How To Plant Raspberries?
Raspberries are a popular fruit with various colours from red and black varieties to purple, yellow, or golden. Each type of berry has its good sources of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants.
They are luscious, sweet and just a little bit of delightful tartness.
In this blog, we would like to provide you with ways to plant and tips to care for these delicious fruit trees.
Some Facts About Raspberries
Before knowing how to plant raspberries, there are some facts you must know about them for a better result.
- Raspberries need full sun to generate the most fruit.
- They are best pollinated by bees.
- Raspberry plants need to be pruned every year.
- Its plant starts producing fruits after one year of planting.
- Red, black and purple raspberries are three types that can be grown in the home garden.
- Yellow raspberries do not generate red pigments.
Selecting Raspberry Trees Before Planting
You should choose to buy plants that are disease-free from a reliable nursery.
Viruses can easily be introduced into planting through diseased plants, and there can be no way to cure infected plants. Therefore, to stop the spread of viruses, you should destroy affected plants.
Raspberry plants are available as either dormant bare-root plants or potted plants.
Red and yellow raspberries generate many new canes from the base of the floricanes (woody and brown raspberry branches) and from the buds on the roots that become underground branches. Meanwhile, black and most purple raspberries produce primocanes only from the buds at the base of the floricanes. These clumps stay where you originally plant them. Everbearing red raspberries, also called "fall-bearing" or "primocane-fruiting" raspberries, can grow flowers during the first year of growth. These varieties produce fruit at the tips of the primocanes. During the second year, they can produce a summer crop on the lower part of the same canes.
When Should You Plant Raspberry Trees?
You should plant raspberries in the early spring as it is the best time and choose a planting site that is in full sun. However, the plants can also be grown in the part shade since they grow successfully in a partially shaded spot. If you grow raspberries in a sunny position, they will produce more fruits.
Choosing planting sites
About the planting sites, they need rich and well-drained soil, great air circulation, and shelter from the wind. One thing you must remember is to avoid a wet area, as well as a windy spot because raspberries neither like to stand in water nor totally dry out.
How to Plant Raspberries?
There are 5 steps to plant raspberry trees after choosing a suitable plant as a “foundation” for your result:
- First, you need to soak the roots for an hour or two hours before planting.
- Next, you should dig a hole that is spacious enough for the roots to spread. If you’re planting multiple bushes, digging a trench is the easiest way.
- Remember to keep the crown of the plant 1 or 2 inches above the ground whether you’re planting bare-root or potted plants and space canes 18 inches apart, with about four feet between rows.
- After putting canes into the hole or trench, you fill the soil back in and tamp it down with your foot.
- When the canes are planted, you need to cut them down to 9 inches tall to enable them to develop new growth.
See more: The Guidance Of Grafting Fruit Trees That You Should Know
Tips To Care for Raspberries
You should pay attention to mulching, watering and pruning raspberries trees once they are planted.
Mulching is necessary all year long to preserve moisture and suffocate weeds. Always keep a thick layer of mulch around your plants.
From spring through harvest, water one inch each week. Watering on a regular basis is preferable to heavy soaking on rare occasions.
Dig up any "suckers" or canes that grow far out from the rows to keep your raspberry plants neat. If you don’t, they’ll draw nutrients away and you’ll have fewer berries next year. You may transplant the suckers and start again with new plants, and remember to dig them up and place them in a fresh place.
When it comes to pruning, you should prune summer-fruiting raspberries right away after you've finished collecting them. Only the berries-producing canes should be cut back to the ground.
Garden string the remaining canes to the supporting wires. Besides, you need to cut down additional canes if there is more than one cane for every four inches of wire.
Advice for harvesting raspberries is that when the colour grows and the fruit is large and soft, raspberries of all colours are ready to be harvested. Another sign of maturity is when the fruit simply peels away from the tree when lightly pulled. Right after picking, place raspberries in the fridge as they don't store for very long, usually just a few days.
One more thing to notice is that you shouldn’t wash berries until you're ready to eat them since they will break down more quickly as a result of the moisture.
Planting raspberries trees is not always fun and interesting because you can fail in making raspberries grow and produce fruits. We hope that our guidelines will make a difference when planting these tasty fruits.
