as the soil can be worked
• May, June: Plant potted transplants after threat of frost has passed
• June through August: Keep an eye out for spider mites and Japanese beetles
• August, September: Harvest

Raspberries begin to bloom in late May or early June. Bumblebees, honeybees, and other wild bees are excellent pollinators of brambles. The more bees working your plants, the more fruit you will harvest.

How long is the growing season for raspberries? 

Again, individual plant varieties will be able to give you an idea about when you can expect to see crops.  But if you work on the earliest to be planted (October) being the earliest to have crops (June), you can see it takes around six months.  Established plants will keep producing crops around the same time each year if they are cared for well.

How to start growing raspberries

If you plan to grow raspberries in the garden, then pick a sunny spot.  Break up the soil with a garden fork then dig in some organic matter.  This could include old or new compost, well-rotted manure or even some recycled green waste.  Then you should:

1. Add some posts around 1.8m (6 foot) high and 1.8m (6 foot) apart and stretch wire between them
2. Make sure there’s at least 60cm (2 foot) between each of the wire
3. Plant the summer fruiting crops 40cm apart and plant autumn fruiting plants 60cm apart
4. Soak the plants in water before putting them into the ground
5. Plant at a depth of 8cm (3 inch), press the soil around the roots gently but firmly and water well
6. Once planted, cut canes to 25cm from the ground so lots of shoots come from the bottom, known as basal shoots

What is the best soil for growing raspberries?

If you are worried about what type of soil you have, the best thing to do is grab a soil tester kit.  Raspberries generally grow best in moisture-retentive soils, with a little bit of acidity and that is well-drained.  Keeping the soil weed-free is also important.  

Also, aim for soil that is in a sheltered and sunny position.  Raspberries don’t mind light shade but tend not to produce as many berries in these conditions.

In terms of where should you not plant raspberries, they aren’t as keen on soggy soils that never dry out or shallow, chalky soils.  

How to grow raspberries in containers

If you are up for a bit of container gardening, then raspberries will be ready to join you.  You do want a decent sized container for a plant, around 60cm or 24 inches in diameter is great.  Make sure there is good air circulation around the pot including underneath it.

Then you need to:

1. Fill your container with soil-based compost.  John Innes No.3 is a good example of this.  It is more stable and won’t dry out as quickly as the multi-purpose versions
2. Plant up to six raspberry canes around the edge of the container, press the soil around the roots gently but firmly and water well
3. Make sure the compost doesn’t dry out and use a high potash fertiliser during the growing season to get a good crop

You may need to plant the raspberry in the ground after around three years in a pot.

Caring for raspberries

Growing raspberries – when and how to fertilize 

It is best to fertilise raspberries twice a year.  The first time is when you plant them.  Then you can fertilise them again about halfway through their growing season.  Use about 1kg or fertilises per 30m row (so you’ll use a lot less if you just have a few bushes or a container).

How to keep weeds from growing in raspberries 

Removing weeds as soon as you spot them is the best way to keep them from bothering your raspberries.  You can also use a straw mulch around the base of the plant to stop the weeds from getting a foothold in the first place.

You can also use companion planting to use other plants to help combat weeds and other pests.  A few companion plants for raspberries include;

• Legumes
• Japanese millet
• Annual ryegrass
• Clover
• Alfalfa
• Marigolds 

Herbs such as garlic, chives, leeks, onion and chamomile will also work well.  Planting flowers that attract bees help with better crops so things like chervil, yarrow and artemisia are good companions.

Pruning raspberries

Pruning raspberries is a standard part of their care.  Summer raspberries need to be pruned twice a year.  In the autumn, cut down any canes that produced fruit to soil level and mark with plant markers so you remember where they were.  Leave others alone as they will produce fruit this year.

Perennial or everbearing plants can produce two crops a year if they are pruned correctly.

For autumn fruiting plants, prune in February, cutting them back to the ground level before any new growth shows.  The new growth will then be where the fruits appear.

Why aren’t my raspberries growing?

There are a few problems that affect raspberries and can cause them not to grow or to be as healthy as they should be.

Birds can be a pest as they are attracted to the berries and can run off with your crop!  Simple bird repellent systems will usually sort this problem.  A few other issues include:

• Raspberry beetle – causes dry patches on the stalk end and white maggots inside the fruit
• Raspberry cane blight – a fungal infection that causes the wood to turn dark brown.  If infected, cut and dispose of any canes
• Raspberry leaf and bud mite
• Raspberry spur blight – fungal disease-causing purple patches on canes that isn’t fatal to the plant but reduces crop
• Replant disease
• Raspberry viruses

The plants can also suffer from a magnesium deficiency that causes reddish-brown tints in the foliage.  If the soil is very alkaline, an iron deficiency is a problem that causes leaves to go yellow.

What are raspberry suckers?

Suckers are sprouts from the main plant that can be useful but need to be watched to ensure they don’t cause problems.  Suckers are young sprouts that appear from the base of the main plant.  

If you want to remove them to propagate new plants, then each sucker will have a root system already and this can be carefully dug out and moved.  If you don’t want more plants, you may want to cut back the sucker so the main plant continues to grow strongly.

Do raspberries come back every year?

Raspberries are mostly perennial plants or ones that at least last a few years.  Again, the individual raspberry variety will tell you what to expect and what you need to do to protect it through the winter if it isn’t growing.

A happy plant means a healthy crop

Learning the basics of growing raspberries means you can have a healthy plant that produces a large crop of tasty berries.  It is a great plant to start growing your own food as it is relatively simple and there’s so many things you can do with raspberries.