Growing raspberries successfully

[Meretricious]

I have a huge allotment. With raised beds due to v poor draining claysoil.

U have black currants, plum trees and gooseberries all doing v well planted straight in the ground.

Raspberries though. They are rubbish. I planted a row and they’ve just been crap. Few raspberries and all over the place. My neighbor has a whole hedge of them so what am I doing wrong? How do I start them off and keep them going? And should I get autum or summer. I’m in the north west.

Did you plant bare root canes or established plants? Are they in the shade or in full sun? Is the site particularly windy?

Lots of variables that could be at play here!

I bought a reduced to 50p bare root autumn raspberry and stuck it in the ground at the wrong time of year in shitty sandy soil. It's thriving. Have you tried that?

God, my rasps are like weeds, I have to dig them out so they don't take over my garden...

Very chalky soil and plenty of sun, they seem to like that

What sort do you have and are you cutting back correctly for that variety?

I'm fairly sure they are autumn but having watched a video just I'm now wondering if they are summer and needed a bit more support. I think I need to start again in a sunnier spot and keep it well weeded.

Raspberries do not need support.

People tie raspberries to be horizontal so that it breaks more buds along the top.

All you have to do is to cut back each stem after fruiting Summer fruiting will grow new shoots at the end of the season, so take out the ones that have fruited and let the new ones overwinter and these will flower and fruit on the previous year's growth. Autumn fruiting will grow new shoots in the new year, so cut these to the ground after harvesting and leave them be.

Mulch in the autumn and let them do their thing. They literally could not be easier.

I tie in my raspberries to stop them sprawling all over the place but not being tied in shouldn't affect fruiting much. We have pretty heavy clay here too and they seem perfectly happy with that. I like a mix of varieties to extend the season (currently glen coe, autumn bliss and all gold).

Last summer was really dry so unless you watered them a lot, the crop was rubbish. Raspberries grow in woods in Scotland so dont need really special conditions but do need water.

Water and sunshine
We have ours in clay soil, we have a summer set and an autumn set and we prune them hard or they go a bit mental. We have ours on wires between 2 sturdy posts as it's easier to net them. If we don't net them we get no raspberries because the birds will have them in a flash.
We found we had to water them quite a bit last summer but we did get a good crop, the first year wasn't as good as the second.