How To Grow Raspberries

Which Variety Of Raspberries
Planting & Growing Raspberries
Looking After & Harvesting Raspberries

Raspberries are relatively easy to grow and, if you plant a mixture of varieties, you can enjoy sweet tasty berries from June right through to late autumn. Even though they can take up quite a bit of space, they will certainly reward you with plenty of fruit. It can be quite expensive to buy raspberries from the shops, so simply follow our guide to enjoy your own home-grown juicy berries fresh from the garden.

By Sacha Markin

Which Variety Of Raspberry?

Raspberries are perennials and come in the form of a thorny shrub which produces shoots from the ground. These shoots are commonly known as 'canes'.

Essentially raspberries come in two types - the summer-fruiting and the autumn-fruiting varieties. Summer fruiting plants bear their fruit on the previous year's growth, so you shouldn't be discouraged if you don't get fruit in the first season of planting. But the autumn-fruiting varieties plants should grow stems and produce fruit from the first year they are planted.

Popular varieties of raspberry include 'Glen Prosen' which is a summer-fruiting raspberry with thorn-less stems producing large red fruit in mid-summer. It crops particularly well and is easy to grow and control. 'Autumn Bliss' is, as the name suggests, an autumn-fruiting raspberry and a reliable strain of the berry, with short stems and big bright fruit full of flavour. 'Glen Clova' is a summer-fruiting raspberry which is likely to fruit quite heavily. It has slightly thorny stems, but will produce small firm fruit with a lovely sweet taste. And for something completely different try 'All Gold' - an autumn-fruiting variety which produces large plump berries in a golden yellow colour.

Where To Grow Raspberries

Raspberries grow best in a quite deep, well drained, but moisture-retentive soil. Choose a spot in the garden which is sunny yet protected - raspberries will tolerate a little shade if necessary, but really prefer a bright and sunny spot - and with a decent flow of air around it, as this will reduce the risk of mildew and other fungal diseases.

Once you've chosen the site for your raspberry patch, check the soil you have by doing a simple analysis test - the pH of the soil should ideally be around 5.6 to 6.2 for growing raspberries. A do-it-yourself soil test kit, which can be found at good garden centres, will give you the pH of your soil - basically it measures the degree of alkalinity or acidity. The raspberry canes will find it hard to adopt nutrients unless the soil's pH is within its preferred range. But you can always increase the pH of your soil by adding limestone.