"Berries are the healthiest fruit, offering potential protection against cancer and heart disease, boosting the immune system as acting as guard for the liver and brain," extolls Michael Greger. Perhaps this is why family physicians recommend starting the day on a bowl of berries. Certainly it seems a good idea to plan for a patch or two of our own. Some of the simplest are raspberries in all their forms. More about the latter later. First the basics.
True, the old-fashioned raspberry patch yielded fruit. But in today's smaller gardens, less space is available and more intensive methods produce larger crops. And as with much horticultural endeavour, preparation is everything.
Without exception, raspberries,
Rubus spp., require a location in full sun. A rich, deep, well-drained loam, free of nearby tree or shrub roots, is essential. Since raspberries are a semi-permanent crop, prepare the site by deep-digging while working in copious amounts of composted manure.
To trellis or not to trellis? The old-fashioned patch was often grown against a convenient fence. Now, a trellis of T-shaped posts with supporting wires will vastly increase yields. Nothing light-weight or temporary though; six-foot posts of 4x4s sunk two feet into the ground with 2x4 cross-pieces connected by heavy-gauge wires are required. The canes and their fruit are surprisingly heavy, especially caught in a breeze. Planted in a double row, they are bent out side of the wires as they grow.
Do not accept canes from any source that cannot assure they are virus-free. Disease is the bane of much soft fruit. Space these virus-free canes at five to each foot of row. Mulching is essential and a light early spring fertilization required. If the season is a dry one, water from the base. Avoid wetting the foliage which can spread the diseases they are susceptible to. In the fall trim back the new canes to four feet. The fruit will form on these the next season. Those canes will then die and must be cut back to base and destroyed--do not attempt to compost them.
When picked, raspberry fruit have hollow centres. True blackberries are solid. There are black raspberries but they are small and have less juice. The main raspberry crop arrives in very late spring or early summer. These are red in colour and are the hardiest. There are also late summer bearing forms. Besides red, there are yellow and purple varieties. However, these are less hardy than red ones.
In milder areas, various raspberry-blackberry hybrids may be grown. They are easily distinguished by their solid centres, like true blackberries. Unfortunately, none are so easy to pick as raspberries. They also feature large seeds. Included are the boysenberry, loganberry, tayberry and youngberry. All originate either in Europe or the Pacific coast of North America and will not tolerate harsh winters.
All this may have your neighbours casting nasturtiums--er, aspersions--on your berried treasures. Retort by blowing a raspberry. Or quote Alvin Toffler's Law of Raspberry Jam: "the wider any culture is spread, the thinner it gets."
