Raspberry root or shoot?

[duckman98989]

Hi there! So to introduce myself; I am a relatively new gardener, still learning everything. I have had successful crops of various things in the past, but never grown fruit before besides strawberries. Well this year I am changing that, growing numerous fruits because I love fruit! Anyway, I have a Heritage Raspberry 1 yr. plant that I planted about 3 weeks ago. I am growing it in a pretty big container because I live in a very suburban area with limited space and can't have these humungous fruit plants taking up all of my space! The plant is healthy and growing well. It is such a nice day that I decided to sit outside and read my fruit gardening books. I read that raspberry roots should only be planted 3 inches down! I planted mine quite a bit further down. So then I decided to dig up the roots carefully and get it re-situated. I even found a bud that was under the dirt so I know it's way far down. I kept going and I noticed this little white verticle thing sticking out of the ground. It looks just like a bean sprout. The question I ultimately have is is this a root, or a shoot? I've heard the word "shoot" thrown around frequently in books and these forums but am still not 100% sure what it is. I will attach some pictures and let you guys decide what it is, and what I should do about it, and if it's worth digging up the plant to get re-situated. If you need better/more pics I will take them, just let me know. So sorry about the long post! Thanks so much for your help!

Picture 1 -

Picture 2 -

Picture of plant to "thing"; about 2 inches away -

[shadylane]

Looks like a sucker which comes up from the roots or stems or both. If you want to remove it just cut down to the area it is coming from. Or you can start another plant.

[duckman98989]

Looks like a sucker which comes up from the roots or stems or both. If you want to remove it just cut down to the area it is coming from. Or you can start another plant.

Thanks for the reply. Since nobody replied for multiple hours, I decided to replant it anyway. When I dug up all the roots, I found about 5 or 6 of them (pics below). They seem so close to the middle of the roots that I'm very nervous to cut them off. Do they eventually become a full grown raspberry plant after a few years?

[JONA878]

Raspberries grow from a large base root system known as a stool.
From this the plant can produce each year many new canes which after cropping are cut down to ground or just above in the fall.
Plants are put around 18inches apart so that this large root system can exploit all the spare ground around it.
Once the plants are fully grown it is usual to control the number of new canes growing from the stool to around 8-10 only so that the roots can put all their strength into these and give a god crop as well as produce good quality new canes for the following season.
So....don't cut them off...they are new canes for next years crop.

[applestar]

To be clear, the cane or the "plant" that is growing now will fruit then die so you want to keep the future generations.

...this trait also makes them "wander off" from where you originally planted it. You are eventually going to find new shoots growing along the edge of the planter etc. I'm not sure what this would mean in terms of growing them in a container. I suppose you would have to lift and divide once in a while.

I planted raspberries on the inside of the fence bordering the backyard and the front yard a couple of years ago. now I have raspberries growing on the front yard side as well as the backyard side. I also have to dig up or cut down the ones that have wandered too far away. For some reason, it doesn't want to wander in the direction I left room for it to go.

[!potatoes!]

fyi, yes, those are shoots. there are several meaning for the word, but generally the young growing tips from the roots of perennials are called shoots. asparagus spears are shoots, for a well-known example.