Raspberries: from planting to harvesting

Raspberries are both delicious and expensive fruit. All the better if you can grow raspberries in your own garden. There are helpful tips here.

The raspberry (Rubus idaeus) is one of the most popular summer fruits. Whether processed into ice cream, nicely garnished on the dessert or just as a fruity snack for in between: the raspberry is sweet, tasty and refreshes at hot temperatures. We'll tell you how you can grow the sweet fruit yourself in your own garden and give you useful care tips.

Raspberries are deciduous subshrubs that can reach a height of one to two meters, depending on the variety. The shrub is constantly renewing itself from the rootstock. As a result, this is very sensitive, which is why you should pay particular attention to your requirements when choosing a location, as well as when watering and fertilizing. With good care, raspberry bushes can bear tasty fruit for up to ten years.

Raspberries: Wanted poster

The red fruits belong to the rose family (Rosaceae). Contrary to what the name raspberry suggests, the soft fruits do not belong to the berries, but are aggregate drupes. The composite stone fruit is a composite of individual small stone fruits that are formed from the flowers of the raspberries. Bees and butterflies are particularly happy about the white bloom between May and August. Thus, the raspberry is one of the very bee-friendly plants. Their fruits are usually red, but can also be black or yellow, depending on the variety. As many hobby gardeners have perhaps already painfully experienced, the raspberry's rods are covered with more or less fine spines, depending on the variety, and their leaves are serrated.

Plant raspberries

So that the cultivation of tasty raspberries also succeed in your garden, we have summarized the most important points about planting raspberries below.

Planting raspberries: the right time and location

Raspberries can be planted in both spring and autumn. Depending on whether you choose summer or winter raspberries, it takes a little longer to harvest. However, we recommend planting the raspberries in autumn, as this gives the plant more time to get used to its new location. Raspberries prefer to have it sunny and need well drained, nutrient-rich soil. If you can give your raspberry such a place, you will be rewarded with a rich harvest and an abundance of flowers.

Planting raspberries: the right approach

Proper preparation is essential when planting raspberries: the planting hole should be at least twice as large Be deep and wide, like the root ball of the plant, and topped up with fresh substrate before planting will. Before inserting it, it is advisable to score and loosen the root ball. Once the raspberry has been planted, it should be watered well. Since most raspberries grow relatively tall, they should be tied to a scaffold or garden fence to support the fruit-bearing tendrils. It is important to ensure good ventilation to prevent gray mold infestation.

More information about the Plants of raspberries in the garden and pot can be found here.

Simply propagate raspberries yourself

Raspberries are very vigorous subshrubs, which is why their propagation is relatively easy. The most common method of propagating raspberries is by digging out root runners. In addition, raspberries can also be propagated by means of sinking and cuttings. These methods are used for raspberry varieties that have little or no root runners. More detailed information on the Propagating raspberries You will find here.

In a nutshell: The multiplication of Raspberries using root runners:

• Young, healthy rods that grow vertically up out of the ground a piece from the main rhizome are suitable for reproduction.
• These rods are carefully excavated in early autumn without damaging their roots. Prick or cut off the root connection to the mother plant.
• Plant the cut rods according to the planting instructions.
• In the next spring, cut off the old main shoot as soon as a few new shoots form. This measure delays the first harvest by a year, but strengthens the plants a lot.

Raspberry varieties: Popular and well-tried varieties

In the case of raspberries, one can basically differentiate between summer, autumn and so-called two-timer varieties. Summer raspberries bear fruit in summer (June / July) on the biennial branches, autumn raspberries bear fruit on the shoots formed in the same year from August. Twotimer raspberries mostly produce both in summer and a second time in autumn, with the harvest volume being slightly smaller in each case. Other differences between summer and autumn raspberries - such as their cut or susceptibility to disease as well as a detailed list of many red, yellow and black Raspberry varieties - You will find here.

Caring for raspberries properly: cutting, fertilizing and Co.

The raspberry is a very vigorous plant - both in terms of above-ground and underground growth. Regular care and a rigorous cut are therefore mandatory. We reveal the most important care tips and explain the exact procedure.

Pour raspberries properly

The raspberry likes it permanently moist. The emphasis here is exclusively on “damp”, because watering that is too well meant can quickly lead to waterlogging, which in turn promotes rot and other diseases. You should therefore water your raspberries regularly, but not too heavily, when it is dry. A fully grown raspberry bush can handle around 10 liters of water every two days in dry midsummer. Especially during flowering and then when the plant starts to bear fruit, until the end of the harvest, you shouldn't forget about it when watering. Too little water while the fruit is ripening allows the delicious fruits to dry out quickly on the bush.

Fertilize raspberries

Raspberries need fertilizer rich in potassium, which also contains small amounts of magnesium. Because raspberries also have high demands on the structure of the soil, they are suitable organic fertilizerswhich, in addition to their nutritional effects, also improve the soil, particularly well. It is also important that the raspberries have nutrients available for a long time and that they are not overwhelmed with them at the time of fertilization. This long-term effect is given naturally with organic fertilizers. We recommend as an organic fertilizer compost, Cattle or pig manure, mulch or mainly organic fertilizers from the trade, for example ours Plantura universal fertilizer. But also the more potassium-rich Plantura organic tomato fertilizer is ideal. It is fertilized once at the beginning of the growing season, as soon as the ground is no longer frozen, for example in March. A second time a few weeks or months later - but before the raspberry blossoms - fertilizer is applied.

More information about the Fertilizing raspberries and the right fertilizer quantities can be found here.

Pour raspberries in the pot and fertilize

Just like the raspberries in the garden, their counterparts in the pot must also be properly watered. It is also important to ensure that there is no waterlogging, but that the soil does not dry out either. Even in winter, you need to lightly water the raspberry bushes in the pot every few weeks on a frost-free day. For raspberries that are grown in pots, it is advisable to fertilize a little less, but at shorter intervals. After all, the roots only have a very limited root space from which they can acquire nutrients.

Cut raspberries

When and how to cut raspberries depends largely on the variety. Summer raspberries only bear fruit on the shoots that the plant developed last year. Autumn raspberries, on the other hand, can already bear fruit on the new shoots of the same year.
Correct cutting and training on the wire is very important, especially for summer raspberries. After the last frost in March, it is best to examine your raspberry plant carefully and look for pro Running meters (roughly within one big step) about ten beautiful, healthy-looking shoots the end. At best, these shoots grow in different directions. The remaining rods are cut off at ground level. You can now attach the selected rods to the climbing aid, a fence or something similar.

Autumn raspberries are completely cut back every year, because the newly formed, young annual shoots are the most fertile. Within a running meter you should choose around 20 freshly driven routes in early spring that you leave behind, the remaining ones you cut off at ground level as well.

More expert tips on Cutting raspberries You will find here.

Tie up the raspberries

The summer raspberries in particular need a certain amount of support to help you get high. As the season progresses (and with it the growth in length), the tendrils should be attached to the wires of the trellis. Wide plastic straps that do not cut into or damage the tendrils are suitable for this.

Tip: Use a different ribbon color for the annual tendrils than for the two-year-olds. This will help you tell them apart and prevent the wrong shoots from being pruned.

The fall raspberries need less help to shoot up steadily. Two wires are sufficient (one 30 cm above the ground, the other at a height of around 170 cm) to support the much more stable rods for the upcoming fruit stocking. The routes don't even have to be tied up, as long as the wires are stretched on both sides of the plant.

Raspberries: recognize harvest time

As with many bush berries, the Raspberry harvest time for a longer period of time. Depending on the variety and the weather conditions, this can vary. In keeping with the name, the first summer raspberries are usually ripe in June. After mild springs, the fruits of early summer raspberry varieties can also be ripe in May. Depending on the variety, summer raspberries are usually harvested until early or mid-July. Autumn raspberries can be harvested from August until well into autumn. The first frost is the limiting factor for the harvest time. Twotimer varieties can be harvested twice: the first time, like summer raspberries, in June and July, and the second time between August and October.

Note: The so-called Twotimer varieties are basically nothing more than autumn raspberries. The classic autumn raspberry varieties can also bear fruit twice if the conditions are right. Twotimer varieties are specially bred so that harvesting twice can take place with greater certainty.

Tip: When it comes to harvesting the raspberries, you should not only rely on the right time, but also on your keen gardening senses. While the size is irrelevant for the harvest, the berries should be brightly colored throughout, exude the typical raspberry aroma and be easy to detach from the bush. If all of these are true, then you've got the perfect harvest time.

Store and preserve raspberries

The raspberry is a typical summer fruit. If you don't want to do without the sweetness of your own raspberries in the colder months, there are a few ways to preserve your raspberries.

Freeze raspberries

Probably the best known method of preserving raspberries is freezing. You can get frozen raspberries all year round in the supermarket, but you can also replenish your frozen raspberries from your own garden. After harvesting, you should wash the raspberries carefully and then drain them. After that, there are several options depending on how well the sweet fruits should be portionable when frozen and how much water they can absorb during deep freezing Freezing raspberries.

Note: Handle the raspberries with great care - after all, they are very sensitive to pressure.

Reduce the raspberries

Like almost every sweet fruit, the raspberry is ideal for preserving. Whether as a whole fruit in your own syrup or processed as jam or jelly: the raspberry offers a whole range of possibilities. If you want to boil down whole raspberries, you should only use a little preserving sugar and add the remaining sweetness over normal sugar. When cooking raspberry jam, however, you should use plenty of preserving sugar to achieve a spreadable consistency.

Dry raspberries

Dried fruit is becoming increasingly popular. Many nutrition-conscious hobby gardeners therefore buy their own dehydrator in order to preserve their lovingly grown harvest. The raspberry is not really suitable for drying, however. It has a high water content (around 80%), which is why only the peel and seeds would remain after drying.

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