raspberry varieties

I currently have Heritage raspberries in zone 4. I'm very disappointed at how late they bear in my area which is around midSeptember. We get our first frost around the first to second week in October. This year I put up a make-shift hoop house over the berries. My yield seems to be spread out evenly over the season. I would love to have the berries ripen earlier when its warmer and maybe eliminate having to cover them up.

I've been reading about different ever bearing raspberries and I am considering eliminating Heritage and replacing it with Polka. Is Polka a good choice? Are there other varieties that are worthwhile?

If I were to cover my berry plants with a floating row cover in the early spring would this make them come up sooner and maybe ripen earlier?

Hi HelenVT, I am also in zone 4, and have had excellent luck with the 'Nova' and 'Himbo Top' varieties. 'Nova' ripened in early August the first & second years in the ground. We have never covered them. I mail-ordered these two, along with 'Caroline', 'Joan J', and 'Polana' from Nourse Farms. The others also did really well the first summer, but ripened later this year - our summer started a month late this year, and we normally have a super-short growing season anyway. Nourse gave me great info on what would thrive in my area - you might consider contacting them:
http://www.noursefarms.com/

Thanks for the info Rose. Of all the raspberries you planted which ones do you think are the most delicious? Which one is the easiest to grow? Wow, you're growing so many different varieties. Do you run a pick your own operation? How do you deal with the grass that loves to grow up in the rows?

I've been contemplating raspberries myself, only was wondering since you can trellis them, if I could plant them in 5 gallon self watering containers with a trellis right beside the 5 gallon container? Has anyone planted raspberries in containers before?
joy

Joy you might want to start a different thread. Rose and I are from zone 4 and I must tell you that I have no experience with gardening in Florida. I am sure if you start a new thread about container raspberries in Florida you'll get some replies. Good luck.

Hi Helen, I'm only on our second year with the raspberries from Nourse. All were spectacular the first year. Being newbies, we weren't sure if we were supposed to cut the old canes to the ground the following spring, or leave them be. We ended up cutting the canes on 3 of the vars and leaving the canes on the other 2 vars. The latter produced berries far earlier the second year. The vars that we cut produced berries too late to ripen.
So far, we have not had too much trouble with grass growing among the canes. However, I'm going to have to move a row of rambling roses to another part of the yard in order to accommodate the raspberries' expansion.