How to Grow Raspberries

Early spring and late fall is raspberry time and fresh raspberries are plentiful in stores. However, you can grow your own raspberries even in limited space.

Things You'll Need

• Raspberry canes
• Compost, leaves or pine needles
• Two or more short wooden poles
• Wire or heavy twine
• Wire cages or bird netting

Instructions

1. Choose the best spot for growing raspberries. Most garden plants thrive in full sun and a place where water will drain well. Deer, birds and raccoons like raspberries too, so protect the raspberry plants with wire cages, bird netting or plant them close to the house.

2. Select the raspberries you want. There are two main types of raspberries, summer bearing and ever bearing. Summer bearing raspberries produce berries during early summer. When they stop producing, they put all their energies into making new growths for the next year. Ever bearing raspberries produce berries in spring and in fall.

3. Buy raspberry plants, sold as canes, in most greenhouses and home and garden stores. The canes are the woody stems of the raspberry plant that grow from the crown. The crown is the spot just above the roots from where the growth starts.

4. Prepare the soil for raspberries. Raspberries need an acidic soil. Add some compost, mulched leaves or pine needles to the soil to make it more acidic.

5. Plant the raspberries late in the spring once the chance for a hard frost is over. Cut the canes back to 6 inches, if any have started to grow larger. Dig a hole in the selected spot large enough to set the crown halfway into the ground. Cover the raspberry plant and firm the soil around it.

6. Build a support trellis for the raspberry plants, since they're known for their ability to grow unruly. This can be anything ranging from a tomato cage to wooden poles with strong wire woven between them. Just be sure it will hold the raspberry plants up once they have started to grow.

7. Prune old growth from the raspberry plants each year. Remove injured, broken or diseased canes. Raspberry canes only live for a couple of years. When they die, they turn a grayish color and stop producing any new growth. Pruning out these old canes gives your raspberry plants the chance for new growth and prolongs the life of the plants.

Tips & Warnings

• Most raspberry canes for sale have grown for one year and are called "one-year canes." The best canes to buy are "two-year canes," which produce an abundance of raspberries the first year you plant them.

• Black and purple raspberries need warmer weather because harsh winters can severely injure the plant or kill it.

• Red raspberries are the hardiest types and grow almost anywhere other berries can be grown.

• Don't plant raspberry canes where tomatoes or peppers have been in previous years. They share some of the same diseases and it may promote transferring the disease.