there are new thornless varieties now and they actually taste okay too , so would look out for them , otherwise I would get rid of most of them as they are very aggressive, and need a lot of work to keep in check , and those vines are nasty
Thornless sounds good! @wild edges haven’t seen any wild raspberries but wild strawberries everywhere, plus sloes, elderberries, blackberries. My neighbours make a very potent Pacheran from wild berries and herbs, which nearly floored me when I knocked it back as instructed, to their great amusement.
Mountainous Northern Catalunya, Spain. Hot summers, cold winters.
Autumn fruiting seem to be much more robust. I have a large patch that I do nothing with except pick the fruit. The berries are smaller than on the trained fruit but the plants are healthy and prolific (I'm already picking fruit from them). They do spread, but as Blue says, we just mow round the edges to keep them moderately contained. I think they are a rather marginal garden plant - better as a hedge, perhaps. But it's one of my favourite fruits so worth a bit of management to me.
Gardening on the edge of Exmoor, in Devon
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
I grow mine (autumn fruiting) in a strip of ground beside the growhouse. I made a grid of bamboo canes which is simply pushed into the soil in front of the row. As the rasps grow taller I just push them back behind the 'cage' to keep them in check 😄.
Other than chopping them down in early spring I don't do any pruning or tying them in, just leave them to get on with it.
I find autumn fruiters much easier to manage - chop ‘em all back after fruiting & grow them in an open enclosure to stop the canes flopping everywhere. Pull up wandering canes as necessary.
The term ‘autumn fruiting’ is a misnomer - ‘later fruiting’ would be better. I grow ‘Polka’ & usually start harvesting in July - but they keep going well into September. So a longer season than earlier varieties and the birds leave them alone.
4 canes provide more than enough for the 2 of us.
Heaven is ... sitting in the garden with a G&T and a cat while watching the sun go down
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“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
Other than chopping them down in early spring I don't do any pruning or tying them in, just leave them to get on with it.
The term ‘autumn fruiting’ is a misnomer - ‘later fruiting’ would be better. I grow ‘Polka’ & usually start harvesting in July - but they keep going well into September. So a longer season than earlier varieties and the birds leave them alone.
4 canes provide more than enough for the 2 of us.