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Raspberry cane - really dumb question

B3B3 Posts: 27,505
in Fruit & veg
I bought a raspberry cane in Lidl. What will it do? Will it grow like a bramble or will it bush out?
In London. Keen but lazy.

Posts

  • BobTheGardenerBobTheGardener Posts: 11,384
    edited April 2018
    It will form a small clump over the next few years.  It will also send out underground runners so more will pop-up in the area as the years go by (but usually not where you want them!)
    Do you know the variety?  You need to know whether it's a summer or autumn fruiting type to get the pruning right.
    A trowel in the hand is worth a thousand lost under a bush.
  • LynLyn Posts: 23,190
    Is it the summer fruiting ones that are making little shoots everywhere now.?
    I have two types, one summer one autumn, the summer one fruits in sept/Oct and is sending up shoots now, the other one is just budding out on the old wood and never had a fruit on it. 
    Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor. 

  • BobTheGardenerBobTheGardener Posts: 11,384
    edited April 2018
    Hi Lyn, you should have cut all of the canes of the autumn fruiting ones right back to the ground in late winter (Feb. is usually recommended.)  If you haven't then the canes will sprout sideshoots and you will get an early crop, probably before the summer fruiting ones.  However, if you do that, the autumn crop will be reduced, sometimes drastically.  Given the recent weather, I would cut them back now if they were mine.
    Prune summer fruiting canes back the the ground after they finish fruiting, but leave all of the new canes which haven't carried fruit alone - they will give you next year's crop.

    PS: If you have forgotten which is which (or have both types in the same bed), leave them.  The autumn fruiting ones will be the ones with a second flowering and you can then label them. ;)
    A trowel in the hand is worth a thousand lost under a bush.
  • JoeXJoeX Posts: 1,783
    philippa smith2 said:
    I'd agree with Bob - clearing a patch of Rasps which had been left to their own devices for a number of years was hard work to put it mildly.
    Kept in a tidy row, they will serve you well but they do attempt to take over the world given half a chance.
    I just planted a raspberry cane near where I’ve also just dig out wild blackberry roots today.  Some of them were two foot long/down before I gave up and snapped them.

    I was wondering whether to replant the wild ones with the raspberry, now after all the effort I’m wondering if I should have planted raspberry at all!
  • BobTheGardenerBobTheGardener Posts: 11,384
    Raspberries are generally more well behaved than wild blackberries Tin pot, so you just need to keep an eye on them.  The runners are usually only a few inches below the surface so much easier to remove when necessary.  Keeping them in a row makes them easier to keep in check, as Philippa said.
    A trowel in the hand is worth a thousand lost under a bush.
  • B3B3 Posts: 27,505
    Thanks everybody. I'd only seen them in the wild before :)
    In London. Keen but lazy.
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