Raspberries are a nutritious and delicious fruit that can thrive in home gardens. They require well-draining soil amended with compost and mulch, as well as pruning and training canes to a trellis. Home gardeners have a choice of summer-fruiting varieties that bear on second-year canes or autumn-fruiting types that fruit on new growth in the fall. With proper care, raspberries will provide sweet snacks for many seasons.

1. Raspberries
If you can grow apples you can grow raspberries, and why wouldn’t you? The sweet juicy fruit is
delectable when picked ripe and warm from the canes, truly placing the taste of the sun on your
tongue. Nutritionally dense and a fantastic snack for kids, raspberries require a small amount of
preparation and ongoing care which will yield great results.
Canes are available in nurseries in winter as bare-rooted stock. When you plant your raspberries
prune them to about 20cm from ground level.
Cultivation
Berries are a long-term crop and it is worth preparing the soil well and removing all weeds before
planting. Add plenty of well-rotted manure and compost in order to create a rich, well-drained,
slightly acidic soil. If you have a heavy clay soil, build the beds up or add gypsum prior to planting.
Mulch berries well to keep roots cool and moist, and to suppress weeds.
Plant your raspberries in a northerly to north-easterly aspect and avoid planting them in an area
where you have grown tomatoes, capsicum and eggplants in the past three years to avoid the risk of
Verticillium wilt.
Feed with blood and bone or well-rotted manure in spring and autumn.
Pruning and training
Raspberry varieties fall into two categories: summer and autumn fruiting.
Summer fruiting varieties will fruit on two year old canes. The two year old canes are called
floricanes and the new season canes are called primocanes.

2. Each year remove the floricanes that produced fruit and tie up the new season’s primocanes to a
wire trellis. Tying the canes up in bundles can make them easier to manage. The smaller autumn
harvest will be produced on the tips of the primocanes and these can be trimmed to just below the
fruit after harvest. The trellis may consist of two or three wires positioned about 50cm apart, strung
securely between two sturdy posts.
Autumn fruiting raspberries can simply be cut back to ground level and the new spring canes tied up
as they grow.
Below are some great home garden varieties. All raspberries are self-pollinating.
Raspberry – Chilcotin
Heavy cropper, excellent fruit size and quality but can be crumbly at times. Good disease resistance.
Canes need to be thinned during growing season.
Mid Season: summer for 4-5 weeks with a small late autumn crop.
Raspberry – Chilliwack
Excellent fruit size and quality but may be crumbly at times. Used for fresh fruit, jam and cooking.
Berries retain gloss and colour when preserved.
Mid season: fruit produced in summer for 4 to 5 weeks followed by a small late autumn crop. Good
disease resistance. Canes need thinning during the growing season.
Raspberry – Heritage
Medium red firm berries, good aromatic flavour, excellent quality.
A low chill cultivar. Thorny canes.
Mid season: February for 8 to 12 weeks.
Use for fresh fruit, jam and cooking.
Raspberry – Neika

3. Delicate soft fruit with a sweet taste.
Early season: harvest November to December.
Raspberry – Nootka
Large, bright red, firm fruit, good flavour.
Fruits on new growth. Heavy crops. Good disease resistance.
Mid season: summer for 4 to 5 weeks.
Fresh fruit, jam and cooking.
Raspberry – Skeena
Medium-sized, bright, glossy, red conical berries, excellent flavour.
Thornless, low chill cultivar with medium-high yield.
Early season: summer for four weeks.
Fresh fruit, jam and cooking, retains colour and gloss in storage.
Raspberry – Willamette
Large berry easily detached, good flavour,
Hardy with some virus resistance.
Early to mid-season.
Frozen, fresh, cooking or excellent for preserves.
Fresh or frozen fruit and cooking, excellent for jam, dense and not seedy.
Stores well.
Photographs
Photographs by Tracey Martin (SGA)