How to grow your own raspberries

They may be cheaper to buy and more readily available than ever before but they don’t keep or transport well — so why not grow your own?

Raspberries

Fresh-picked raspberries are heaven. They may be cheaper to buy and more readily available than ever before but they don’t keep or transport well – as we all know from finding mushy and mouldy fruit in the bottom of a punnet. Growing your own raspberries gives you the best quality, and that deep red colour tells you they contain antioxidants – high levels of ellagic acid and good quantities of vitamin C.

Raspberries are in the rose family that includes apples, pears, stone fruits, strawberries and cherries. As well as red raspberries (Rubus idaeus), the genus Rubus includes brambles such as blackberry, boysenberry, tayberry, loganberry, youngberry, silvanberry and marionberry. All these are not technically berries but a cluster of fleshy “drupelets”, each of which has a single seed. Red raspberries are hollow in the middle when picked because the aggregate fruits pull free of the core receptacle around which they form.

Summer fruiting raspberries grow best in cool and warm temperate zones where there are four distinct seasons. Without a period of winter chill they won’t set fruit. Good varieties include ‘Chilliwack’, ‘Chilcotin’, ‘Meeker’, ‘Willamette’, ‘Nootka’ and Australian-bred ‘Bogong’, which is almost thornless. These fruit on one-year-old canes, so each year you prune back to the ground the stems that fruited and tie up the developing new canes, called primocanes, to bear the next year’s crop. In warmer areas, try autumn fruiting varieties such as ‘Heritage’, ‘Autumn Bliss’ and ‘Everbearing’. These types are pruned to the ground in winter; the new canes that form in spring will bear fruit in autumn.

Planting different varieties that ripen at different times will extend your harvest period. Raspberries prefer slightly acidic soil and plenty of organic matter. Buy bare canes in winter from mail order nurseries or potted plants in spring and summer, spacing them 1-1.5m apart in well-drained, enriched soil.

To grow raspberries you’ll need a dedicated space for the plants in rows (north-south is best) and a trellis or fence against which to tie the upright canes. Sturdy, 1.8m-tall posts with wires strung between them will do. They’re not the neatest plants, as the canes sprawl about and the roots sucker freely, especially if you damage the roots by digging, so without discipline you’ll have a thorny, tangled thicket. Remove suckers outside the row, using them to increase your plantings or give to friends. To maintain raspberries, use sturdy gloves – most varieties have spines. After pruning, apply a layer of compost and manure. Their shallow roots make them susceptible to dry soil, weed competition and fertiliser burn. Plants take three to four years to reach their full cropping and can produce 1kg of fruit per plant.

Good to know

Australia has eight native raspberry species, mostly from Queensland, including Rubus parvifolius, R. probus and R. moluccanus. Young leaves and shoots are edible. Leaves have a pleasant smell when crushed. Birds will beat you to the crop, so drape bird netting over framework, pegging it to the ground The fragrant volatile compound in raspberries, ionone, is also found in violets.

Q&A

I understand gypsum improves soil structure when dug in but can you sprinkle it on? Linda Baron, by email

Gypsum is commonly a powder but can also be a liquid that works faster and is not dug in. The 2-litre hose-on Eco-flo gypsum pack is equivalent to 80kg of the powder. Gypsum only helps clay soils high in sodium. To test, place a few small, dry clods in a glass of water; if the water turns cloudy, gypsum will help; if it stays clear, it won’t. Water in gypsum well to flush the sodium deep down. Gypsum will not affect the soil’s pH.

Our 6m-tall wattle grew fast so now we only see bark. Is there a way to get foliage low down? Greg Horne, Perth

Trees usually have a bare trunk; shrubs tend to be bushy all over. If your wattle is a tree species, that’s the way it is. If you want a bushy shrub, choose a shrubby species.

When re-potting cymbidium orchids, should I break off the unproductive corms and ones with new shoots, or leave them? Cynthia Griffin, by email

Only divide congested clumps; each new clump should have at least four pseudobulbs with leaves. Choose pots just large enough for the roots and use special orchid mix. Leafless backbulbs will regrow if detached and planted singly, one-third their depth, with old roots cut off. They should flower in three years.

Stonefields by the Seasons by Paul Bangay

Send your questions to: [e-mail] or Helen Young, PO Box 3098, Willoughby North, NSW 2068. The best question for November wins two copies of Paul Bangay’s book Stonefields by the Seasons.