How to Grow Raspberries

Sweet juicy raspberries are delicious and very easy to grow at home. Creating your own raspberry patch is a great addition to any home garden, so add a few rows to yours and enjoy the summer harvest. This guide will show you how to grow them yourself, easy as.

Plant type

Raspberry plants, also known as ‘canes’ come in two types and in many shades and colours. They grow 1-2m tall depending on the variety.

Single bearing

These are summer fruiting and produce fruit on second year canes.

• Tulameen: This fruit is very large, glossy red, conical and firm. Excellent delicious flavour.
• Waiau: A light medium-red very large fruit, which is easily removed when ripe.

Everbearing

These are summer and autumn fruiting and produce fruit on first and second year canes, twice a year. Summer fruit is produced on last year’s canes where winter chill is adequate. Autumn fruit is produced on the top 10-20 buds of new canes.

• Aspiring: A large dark red, firm conical fruit.
• Ivory: Medium firm yellow-golden fruit. Easily removed when ripe.
• Ebony: A small firm rosette of dark black berries. Easily removed when ripe.

Timing

Plant in winter or spring.

Location

• Raspberries require a position in full sun to thrive - no sun equals little or no flavour.
• Choose a position away from strong winds. Up against a fence or on a north-facing wall is a good option.

Pollination

Raspberries are self-fertile, but as rule planting a few different varieties within the same type will make for better cross-pollination and more fruit.

Soil

Raspberries like a free-draining soil enriched with plenty of compost, and deeply mulched with rotting woodchip.

Planting

Prep the soil

The better the soil, the better your berries will grow.

• If you are starting with an existing garden bed dig in organic matter like sheep pellets and compost to your soil.
• Add a layer of strawberry mix. This is a high quality planting mix containing the right blend of nutrients that your berries need to grow.
• In heavier clay soils add gypsum to help improve your soil structure.

Build a frame

Raspberries need support to help contain the canes and keep them upright. Here’s how to build one:

• Drive 3 stakes into the bed at the end of each row to add rigidity to the structure.
• Drive 2-3 stakes along the centre of the row.
• Run a length of garden wire about 25cm above the ground, between the posts, keeping the tension, and fixing it in place with a staple gun.
• Run a second length of wire another 25cm up. Use pliers to cut it to length.
• Add a third and final length of wire at the top.

Plant raspberries

Now you’ve built the frame, add your row of raspberries.

• Space your plants evenly along the row, about 35cm apart.
• Use a trowel to dig some shallow holes to the same height as the top of the pot.
• If there are already multiple canes per pot, just separate each cane and plant them individually.
• Tie the raspberry canes onto the wires for support to stay upright.
• These plants will send out suckers, or runners, and then more canes will start to sprout up. As the smaller canes grow, keep tying them on.
• Give them a good watering in.

Protection

• Birds love berries, so drape a bird net over the frame while fruiting.

Growing in a container

• Raspberries grow in containers easily. A wine barrel is the perfect container as the plants need plenty of room for the roots to develop to enable themselves to support the fruiting stems.
• Use a strawberry mix.
• Keep the soil moist when the fruit is developing.
• To keep the canes under control, use a wire cage around the pot, or bamboo poles and wire to form a structure for them to grow over. This will make harvesting and pruning your canes far easier.

Watering

• Many berry fruit plants can withstand considerable dry periods, but regular watering will greatly improve the performance of your crop.
• Soft Fruit plants need plenty of water, especially during fruiting. Watering will also increase the size of the berry. Water should be applied before leaves begin to wilt.
• Be Warned: Excess water can result in root disease problems while a shortage of water can reduce overall plant health especially yield as berry crops do not like to have wet feet.

Feeding

• Feed annually with lime or gypsum in August.
• Feed with strawberry fertiliser in September and April.

Pruning

• For single bearing types prune canes back to the ground each year after fruiting at the end of summer. New canes will start to appear in autumn.
• Prune everbearing types in July. Cut out all the older dry and grey canes that carried the last season’s crop, and trim the new light brown or green canes to 2/3rd of their height.

Pests & Diseases

• Raspberries will get botrytis (grey mould) if there is wet weather during picking. Spray with fungicide. There are a number of pests and diseases that can affect berries, but most are easily controlled.
• If you do have persistent problems, come and see us in-store.