Raspberries

Raspberries are a great fruit to eat straight from the plant, for freezing and for making into jams and preserves. As they are often very expensive in the shops, growing your own is also a cost effective way to enjoy this fruit.

Raspberries can be divided into 2 categories: Summer Fruiting and Autumn Fruiting. Both need good, fertile, weed free soil with good drainage.

Canes should be planted 2-3 inches deep and around 16 inches apart. This is generally done in autumn or early winter. Prepare the soil well before planting canes by digging in lots or organic Farmyard Manure and then mulch again in spring with organic Farmyard Manure.

Pruning varies depending on whether you have Summer or Autumn Fruiting varieties. Summer fruiting should be have all fruited canes pruned back to ground level after cropping. New canes can then be tied to support for next seasons fruit to grow on. Autumn fruiting raspberries fruit on new canes and so all should be cut to ground level in February time. New shoots will then emerge and produce fruit later that year.