Raspberry canes

[didireallysaythat]

So I went to a garden centre looking for a Blackbird penstomen and came back with a dozen raspberry canes. No impulse purchasing here... So now I need to plant them. Do they like their roots in anything in particular and what's the best way to support them ? They'll be going in the soft fruit raised bed (get me!) that's newly made from top soil and the old compost heap.

They don't need support really but you'll want netting up as soon as the fruit remotely gets going. Get them in ASAP as they respond well to a frost.

Just be sure that there are no beds with "good" plants within a metre or more of the raspberry canes, as the roots can travel a long way

Are they summer or autumn fruiting raspberries that you've bought?

They are an autumn something (maybe bliss but I can't remember). Am I right in thinking autumn ones don't grow so tall ? Not that I'm lazy or anything but I'd like to get them planted this weekend rather than having to get to the builders merchant to buy wood and eyelets to make supports... I've got to plant enough seeds to fill the other two beds after all...

Autumn ones don't grow as tall. I have support for my summer ones but not for my Autumn.

Autumn canes are less invasive than the summer ones. They're also easier to look after: you just have to cut down the new canes on spring and then the crop will come on this year's canes (on summer ones, it's on last year's canes).

Thank you all. My last attempt with raspberries wasn't very successful - I mixed summer and autumn ones, couldn't remember how to prune them (which meant I didn't prune them at all) and they were planted on mushroom compost (post leylandii removal) which I think I read somewhere isn't the pH that raspberries want.

Whilst I'm thinking of soft fruit is there anything else I'm missing ? I've got alpine strawberries (thanks for mn advice) and some mainstream strawberries (50p rescue plants from a nursery), an old rhubarb and a free cycle rhubarb. Maybe I'll just put some annual flowers amongst them - in danger of over reaching in my first year in this garden....

Does anyone else live for the weekend and gardening ???

One of my (allegedly) autumn raspberries somehow manages to fruit from June to December every year.
I'm not sure what kind of raspberry that makes it, so I play it safe and cut off any stems that have fruited, usually in early spring.
Re. Stray canes, I tend to uproot them mid-spring, and either replant them in a more appropriate location or give some to friends.

I think it's Which? Gardening that did a trial that suggested that you get the largest overall crop from Autumn raspberries by not pruning them back in the autumn/early spring and letting them crop on both last year's and this year's canes. You get a smaller autumn crop but you get the benefit of earlier raspberries that crop on last year's canes.

However, you then have to try to work out which ones to cut back in midsummer, ie last year's ones which have just cropped, while not cutting back this year's canes which will crop in late summer/Autumn

I usually tell from the shrivelled defruited old flowers.
You know, the bits left behind when you pick the fruit.

I do the same :) - but it does mean you need to take time to prune them back as opposed to a slash and burn approach!

Thanks for the advice here as I have canes that the birds got to so no idea re when they fruited so am going to leave and monitor more closely for fruiting must remember to net, must remember to net