How to Transplant Raspberry Plants

Raspberry bushes tend to come in two kinds: too few or too many. In their search for sun, canes often spread out of control or fail to bear when the growth of other shrubs creates new shade. If your raspberries are sprawling or a neighbor offers you additional plants, knowing how to transplant raspberries will help you.

Things You'll Need

• Raspberry bushes
• Spade or shovel
• Water source
• Long-sleeved shirt or jacket
• Work gloves
• Work shoes or boots

Instructions

1. Identify plants to be transplanted in the fall, before frost. Experienced gardeners sometimes thin plants at this time, digging out transplant candidates and storing bare-root plants in sand or peat moss, wrapped in plastic, in a garage or sheltered outdoor area. If storage prevents problems, leave the plants in the ground until just after the last spring frost. Take care to remove all old canes from bushes to be transplanted.

2. Consider increasing your number of transplant candidates in the early fall by using what is called "tipping." Bury 3 to 6 inches of the ends of canes in the ground, to a depth of 2 to 3 inches (if necessary, place a stone or piece of scrap wood over the buried cane-tips, to keep them securely in the dirt till the ground freezes. In the spring, at least some of these buried tips will produce new plants. Cut them free from the cane, and treat them like new raspberry plants.

3. Dig out transplant candidates after the last frost and submerge their roots immediately in a bucket of water.

4. Dig holes in your new location, large enough that roots will not be crowded and an inch or two deeper than roots were growing previously. Fill holes with water and let them drain halfway down.

5. Put new plants into holes, seating them 1 to 2 inches deeper than their previous location. Refill holes with soil, tamping down thoroughly so that any water remaining in the hole will not leave a dry air-space when it drains out.

6. Trim all canes to 6 to 8 inches long (new small plants created by tipping can remain untrimmed). Check again that plants are solidly tamped in.

7. Keep soil consistently moist for at least a week, to help roots establish in new soil. Continue keeping soil moist during any dry spells until plants show solid new growth.

Tips & Warnings

• Trimming back transplants may result in decreased fruiting the first year but will pay dividends in healthy growth.