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Crumbly raspberries
Chapelhead
Posts: 8
in Talkback
Last winter I acquired an allotment, with some autumn raspberry bushes. I've grown summer raspberries before, but not autumn ones. I don't know what variety of raspberries they are, but they are 'yellow' rather than 'red', so perhaps Autumn Gold or similar.
What I have found is that they go from unripe yellow to ripe golden, but at this point they become very 'crumbly' and fall apart into individual drupelets when picked rather than stay as a single fruit.
Is this usual for autumn raspberries? Could it be because of the variety I have? Is it weather-related? I don't think I'm leaving them too long before picking them as before this stage they seem unripe (they don't pull off the stem easily).
Any ideas?
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I grow Polka, and I've never experienced this phenomenon, so I don't think it's a usual problem for autumn raspberries.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
My All Gold ones are quite crumbly as well unless they're picked really carefully but the red ones (I have Polka, Autumn Bliss and Joan J) are fine so I think it's just the variety.
Some of my autumn fruiting (red) raspberries tend to fall apart but I think that is because they are so fat and juicy.
It's true they are fat and juicy, but they're such a mess once picked that it hardly seems worth the bother. I think I may gradually replace them with another (probably red) variety.
I have the same problem with mine. I also inherited them so have no idea what type they are. I just feed em to the chickens cos they're not worth the effort of putting on my plate.
I pruned them them as and when they should have been, they were manured, well watered and mulched. The plants themselves looked great but the fruit was such a let down. I'm still trying to decide whether to keep them for next year or not
Fruitcake - are yours red or yellow?