Last Updated on April 3, 2024 by Real Men Sow
Autumn raspberries are so easy to grow. These ericaceous plants are great fruits for beginner gardeners and for those who love the taste of fresh raspberries. This short post will dive into the hidden gardening secret to plant and harvest raspberries.
When is the Perfect Climate for Growing Autumn Raspberries?
Raspberries need a cool climate to grow leaves. They also love the sun and ripen quicker if they bask in the sun. However, if you’re living in a hotter region, make sure you provide them shade.
What Kind of Soil Should You Grow Autumn Raspberries?
Raspberries love moist but well-drained, rich, and slightly acidic soil. Raspberries are known as suckering plants that exhaust the nutrients found in the soil they’re planted in. Make sure to replenish the nutrients by adding mulch around the raspberries at least once a year.
Mulch can be from leaf mold, shredded bark, wood chippings, or well-rotted sawdust but it won’t be the same nutrients as compost. So if you’re using these, add organic fertilizers like poultry manure pellets, seaweed, or bone meal in spring. Make sure you’re carefully hoeing the mulch because it may damage the roots of your raspberries.
How to Prune and Train Autumn Raspberries
These fruits are ‘primocanes’, they grow their fruit on new wood. Therefore, you cut down all the canes after the harvesting ends in late Autumn before spring when it comes to pruning Autumn Raspberries. Thin canes come out in spring, that’s why you’ll need a single wire or a strong string between posts to keep them from growing elsewhere.
Double-cropping your Autumn Raspberries is possible. All you need is to cut the fruited canes and leave the newer and greener canes. Doing so will help spread the harvest and increase your harvest next year.
Benefits of Growing Raspberries
Autumn Raspberries grow crops more steadily for a longer period of time, unlike summer fruiting raspberries. Growing them in autumn also helps avoid the issue of raspberry maggots. They’re easier to train and you won’t need a sturdy system of posts and tiers of wires, unlike Summer Raspberries.
Comment down below if you’ve tried growing your own autumn raspberries! Tell your story about double-cropping too if you’ve tried it.
