advice on new raspberries

I don't really have a place for them but wanted to grow them desperately - so I talked my sister into providing me a corner of her four acres. I sure there will be a raspberry premium to pay. I am going out there tomorrow to do a site survey to see the best place and prep the soil a bit

Any advice on what to look for. I have read a few books - weed control seems important

Do they like horse manure?

How deep do you plant them?

What kind of exposure do they like?

How far apart to plant?

we are growing a mixture of early mid and everbearers - all red

A few years ago I got a few cuttings from a trade. It was the middle of summer and it was hot. I didn't have a tiller that was operational at the time. I just dug a tiny hole for each one just to 'hill them in' until I could do different. The only place I had to stick them in was at the edge of my husbands garden where he chunks rocks as he is gardening. This is a REALLY rough area chock full of rocks. They grew and have spread like wildfire. I have since dug up tons of them and actually tried to get rid of them all together but they keep coming up from the roots that I haven't completely removed. Year before last year I gave up and built a landscape timber border around them and now they grow and bloom and fruit in this rock filled area. We still chunk rocks in this area also. I have never fertilized them but I am sure that they have gotten some by just being close to other plantings in the garden. If mine have done this well with virtually no care, I can only imagine how they would do in a nice clean 'good dirt' spot with some fertilizer! Just be aware that they spread very quickly and can get out of hand.

so they are forgiving - that is great to hear. My sister has a lot of property that just sits. And she like raspberries - we will see how it goes.

Roxroe, there's a great, great fruit place about an hour and a half from you (I think) in Afton, VA. www.ediblelandscaping.com. Good big plants, great advice. Check out their care guidelines online. They helped me to decide to plant black raspberries under my black walnuts, since the bws kill about everything else. I am eying their asparagus plants now.

I didn't think anything would grow under black walnut! Wow

Yeah Afton is about 90 miles south.

Thanks for the link

They can take some shade. I like Heritage the most but Carolina is an up and comer that starts bearing 2 weeks earlier. Be careful about what you read about pruning; you can prune off next year's crop. I use cow manure on mine; I'll bet horse manure would work just fine.

Last year I planted 6 heritage plants from Park seed. I gave them some bagged Walmart manure at planting, mulched with straw and kept them moist during the summer. We had fruit from Aug till frost and I cut back the canes completely to the ground this winter. I was just out in the garden and have counted approx 100 sprouts coming out of the ground. wooo hooo. I didn't realize I would have so many so soon and have 6 more in temporary pots waiting to go in the ground when it dries out a bit. I should have saved my $$.

WOW - I am impressed - they bore the first year?! I cannot wait until mine come.

Yes I was impressed to. As I understand it that is not unusual for fall bearing red raspberries as they bear on 1st year wood. June bearing varieties bear on second year wood. I even read somewhere that if you leave the stalks of fall bearing raspberries in the ground you can get a smaller second crop the following spring. I opted for cutting the stalks out though . It is supposed to be better for disease prevention and gives you a larger crop in the fall.

Here is a local university publication. It may or may not all apply based on where you live but I am sure your local universty would probably have something comparable if they have an agriculture dept. http://www.ca.uky.edu/agc/pubs/ho/ho15/ho15.htm

well thanks - we aren't that far apart really but va tech extension probably has something

I received three plants from a gentleman I bought things from on eBay. I potted them and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they produce. So far they are growing well and don't seem at all to mind my staring at them all the time praying for raspberries! *G* Below is one of the smaller ones. I potted these about 3 1/2 weeks ago.

thanks for the picture - so I can tell what they will look like. I planted them about 9 days ago
and it rained good late last week but it was a pretty dry week -