Shirley Lanigan writes that with a little ground preparation and care, autumn-fruiting raspberries are one of the easiest of all fruits to grow in your garden
Arriving home from a holiday, the absentee gardener can sometimes wish they never left their post. During the period of absence, the garden invariably turns into a place of chaos and mess. But that is a given and after a break, the gardener will probably be rearing to go and smarten the place up with no delay and with great enthusiasm.
The possibility that Sept-ember and October might enjoy a warm spell spurs us on to have the place looking its best should the Holy Grail of an Indian summer happen along. All this is usual in a normal year. 2009 has not been a normal year.
Wettest summer
It has, in fact, been an out-of-the-ordinary year. We have just had the wettest June, July and August since the mid 1850s. The weather station on Valentia recorded the highest rainfall for the three summer months since records began and in Donegal, they had 8” or 21.5cms of rain in the same period.
We are told that it was also one of the sunniest summers on record— but frankly, it was hard to see the sun through the rain, so for many that statistic rings a bit hollow.
In any case, the result of leaving the garden untended for any amount of time in these warm, wet, almost monsoon-like conditions is that it all falls apart rather badly.
The problem is added to by the fact that the rain is continuing and the Indian summer seems a bit unlikely. So even having returned, it is impossible to get a mower through the long, soggy grass.
Its untidy appearance makes everything else look even more dreadful. The hedges, leaning over under the weight of water, likewise defy the electric strimmers of all but the most kamikaze gardeners.
Puddles everywhere
Weeds have taken over the borders, looming tall over their bedraggled cultivated relatives. Paths, particularly gravelled paths and drives, are puddled as the water table lurks only millimetres from the surface.
It is a sorry sight – apart from one area. The raspberry patch. Raspberries love the rain. They thrive on it. So while all else becomes more of a mess, the raspberry bushes grow apace and the fruits are now ripening and coming ready for eating at a satisfying rate. I am referring to the autumn-fruiting raspberries. The summer-fruiting raspberries are well past their productive period.
Autumn raspberries
Autumn-fruiting raspberries are perhaps one of the easiest of all fruits to grow. Where other fruits can have the novice in a state of fearful panic when it comes to pruning, pest and disease control, pollination and general care, autumn-fruiting raspberries get on with the job of growing, quickly and without fuss.
They also usually fruit in the first year – although in the sort of quantities that allow you to decorate a bowl of cereal or provide the garnish on a plate of something like a chocolate tart or a bowl of ice cream. You will not make jam in the first or even second year of growing raspberries.
Actually, on the matter of jam, it invariably feels like a bad move to use gorgeous home-grown raspberries for making jam. Buy the frozen bags from a farm shop for that.
The home-grown crop is something a bit more special, to be enjoyed fresh, raw and generally unadorned. A good raspberry is arguably the number-one fruit we can grow in Ireland. It is one of the few fruits that fare better without hot, dry conditions. So while we may envy the Mediterranean countries their oranges, figs and peaches, the northern countries rule when it comes to the raspberry. Our short, cool summer, the very reason that fruit like figs fail to ripen well, is exactly what raspberries require.
Fruiting varieties
Whatever about more experienced gardeners, anyone new to the business of gardening should try to grow some autumn-fruiting varieties. Now is the time to begin preparing to bring them into your garden.
Some tips for growing autumn-fruiting raspberries:
Planted in the sort of conditions they like, they will thrive. The site needs sun for only half the day. This will hopefully widen the choice of sites available in the garden. In addition, raspberries can stand an amount of wind, widening the choice again.
The books will say that raspberries do not like alkaline soil and have a preference for a pH of 6.5, which is slightly in the direction of an acid soil, but my experience has been that they are happy enough in an alkaline or limy soil as long as it is not too alkaline.
Once the site is chosen, dig the soil over thoroughly, removing all traces of perennial weeds. This is a crop that will be in situ for many years. Starting with a clean bed will make it easier to prevent weed build-up as the years go by.
Root rot
Choose a well-drained site in the garden. If the ground is not free-draining, if it is holds its water or has a tendency to water-log, raspberries will succumb to root rot. But this problem can be remedied. The drainage can be improved on any soil.
A mild problem can be cured by the simple addition of plenty of grit and farmyard manure or compost. These will open up the soil structure and allow water drain away more easily.
If the problem is more extreme, such as in a new garden in which the builder may have drizzled a thin sprinkling of soil over compacted sub-soil (or even worse, rubble), more drastic action and possibly even the help of a professional will be needed.
A gravel trench
This will involve removing the rubble, breaking up the compacted soil, possibly layering in a gravel trench to drain away the water and bringing in good topsoil. This sort of problem will prevent the cultivation of almost any plants and should be the subject of a column to itself.
Adding organic matter in the shape of farmyard manure or compost was recommended in an effort to lighten up a heavy, damp soil. But even if the soil is free draining, it will still benefit from the addition of plenty of compost, which is like the magic cure-all for soil.
Aim to incorporate about a barrow load per square metre. This sounds like a lot, but once the ground has been fed initially, it should be unnecessary to feed the crop as it grows. However, a yearly mulch of compost, dumped over the bed after fruiting has finished, will be rewarded with a better crop the following year.
Before planting summer-fruiting raspberries, it is necessary to put a support system of posts and wires in place. This is so that the fruiting canes can be tied up and supported. Meanwhile, the new, smaller canes that will produce a crop next year will develop by themselves. After fruiting, the old canes are chopped down and the new canes are then tied up in preparation for the following year.
A no-support system
However, you can get away using a no-support system with autumn-fruiting raspberries. This is because they are more straightforward: fruit is borne on this year’s canes, this year. After the harvest, simply chop the whole bush to the ground and cover the stubs with a thick layer of compost.
In the spring, new canes will appear. They may even appear a distance out from the existing plants. If this is the case and you do not want the colony to expand, simply remove the unwanted shoots.
If you are a tidy gardener, you can, if you wish, tie the crop in as it grows, but you do have a choice with the later varieties.
Plant vigorous varieties like ‘Autumn Bliss’ about 20” or 50cm apart so they will have plenty of room to grow.
On the subject of space, while raspberries do take up a fair amount of space and are generally more suited to a slightly bigger garden, it is still possible to grow a small crop in a container.
Replant new stock
Unlike their relatives in the ground, which can live for anything between five and twenty years, pot-grown varieties may not live more than year or two and it may be necessary to replant new stock regularly. But as the canes are among the most inexpensive plants you can buy, this should pose no difficulties. Canes can be bought bare-root in the winter. They come tied in bunches of three or five plants.
Preparing the ground now over the next few weeks will ensure that you can plant them as soon as you buy them. Bare root plants should always be planted as soon as possible after purchase. They can dry out and die otherwise.
I wrote that raspberries pose few problems, but even the hardiest of plants are prone to some diseases and pests. Among the most likely attackers of raspberries are root rot and raspberry aphid. If you want to avoid these, ‘Autumn Bliss’ is resistant to both. It is also a particularly tasty variety and delivers a good-sized crop.
About Greg Baxter
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