For the best results in your plants, only choose plants rated for your zone. In northern areas, you should use hardier, more cold- tolerant varieties of raspberry, like Boyne, Nova, and Nordic. In southern climates, choose raspberries that can withstand high heat and potential dryness, like Dorman Red, Bababerry, and Southland varieties. Most raspberries are hardy to zones 4-8 some are hardy to 3-7, in North America.
For purchasing grown raspberry plants, you’ll want these to be at least one year old. Cultivated plants come in two basic types: those with bare roots covered in plastic peat containers and tissue-cultured plants. Check with the nursery or home center where you purchase seedlings to make sure they are certified disease-free and have been propagated from virus-indexed stock. Plant the raspberries in early spring. This is the best time to plant both seedlings and grown plants. This will allow the ideal amount of time for maturation. Grown plants should bear fruit by the end of summer. For ever-bearers, expect to find fruit into fall as well. Feel free to add raspberry plants to your patch throughout the summer months. Check the weather report before planting. If there’s a fear of frost or a temperature drop, you may want to keep already dormant plants in stasis by keeping them in a refrigerator. Plant these berries as soon as possible. Lay down a layer of straw over your plants to protect them from frost. Use ground cover, like a tarp or sheet, to prevent frost damage. Remove tarps or sheets in the early morning. Newly planted or freshly germinated plants will require about a year before they begin to fill out and can bear fruit.
Full sunlight, in gardening terms, means at least 6 hours of sun, but in some cases plants requiring full sunlight might need 8 or even 10 hours of light to thrive. For raspberries, aim to expose them to as much light as possible. Warm sunshine has a tendency to improve the quality of raspberry fruit, making it juicier and more flavorful. Fruit with poor light might turn out stunted and shriveled. You may have to move garden or yard items that block the sun to your raspberries. Prune back trees or bushes that could block the sun.
Although environmentally hardy, raspberry plants are susceptible to wind damage. Plant your raspberry plants near a fence or on the side of a structure to block the wind. Set up a wind block for plants by stringing a sheet or tarp between posts. Provide additional support for your berries by stringing two guidelines between two row-end T-trellises or V-trellises. Each line should be separated by 3½ ft (1.1 m) to create a space for the berries to grow, and should be about 3½ ft high.
You’ll be planting your raspberries in rows. Plan for, within a row, red and yellow varieties being separated by a distance of about 2 ft (.61 m). Black and purple varieties should be kept 3 ft (.91 m) from other same-row plants. Distance between rows should be between 6 and 24 in (15.2 and 61 cm). Spacing your plants adequately will help them receive the most sunlight possible, which will encourage the best possible harvest. This should be just deep enough to cover the roots without touching the lowest leaves. Place the plant in the hole and cover it with soil. Cover any exposed roots but avoid burying its foliage. The depth for raspberry plant holes is usually about 3 to 4 in (7.6 cm to 10.2 cm). Use a simple hand shovel to dig the holes.
Ensure that the soil is well drained and disease free. Rich, well-draining, sandy loam soil will provide the best growing conditions for your raspberries. Improve your soil quality by using plant formulated soil and mixing in compost with it. Avoid planting in low-lying areas where water may collect after a heavy rain. Standing water can contribute to mildew, mold, root rot, and other kinds of plant disease. Although raspberries fare poorly in standing water or when overwatered, make sure water is easily available. Water supply is especially important during dry times of the season.
Most berries do best in slightly acidic soil, and raspberries flourish with a pH rating between 5.6 and 6.2. In most cases, you can easily lower the pH level of your soil by mixing granular sulfur with it. This is available at most nurseries and home centers.
Grow plants from seeds. They should be sown according to their package instructions in a plastic peat pot with sterile soil that is low in nutrients at about mid-winter. Space seeds one inch apart and then use your finger to push them about an inch (2.5 cm) into the ground. Cover seeds with a thin layer of loose soil/sand and store them in a dim, cool place indoors. Keep the seeds lightly moist with a spray bottle. Place the seeds outside in partial sunlight when temperatures reach at least 60ºF (15.6ºC). Seeds should be transplanted into your garden after growing at least one inch in height and developing leaves.
Plants simply in a root ball should be easy to free from their packaging. Tap plants in containers with the heel of your wrist. This will loosen the roots. Slide the plant out and catch the soil gently. Be careful not to handle your plants too roughly. Pulling at the stem or the roots can damage your plants. Alternatively, soak the roots of raspberries in water for an hour or two before planting. Add a ½ tsp (2.5 ml) of a vitamin B1 growth stimulant per quart water the roots are soaking in for even better results from your planting.
Heavily watering after planting can help plants to recover from the shock of transplanting.
Sometimes problems with raspberries can easily be resolved with beneficial companion plants. Before planting raspberries, you may need to amend the soil to add organic material and valuable nutrients. One way to do this is to plant and grow a cover crop for one season. Good cover crops to till in before raspberries are: buckwheat, legumes, field brome, Japanese millet, spring oats, sudan grass, annual ryegrass, winter rye, clover hairy vetch, alfalfa, canola, and marigolds. The more bees that visit raspberry bushes, the more yield.
Raspberry plant companions that attract pollinators, while repelling harmful pests, include: Chervil and tansy (repels ants, Japanese beetles, cucumber beetles, squash bugs), Yarrow (repels harlequin beetles),Artemisia (repels insects, rabbits, and deer), and Turnips are also used as companion plants for raspberry bushes because they repel the harlequin beetle.
Raspberry bushes should not be planted in an area where potatoes, tomatoes, eggplant, bramble berries, peppers, roses. or strawberries have grown in the last five years. They also should not be planted near these growing plants because of blights and other fungal diseases, like verticillium wilt, which can spread from these plants to raspberries.
Avoid planting near any wild growing raspberries or blackberries within about 600 ft (183 m) of those you plant. Wild berries can also transmit diseases to your healthy berries.
