Autumn Bliss Raspberries in Flower

YessicaHaircut · April 2022

This is my first time growing raspberries. I planted canes of Autumn Bliss at the end of February, and the plants are now 40-50cm tall and are coming into flower. I have other plants that are flowering super early, so I suppose I shouldn't be too surprised, but I'm a bit concerned about what it might mean for my harvest. Does this mean I can expect ripe fruit in a month or two? Will the fruiting season just be shifted forward or might they continue fruiting into late Summer/Autumn? Any thoughts?

Busy-Lizzie · April 2022

Had the old canes from last year been pruned off? It is a bit early for new this year's canes to be flowering. Autumn raspberries can fruit twice in a year if you live somewhere warm with a long summer and you don't prune the previous years' canes. I live in SW France a lot of the time and I get June raspberries as well as autumn raspberries from my autumn raspberry plants. They need a bit of extra feeding and watering.

YessicaHaircut · April 2022

Thanks, @Busy-Lizzie, I've just gone out and had a little inspection. When I received the canes, they were sticks of about 20cm and I planted them as is. I can see that the flowers are indeed on shoots from those woody sticks, and while there are new shoots growing from the base of the plants, these new shoots aren't flowering. Should I have cut the original canes down further before planting?

Busy-Lizzie · April 2022

That is what is usually advised, but I see that you live on the Sussex coast so they should be fine. Enjoy the early crop and new shoots should make the autumn crop. Make sure that you cut down the old canes this winter. I expect some people might advise you to cut down the old canes but raspberries are quite vigorous, I've found, and I did the same as you when I bought new plants last year. They were growing nice and bushily this year, but I'm now in the UK so I can't see them!

YessicaHaircut · April 2022

Oh that's great - fingers crossed we'll get two crops.

Thank you for the advice. I hope there's someone around to enjoy the raspberries at your French house?

Joyce Goldenlily · April 2022

I also have some raspberries, (name begins with T.) which have 2 crops. I have never cut them back so the previous years canes do crop much earlier. I noticed yesterday that last years canes have flower buds and that there is new growth at the base of the canes. I just trim back any dead ends of canes and cut out any dead canes down to the base. I give them an annual feed of farmyard manure , keep them weeded, watered and enjoy the early crop.

fidgetbones · April 2022

Terri Louise were sold on the basis of double cropping. They also run like crazy and don't seem to be sold any more, which is a shame as the fruit is lovely.

YessicaHaircut · April 2022

Oh that's encouraging. I've been reading about deliberately double cropping raspberries, and it looks like I lucked out by accidentally setting myself up for a double crop this year.

All I need to do now is hope the raspberry beetles stay away and we should be good to go.

Joyce Goldenlily · May 2022

YessicaHaircut said:

Oh that's encouraging. I've been reading about deliberately double cropping raspberries, and it looks like I lucked out by accidentally setting myself up for a double crop this year. All I need to do now is hope the raspberry beetles stay away and we should be good to go.

My variety is Telameen (Floricane) which is described as mid-season fruiting which perhaps is why I have two crops.

Autumn Bliss Raspberries in Flower

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