Help MBE grow his dinner 2012

carettacaretta

It's lovely to see everyone's seedlings. No sign from mine in the north-east but I'm optimistic.

I wondered if anyone would help me with raspberries. I've looked at lots of sites and consulted all my books but I don't seem to be able to get my head round them.

I planted half a dozen canes last year. One a couple of years old and the others one were a mixture of autumn and summer fruiting bare root canes (but I don't know which ones were which). The older one and one other cane give a little bit of fruit (in September/October) but the rest did nothing.

Recently I've noticed some little plants growing straight up from the ground around the two plants that fruited. I'm not sure what to do with them and if they're a good sign.

Since I wasn't feeling to optimistic about last years rasps, I tried to make up for it this year by putting a whole new bed of canes in another plot, some summer and some autumn. I just wondered what I should expect to happen? Will growth come off the dead-looking canes or will new growth come up from the ground? Will the autumn and summer fruiting ones do something different?

I'm starting to wonder if I've managed to do a lot of digging to get another row of dead canes...

Any advice or commiserations would be gratefully received.

mrbadexample

carettacaretta wrote: »

Any advice or commiserations would be gratefully received.

Well, it's commiserations from me as I've never grown raspberries, so have not the faintest idea how to help.

mrbadexample

TallGirl wrote: »

This Thread is fantastic please can I join

Ta very much. Yes you can. Which bit of the south coast are you - fat end, pointy end or middle bit?

TallGirl

mrbadexample wrote: »

Ta very much. Yes you can. Which bit of the south coast are you - fat end, pointy end or middle bit?

Thanks MBE I'm in the middle overlooking Portsmouth harbour. Painted my fence today so it looks a bit more like the brand new one. Also got some Marigolds seeded to go with the peas, sugar snaps, lettuce and herbs I did at the weekend.

Away until Friday but when I get back I should have a new deck at the sunny end of my garden, a new boarder for fruit and veg and then the patio will go in Saturday. Will post some before and after pictures when we get a bit further on.

The chat about the raspberrys was very interesting and prompted me to look at my new canes they are Autumn ones happy with that.

Little_Vics

gah gah gah - still no planting for me. Not happy. If it rains on the weekend I am going to give up and tarmac the lot.

Gah again.

KazLA

I saved my research on the raspberry pruning! I will post below. From my limited understanding, I think with the autumn ones you have to cut them to the ground every year and they grow again with raspberries growing on the new stems. With Summer ones, the raspberries come on last years stems, so I think that's why you wouldn't have got any last year, the raspberries will appear on those older stems this year. I guess the new ones are either summer fruiting ones that the raspberries will grow on next year or new autumn ones that will produce this year. Hopefully someone will correct me if this isn't right!

My research:

Usagardener.com

Summer red raspberries should be pruned twice a year, first in the spring and immediately after final harvest. The spring pruning, in late March or early April, consists of removing all weak canes and cutting back tall canes (over 5 feet) to 4.5 to 5 feet. The second pruning consists of the removal of canes that produced fruits, right after last harvest.

LATE WINTER / EARLY SPRING: - (Before Budding)[FONT=&quot][/FONT]

• Prune all canes that bore fruit last year; they will not produce fruit again. These will have grayish-brown, peeling bark.
• Remove any canes that have grown outside the 12 - 18 inch designated row area - this will prevent spreading.
• Remove any spindly, weak looking or short canes.
• Thin so that there is about 4 to 6 of the healthiest, tallest and fattest canes left per foot along the length of the row.

Thegardeningmom.com

Do you have a raspberry patch? Is it a thorny mess of long sharp weapon-like stems, that look as if they’d rip you to shreds if you dare to enter their fortress of clutter? Well remember you are the one with the pruners, and its time to cut the heck out of them!

What you want to do is cut the stems down about half way just above a nice looking bud. Make the cut flat (smaller cut equals less injury to plant [IMG]file:///C:/Users/PAUL%26K%7E1/AppData/Local/Temp/msoclip1/01/clip_image001.gif[/IMG]) Also look for any very woody stems and cut them all the way to the ground (You’re cutting last year’s fruiting stems, to allow this year’s to flourish). Also, thin out any weaker looking stems. We want to have good air circulation so our raspberries are super healthy!

1. Prune stems down halfway (I usually cut all stems to chest level, some have to be cut lower for a good bud, you be the judge)
2. Prune all woody looking stems to the ground ( It means they look more like a twig than a fleshy raspberry stem)
3. Thin out any weak looking stems (air circulation is more important to the overall plant health than a few little stragglers.

Lotus-eater

carettacaretta wrote: »

Recently I've noticed some little plants growing straight up from the ground around the two plants that fruited. I'm not sure what to do with them and if they're a good sign.

Sorry I did read this earlier, but missed this bit.

Kaz's advice is spot on. Autumn raspberries get cut down after fruiting and grow berries on new canes grown that year.
Summer fruiting raspberries grow fruit on canes from the previous year.

Which isn't much help if you don't know what is what.

So, presuming the two plants above are autumn fruiting, you should cut all the old canes off them.
Leave all the canes from the remaining plants and tie them up. These are your summer fruiting ones.

Hopefully anyway.

emiff6

emiff6 wrote: »

By 9am today I had dug up and moved several clumps of miniature daffs that were in the wrong place (round a tree that is coming down on Tues, fingers crossed) and replanted them elsewhere, cut down a clematis likewise (cuttings in pots, taken in autumn, are sprouting buds already), pruned 3 roses ...

Tree's gone! :T Perfect sunny day for doing the job, too.
It wasn't that big - a rowan - but it was down and chopped up ready for chipping in 30 minutes - I was very impressed. I saved 2 nice logs from the trunk to make bee logs, everything else has gone. Sadly no room to store all that lovely woodchip (sigh).

mrbadexample

emiff6 wrote: »

I saved 2 nice logs from the trunk to make bee logs,

http://www.foxleas.com/bee_house.htm

furball

:DPlease, please can i join. Halfway through reading thread and think this is what i need to make me get off my backside. I am very lucky to have a south facing garden. I have a 2 to 3ft wide raised border 80 ft long although 20 ft is totally shaded by my selfish neighbours conifers and nowt grows there. I have bags of seeds and loads of books but got disheartened last year. Built 2 8x3ft raised beds in back garden, north facing which ended up waterlogged due to soakaway (long story). I could put one of the raised beds in front of the conservatory in front south facing garden (square foot planting) but not sure if i should just use my raised border geoff hamilton style. Sorry rambling/thinking out loud. OK main question, no greenhouse, what can i plant outside now. Will practise posting pics especially as i got off backside and reclaimed garden from brambles and weeds yesterday and am not ashamed of it to be seen now.