What can I grow along side my newly planted raspberry canes?

harib0uk

Yesterday I planted out 6 raspberry bushed and I'm wondering if there are any veg i can grow along side them. The bed I have created is 12" in depth and the raspberries are spaced at 18" intervals.



Is there anything I could plant in the gaps?

Lotus-eater

No.





OK OK, I'll tell you why. Raspberries have very shallow roots and don't like them being disturbed. You could grow beans in there and then cut off the roots in the ground at the end of the year. I've never heard of anyone doing it though and I suspect it wouldn't help the raspberries, but if you added enough nutrients to the ground it should be OK.

Because Raspberries have very shallow roots you shouldn't pull up big rooted weeds... which really means you don't want to get them. This means you need to put a barrier in between your bed and the lawn to stop the grass getting into the bed and its a good idea to put something like bark chips on the bed to stop weeds from germinating, but still allow the new Raspberry shoots to push up from below. Keep it weeded and pull out any weeds when they are as tiny as you can. Never dig the bed, just pull the bark chip mulch to one side and add manure etc to the bed and allow the worms to dig it in for you, then the mulch can go back on.
Phew you may also need supports for the canes, depending on which variety you have,
It sounds alot of work, but once you get it set up correctly, it looks after itself.

tanith

I have to agree you will be amazed how quickly your raspberries will fill those gaps and you will need to be watchful at they tend to run under the ground and send up shoots all over the place.. well mine do anyway... where you have planted them is very narrow and there isn't much room for them to expand without encroaching on the lawn..
If I was you to support them I would drive two stakes each end of your row and then run either wire or very strong twine between the stakes so that your canes will be supported on both sides by the wire.. they will defo need support or they will be whipping around in the wind and they can be spiky
good luck and I hope they are as delice as mine

Lotus-eater

tanith wrote: »

I have to agree you will be amazed how quickly your raspberries will fill those gaps and you will need to be watchful at they tend to run under the ground and send up shoots all over the place.. well mine do anyway... where you have planted them is very narrow and there isn't much room for them to expand without encroaching on the lawn..

I agree, it could be a bit wider.

I think it depends on the variety of Raspberry Re sending up shoots everywhere.
My Glen Ample are very well behaved, keeping well within their bed. But the Joan J I have just put in, are apparently a bit of a thug, sending up suckers everywhere. I guess I will find out.

harib0uk

No.[/quote]

I thought that might be the case!

Lotus-eater wrote: »

Because Raspberries have very shallow roots you shouldn't pull up big rooted weeds... which really means you don't want to get them. This means you need to put a barrier in between your bed and the lawn to stop the grass getting into the bed and its a good idea to put something like bark chips on the bed to stop weeds from germinating, but still allow the new Raspberry shoots to push up from below. Keep it weeded and pull out any weeds when they are as tiny as you can. Never dig the bed, just pull the bark chip mulch to one side and add manure etc to the bed and allow the worms to dig it in for you, then the mulch can go back on.

Yes I was planing to get some bark chips or similar, and to put something along the edge of the grass as well.

Lotus-eater wrote: »

Phew you may also need supports for the canes, depending on which variety you have,

Yes, planning on putting some sort of fancy fence/trellis up along the edge of the decking.

I have 6 varieties of raspberries you can see here they are all summer fruiting so not sure if I'll get a crop this year.

harib0uk

tanith wrote: »

Ithey will defo need support or they will be whipping around in the wind and they can be spiky
good luck and I hope they are as delice as mine

hmmm So hard to know what to with spacing etc... all the info i could find was about planting them 18" apart and distance between rows, but nothing if you only have one row!

All my canes are thornless varieties... thought it best with a little one who loves raspberries and will no doubt be eating straight from the bush!

Lotus-eater

Well I believed that Joan J was a Autumn fruiting Raspberry, so should fruit on canes that shoot this year. The others will fruit next year, on canes grown this year.
As I said above, I've just put Joan J in myself and thought that I might get a crop this year from them.

Like the idea of the trellis btw.

tanith

Lotus-eater wrote: »

I agree, it could be a bit wider.

I think it depends on the variety of Raspberry Re sending up shoots everywhere.
My Glen Ample are very well behaved, keeping well within their bed. But the Joan J I have just put in, are apparently a bit of a thug, sending up suckers everywhere. I guess I will find out.

I have no idea which variety mine are as they were filched from my MIL's garden ... I don't have much room and only three plants but I got a lovely lot of Raspberrries and it was only the first year.. I guess they might be a THUG!! also but they are contained by a small wall so hopefully will behave themselves....

harib0uk

Lotus-eater wrote: »

Well I believed that Joan J was a Autumn fruiting Raspberry, so should fruit on canes that shoot this year. The others will fruit next year, on canes grown this year.
As I said above, I've just put Joan J in myself and thought that I might get a crop this year from them.

Just looked at my notes again and yes Joan J are first year fruiting. If I'm right it will fruit from the cane I have.. there are buds on it.

So the others will grow new canes, when the new shoots appear from beneath the soil the 9” stub should be cut away. The young canes are tied into a wire fence system for cropping the following season. Subsequently all canes which have fruited are cut out at ground level immediately after fruiting.

How do you separate out the new canes from the fruiting ones?

Lotus-eater

No the Joan J will grow full sized canes and will fruit on those, after fruiting you will cut the canes down and new ones will grow next year and fruit etc.

On the summer fruiting ones, I tie the new canes in as they grow and it is easy to see at the end of the season which canes are old and which are new. I can't really remember how I do it tbh, I just do it. Maybe I don't tie the new canes in until I cut out the old ones. It is easy you will see.

harib0uk

It's all very confusing for a noob!