jobe05 said:
NW:
I have rasberries growing, Latham and Heritage. Everything I have ever read about these varieties say to cut them back in the fall, which I have done for the past 3 years. Although production is picking up, I still don't get but a few handfulls of fruit each year.
question #1: Should I not cut them back and just let them go?
question #2: A friend of mine suggested I get cow manuer this year and lay about a 6 inch layer throughout the plants for fertilization. I have always used 10-10-10, but still no production.... Thoughts?
Q #3 - I have never propogated these with any great success, (or effort... my fault) but they seem to naturally spread through the root system, which cause a patch of rasberries Versus rows of rasberries if I could propogate. What would you suggest to propogate these plants.
Last year, I cut down about 50% of the plants, and left the remainder stand tall, hoping I might see a difference.......
Any help would be appreciated.
Raspberries are very easy to grow, but require pruning and maintenance. Staking the plants make for easier picking.
If possible grow your raspberries in a row, where you can contain the plants and prevent them from becoming an overgrown bramble. If you have the row where you can run a lawn mower down each side you will be able to contain the suckers from spreading.
I think your Latham Raspberry is a summer bearing plant and your Heritage is a fall bearing plant....
Do you know which variety is planted in the row???
The Lathams will produce on last years canes.....so when you cut them down in the fall....you destroy next years crop...So, this variety you will have to do selective pruning.
Once they are established and have a good set of year old canes, leave them alone in the first fall. By the following summer the year old canes will be producing and a new set of canes will have grown up. In the fall of that year, prune out all the old canes that had just produced.Also prune out any thin and stray canes that are growing out into the row.
The Heritage Raspberries are fall bearing plants, those 'they' say will produce on 'new wood' [this years growth] So, technically...those you can mow down in the fall and a new crop of canes will appear in the spring and produce that fall...that's what 'they' say.
When we moved to this place in 1999 I brought along some plants from our old place and planted them....they are summer bearing plants that I had gotten form an old neighbor...variety unknown...they are reliable disease free producers.
The lady who lived here proudly showed us her fall bearing patch of Redwing Raspberries. A fall producing variety that she said you just mow down in the fall....I transplanted them and made a nice long row...the answer to all that pruning...? Yes, we did cut them off in the fall, and by the following fall there was a great crop of berries out there...BUT...the growing season is so short here that they would begin to ripen in October and by November would be frozen [ice-wine...? maybe] After a few years of watching a crop be wasted every fall...I may be pulling this row out......The year before I let the plants alone in the fall and last summer I got a summer crop off the old canes, the new spring canes grew and did produce well in the fall...we had a late fall and I got a good amount of fruit...but some of them were lost to winter....I pruned out all the oldest canes and treated the Redwing [fall bearing] variety like the summer bearing crop......So, I still might pull out that row of berries...fall producers maybe not the answer to this climate...
So, depending where you live, a fall bearing variety, might be good for you. The canes you left alone last fall will probably produce well for you this summer.
The pruning thing you will learn over time...Having a narrow row of berries is a great help for pruning out the old canes, then run the lawn mower down each side and contain your row to a narrow row. Makes for easier picking too.If possible try to tie the canes up or together. We put posts down each side of one of the rows and have a couple wires, during the summer just train the canes to be inside the wires and cut off all the sucker plants outside the 'fence'.
The manure will greatly help in production, a good 6 inch mulch each year or so. Keeping the weeds down is a chore too.When we moved here we quit raising livestock...the only thing I miss is the manure, but the neighbors are generous....also I have learned to have a couple compost piles going at all times...compost is black gold, usually weed free.
To propagate another row...kill all grass and weeds in that area, work the soil deep and amend with manure. Dig out some of your suckering plants and put 3 or so plants in each hole about 18"-24" apart down the row. As they grow up tie the canes together with twine or put a wire 'fence' down each side of the row...make for easier picking if the row is kept narrow.
Hope this helps you grow some luscious red raspberries...The wine is Devinne, beautiful color, very dry....goes way too well with chocolate.
