Women have little knowledge of growing raspberries, its a man thing apparently

[catinthehat2]

OK, the old trick!

Now I've got your attention raspberry gurus, could you please tell me what to do next:

I planted a mixture of summmer & autumn canes in Feb

lots of fruit, appears the autumn ones are just about over

So.. what do I do in terms of chopping canes down (Y/N? - which, how do I identify the canes to chop), manuring, putting a little fluffy duvet over them to keep them warm in winter, etc etc? Some of the summer canes are enormously high, do I need to scale them back?

Please bear in mind they are the most favourite things ever that I have grown and basically I will do anything for them, up to and including sending them on a trip to Florida in the cold weather. Because I love them.

I will bump when I can, and it goes without saying that I am very grateful for your expert comments - thanks in advance!

Cut down anything that has fruited: ie they do not fruit on the same cane again, it will just be a dead stick next year .

Mulch with manure, compost etc - these are edge-of-woodland plants so like rich leaf-mould type ground.

Summer fruiting ones will currently be sending up next year's growth: to maximise amount of fruit, gently bend the new canes over and tie down to a wire or fence at about two thirds of their height: they will produce far more raspberries from all the way up the cane, not just the very tip.

Thanks very much for that MMB, woodland point makes a lot of sense. Can see I am going to have a difficult time explaining to the allotment gents why I'm bending canes though

"Why you'm bending they canes over then Catinthehat, that's not the way we does it round 'ere"

"A lady off the interweb told me to do it"

"hahahhahahahhahhahahhah" until sides split etc.

Anyone got any other raspberry thoughts?

Only one...learn to blow 'em at the codgers gents!

'Please bear in mind they are the most favourite things ever that I have grown and basically I will do anything for them, up to and including sending them on a trip to Florida in the cold weather. Because I love them.'

awww I feel that way about my raspberry canes too - put them in 5 years ago, do what melted marsbars recommends and get lots and lots of lovely fruit.

Best cut them quite soon though - if you leave it too long it gets harder to tell which ones are the old canes and which the new. The new ones should look a lot greener and fresher than the ones that fruited this year now.

OK good point will get out in the next week I think.

(Grimma - honestly they are all lovely codgers and I couldn't possibly be rude otherwise they might reject me).

What do I do about mulching feeding etc, do I need barrowloads of manure, or just one or two teaspoons per cane?

The benefits of using manure or other mulches, as opposed to chemical feeds, is that they also help the soil structure and hold in moisture and reduce weeds. I usually put a mulch of well rotted manure and compost a good 4 to 6 inches deep down the entire rows (but avoid covering the crowns).

So I have my orders for the weekend then!It's going to be busy

Thank you all for your thoughts chaps, very much appreciated.

Does anyone have recommendations for varieties? I'm planning to plant some this autumn. I've been considering 'Autumn Bliss' as it seems to be recommended by many. Any other autumn/summer varieties you'd suggest? And how many canes for a family of four (including one 2 y-o fruit bat who will happily eat his own weight in raspberries)? Space is not too much of an issue.

MidnightExpress my favourite is Glen Ample which are fairly early fruiting. I originally put 5 canes in, but there are more now. I get quite a few pounds a week in season from them.

Have you had a look at the Ken Muir site?

Thanks CdeL. How far apart do you plant them (just figuring our the space and wondering if I have room in my bed for some rhubarb too. I'm thinking I could do a row of early-fruiting and a row of autumn-fruiting on wires and posts perhaps.

Yum.

Thanks for the tip about the website too, I'll go and have a look.