Growing your own raspberries is easy, and by following a few simple tips and tricks you can enjoy a raspberry bush that comes back and performs year after year. Look below at 7 tips for growing raspberries, and see how easy it can be to enjoy these berries yourself!

10 Tips for Growing Raspberries

There is nothing better than having bushes of raspberries right at your fingertips. Perfect for jams, jellies, canning, and desserts, raspberries are a useful fruit to grow and can really provide some bang for the buck!

Like raspberries? Want to grow raspberries but have no idea where to start? These tips for growing and maintaining raspberries will help you grow these sweet and tasty little fruits.

First, a few words about raspberries:

What is a raspberry?

The raspberry is the edible fruit of a multitude of plant species in the genus Rubus of the rose family, most of which are in the subgenus Idaeobatus. Raspberry plants are perennial (means they come back year after year) with woody stems. Botanically it is termed an aggregate fruit – a collection of small fruits form the berry.

What kind of raspberries can you grow?

There are red raspberries, purple raspberries, and yellow raspberries. Pick the type of raspberry that grows best in your zone.

When to plant raspberries?

You can buy dormant raspberry plants during the early spring, which is also when you should plan on planting. Raspberry plants like to be planted in cooler spring weather, when the ground is just starting to warm up. You won’t see a lot of action at first, but don’t worry. Your dormant plant will start performing in no time.

Practice proper root care of raspberries:

Before you plant your raspberry plant, you want to soak the roots in a bucket for about two hours. This will give them a strong start! Aside from soaking the roots, you also want to make sure the hole you dig for your plant is at least 3 times the width of the plant. This way, the roots have a change to easily spread and seek the nutrients they need.

What kind of soil do I plant raspberries in?

Raspberries like well-drained soil with a pH between 5.8-6.5.

Do I plant raspberries in the sun or shade?

Raspberries will perform in part sun, but what they really love is full sun. Plant your raspberries where they will get at least 8 hours of direct sunlight per day. Should you choose a space that gets less your plant will survive, it just may not thrive or produce a lot of berries.

Do Raspberries need support?

There are a few ways to offer some tender loving care and support for your raspberry plant. A trellis or stakes can help support the plant and prevent snapping once the fruit starts to form. A heavy layer of mulch around the base can help keep the roots cool and help the plant retain moisture.

How often to water raspberry plants?

Do not plant your raspberries in a wet area. However, you should water your raspberry plants a steady one inch of water per week, more if you live in an arid region.

Keep pests Away from your raspberry plants:

One of the biggest pests you will face is birds. A great way to protect the fruit of your plant is to use some type of scarecrow or hang shiny objects around the plant, or with netting. The scarecrow and shiney objects could scare birds from coming too close. The netting will keep the birds out, but may be sure to get netting that will not inhibit sunlight.

Too shoot or not to shoot, that is the question?

You may notice canes or shoots that come up from the plant. When you see these, quickly cut them back. They can distract the plant and cause the plant to waste nutrients. Instead, cut the shoot back and the plant will focus on creating fruit instead.

Harvest raspberries daily

You are unlikely to get fruit from your raspberries the first season or two that they grow. However, once your raspberries start blooming, harvest daily. Pick fruit as soon as it is ready and the plant will continue to produce new fruit. This might mean picking as much as twice per day in order to keep production up.

Once you have a nice harvest, consider these 15 Fresh Raspberry Recipes

Are you ready to enjoy some raspberries? Consider these tips for growing raspberries and you are sure to produce a crop you can be proud of.

Sources:

• The Old Farmer’s Almanac
• Burpee
• Merriam-Webster

If you would like more how to garden posts, check these:

• How To Grow Blackberry Bushes – here are my tips on growing blackberry bushes based on my experience with blackberry bush plants.

• How To Grow Your Very Own Strawberry Patch – If you love the fresh taste of strawberries, why not grow your own strawberry patch? You won’t believe how much better fresh strawberries straight from your garden will taste over commercially grown strawberries. They are berry, berry good!

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Learn how to grow vegetables in soil bags eliminating the need for garden planters or in-ground planting. Grow your vegetables from seed, and have fresh vegetables all summer long with very little gardening work!

How to Grow Vegetables in Garden Soil Bags

Would you like to grow your own vegetables all summer long with minimal effort? Well, have I got a plan for you…

My friend Dian over at DianFarmer.com told me about an idea to grow vegetables in soil bags. No more planting in the ground, or transferring the soil to containers, you simply cut open a bag, drop in some seeds, and Viola! Veggies.

I thought it was an interesting idea but could see some real issues with it mostly concerning rooting and waterlogging. Hubby and I brainstormed how it would be possible to grow some plants in bags, and what we would need to do to make it happen.

The first thing we needed to do was figure out how to get those bags off the ground and high enough so I could reach them without breaking my back (I went to container gardening with little in-ground gardening for a reason). We also needed there to be drainage so as not to allow puddles of water to gather inside the soil bags.

Hubby built me a stand. The stand was really, really important to me because as I said… no bending over. The stand is simply 2x4s angled together to form a table with no top. He made it sturdy enough to last (we left it out all winter long). You could use anything with slats… saw horses with just 3 planks on top would work!

Hubby had picked up some old bread trays somewhere (don’t ask, that man is a real packrat), and he built the stand to fit those trays. We placed them on top of the stand when he finished building it. That the trays had slats was very important in allowing excess water to flow through and not pool. They were also strong enough to support the bags of dirt.

I researched root systems. The ones with the smallest root system that we would eat were lettuce, spinach, and mustard greens. Radishes were another option, but since neither Hubby nor I would eat them, we passed.

I purchased two different types of dirt: Miracle Grow Garden Soil and Miracle Grow Raised Bed Soil. I wanted to see if there was any difference between the two for the purposes of this experiment… there was not.

I chose an area on the patio where I could easily access all the bags for watering and harvesting, and where there was a decent amount of sun but not full sun all day.

I cut a rectangle on the top of each of the bags removing the plastic I cut out, but leaving enough bag-side so the dirt wouldn’t spill out (about 3″ all the way around the top). I poked a LOT of holes in the bottom of the bag so the water wouldn’t build up inside the bag. The last thing I wanted was a root rot.

To plant the seeds, I lightly scraped the soil with a hand rake.

I sprinkled on the seeds to each bag, and covered the seeds shallowly with soil. I moisted the soil with a spray bottle to wet the soil. I actually used this spray bottle for the first 7 days.

I then marked what was growing in each bag with a sharpie on the bag itself. I grew three different types of lettuce, and there was no way I was going to recall what was what without some sort of reminder.

I LIGHTLY watered several times per day until the seeds germinated and started to sprout. And by lightly, I mean I used a spray bottle the first week, and then moved on to a watering can. The watering can was held it up high, and the soil sprinkled until wet. I did not want to use a hose as I did not want to wash away the seeds.

The seeds germinated fairly quickly!

Note: I only fed these plants a few times after they seeded using a liquid water feed attached to the hose. Once the lettuce, mustard greens, and spinach got going, I was able to water using my hose.

To say I was shocked at how well these grew is an understatement. No one, and I mean no one came into our house for several months without leaving with a bag of lettuce.

During the cooler weather of June, I clipped back the lettuce and it simply regrew like crazy. In the summer the lettuce got a little straggly as it was a very, very hot summer here in WNY last year – and lettuce likes things a tad cooler – but we still had a ton of lettuce during the summer months. By the beginning of September it was again producing so much we were giving it away by the bagful. We had fresh lettuce from June until October last year. I was starting to feel like a rabbit.

Note: when harvesting the lettuce, do not pull it out by its roots, instead, using some gardening scissors clip back to the about 3″ high from where the lettuce roots in the soil. It will regrow quite quickly.

The spinach was less successful. It grew very well early on, I harvested a a few times, and then BAM! it bolted and grew too large too quickly, and got bitter. This was due to the extreme heat.

The mustard greens were wildly successful! Hubby made a few soups, and they were also excellent fresh. And this was in spite of the heat and only growing in one bag. A friend decided she was growing them this way to feed her lizard. Whatever works!

Since this table was under a maple tree I was picking out the helicopters for a few weeks when they dropped. There was also the occasional weed to pluck, although nothing crazy. Some mulch once the seedling sprout could help keep the weeds at bay. A sheet of plastic would simply smother the seeds and seedlings, so I do not see it as an option.

At the end of the season, we removed any remaining plants, and dumped the soil into out bushes. There was no waste.

Would I grow like this again? You betchya. I already have the seeds for this year (more lettuce and mustard greens). Since we had too much lettuce (seriously, people were avoiding us for a while, and yeah, I am blaming it on the lettuce “gifts”) I am going down to 5 bags of soil from the 8 I had last year.

If you are looking for a lighter work vegetable growing option, this is it. Once I plopped down those bags and seeded, I basically watered and harvested, and that was it.

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