Raspberries

[chadspad]

Has anyone grown raspberries from seed? Its quite expensive to buy the plants here (around 6 euros each) so cant ever buy enough to fulfill my hubby who loves them! Have seen seeds for sale and wondered whether this is likely to work or not.

[Odsox]

I'm sure you can grow them from seed, but they will probably be a bit of a disappointment.
When I lived in the UK I was surrounded by "wild" raspberries which were almost certainly garden escapes from bird sown seed, and the fruits were always very small and seedy.
On the other hand, if you can wait buy just one or two raspberry canes and from the second year onwards the suckers that will spread out from those one or two will give you many more free plants. Just dig them up with piece of root attached and plant them in your ever expanding row. I would estimate that from 2 canes you will easily get 50 in 3 years.
I spend the summer mowing my errant raspberry canes that surface up to 10 feet from the row.

[vancheese]

When is the best time of year to do this kind of work?

[Odsox]

When is the best time of year to do this kind of work?

Now ... or when you see the new canes about 3" - 6" tall all through the summer.
Dig them up with a bunch of roots, pot them up and keep well watered for a few weeks and then plant them next autumn/winter.

[red]

oh, i dug them and moved them back into line with t he others - is this wrong?

[Odsox]

oh, i dug them and moved them back into line with t he others - is this wrong?

No, as long as you don't get an extended dry spell.
I was replying to our Hugarian friend who probably has a lot hotter and drier summer than we do.

[chadspad]

OK, will do that instead then - thanks.

[vancheese]

Thanks for your pointers - I'm hoping to plant all kinds of hedgerow fruits. I just need to find some canes at the local tree shop.

The summers here are rather hot (Coming from Bristol's 20C) the summer can be upto 40!
Is it a problem that my soil is very sandy?

Sorry if I've hijjacked the thread

Andy

[Millymollymandy]

Hiya just reading this as I want to start off some new raspberry beds but can't think where to put them other than extend the line of the current rasp bed and dig out the stupid fig that never fruits cos it's too cold here!

I have sandy/gritty soil too and I have to water my rasps a lot in summer. I mulch with straw but it doesn't help a lot. Dig in as much muck and compost as you can and I think I read somewhere that they do better in partial shade if you are in a hot climate.

[Andy Hamilton]

My raspberries are like weeds and I am forever having to pull out plants that have started growing. I would suggest asking around to see if anyone is growing some to get new plants for free. I would happily give away loads for anyone who will come and weed them out!

Other soft fruit grows well from cuttings.

[Millymollymandy]

I have finally got round to chopping off some of the rasps and potting them up to make new canes for next year. Then need to dig another raspberry bed. I do wish raspberries would grow in a nice line like the text books show instead of a bushy mass.

[pelmetman]

I can remember when I planted our raspberries. We bought summer and autumn fruiting ones, I planted them out all in nice straight long rows, but somehow got them muddled up so we now have the summer/autumn all together, (Dave is never going to let me forget this one) At the back of them we put in a thornless blackberry and a tayberry with strawberries at the front. This was about 4 or 5 years ago and all are doing well except I am having to gradually move the strawberries elsewhere in the garden as they are getting choked by the raspberries.

Of course they are coming up everywhere but I soon get them out and as they are my absolute favorite fruit I am willing to put up with their thugish behaviour
Sue

[Millymollymandy]

I did manage to get my summer separate from my autumn ones but I really can't be 100% sure that the ones that I've dug up actually belong to the plant they were closest to! Time will tell whether they are summer or autumn and as for the variety, well they are all nice so I don't think it really matters any more!

[Odsox]

I'm not sure they behave like they're supposed to anyway.
Mine are most definitely autumn fruiting ... Autumn Bliss I seem to remember, that supposedly start fruiting in September, and they are the ONLY variety in my garden.
Well, they have flowers just starting to open now.