maddi
Newly Registered
Posts: 3
Joined: Mon Mar 29, 2010 1:52 pm
Location: State College PA

Novice needing help with raspberries

Hi Everyone!!!
I have a lot of questions, but will go slow! lol I am going to start with my berries, as they are most important to me.... I moved into a house a couple years ago, there are many raspberry plants running wild in the backyard by the creek. This part of the yard is taken over by wildlife, etc. But I make paths to get to the berries. I really would like to have all the berries in one spot. I wanted to know if I can transplant them? Or would they die? Also, I had no clue how to prune or anything. I have never done any gardening. So, I need all the help I can get in kindergarden terms! I read the previous posts, and did learn alot. Can I still cut them back since its almost April? Do I cut them to the ground even though they are huge & have been bearing fruit for many years? What is the green & brown? I bought rootblast for them, and some fruit food, is there anything else I can do to help get a better crop? Thank you so much in advance for helping me out! I never had a green thumb and always wanted one, so I figured this is a good start!!!
Maddi

cynthia_h
Super Green Thumb
Posts: 7500
Joined: Tue May 06, 2008 7:02 pm
Location: El Cerrito, CA

Maddi, I split your post off of the other thread where it was, since you have your own set of questions. Look around the forum and get to know the sections we have, because your questions "belong" in several different forums. Each one could (and several already do!) cover large areas of discussion. :D

When more experienced gardeners give you advice, whether it's on pruning, planting, or planning, they'll need to know where you live, because it makes a big difference in gardening. "Texas" is very different from El Paso to Beaumont, from Amarillo to Corpus Christi. "California" has about two dozen climate zones as described in the Sunset Western Garden Book. Georgia has three. And so on...

If you're not in the United States, please do let us know where you are. We have a remarkably international membership here at THG. :)

Is the plant in question (whichever question you're asking) on the north/south/east/west of your house? What kind of soil (if you know) is it in? How much sun (hours) does it get per day in the summer/winter?

Hope to hear from you again soon! Happy gardening!

Cynthia H.
Sunset Zone 17, USDA Zone 9

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rainbowgardener
Super Green Thumb
Posts: 25279
Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2009 6:04 pm
Location: TN/GA 7b

This is going to get confusing... cynthia evidently moved and split your post, but left this one in the introduction section. Since all the questions left in this post were about raspberries, I moved it again to the Fruit section so more people will see it who could answer the questions.

Sorry, but both of us are just doing our best to see that you get some good answers to your questions.

Incidentally welcome to the Forum!!

Raspberries transplant readily and early spring (ie NOW) is the best time to do it. I already moved some raspberry canes that had popped up in my herb garden, back to where the rest of them are, a couple weeks ago.

Early in spring cut off (down to the ground) any canes that bore fruit last year (they will be obviously old looking and peeling). They don't bear again. Sounds like yours are out of control and could use a lot of thinning. You want them basically growing in a row, so that you can tie them to a fence/ trellis. It will help them produce more berries if you cut down a lot of the canes outside your 12 -18" wide row. Within the row cut down enough canes so that there are only about 4 -5 canes/ foot of row length, saving the fattest, healthiest ones. You can still do this now, but it should be soon. They say before the leaf buds open up, but even if that has started for you (mine have started leafing out), you can still go ahead rather than wait another year.



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