[mamalovesmambo]

Hi,

I want to plant some raspberry canes, and am wondering what's the best orientation for the plants?
Should I plant the row along a North-South line or an East-West line?
Actually my plot is not square on the compass itself, so the rows would actually be a line SouthWest-NorthEast or NorthWest-SouthEast.

I am in Lancashire. Anyone got any good variety recommendations? I'd put flavour above yield.
Cheers

[Aidy]

I have them in all directions but the ones facing south (running East-West) do produce more but I cant tell any difference in the taste. If you have the room plant as I have. Hope this helps

[Aidy]

Sorry forgot to mention that living in the tropics    we have a westerly wind most of the time blowing in from the sea, the ones running North-South have this on them most of the time and this may have more impact on them than the others which will be more sheltered from it.

[muntjac]

a line south facing wil be great ,remember that they will be in the ground for a longggggggg time so i suggest you put them at  the open end of your plot to allow maximum air movment around them as this helps prevent fungal and diseases taking hold as much  .,a trick i was told was to plant your runner beans nth to south  near to them as the bees will be attracted to both  plants in greater numbers .

[DD.]

As for varieties, I've got some 'Autumn Bliss'. They are a good cropper and have excellent flavour.

However, the main advantage I find is that they crop on the same year's growth. Once they've done cropping, you chop the whole lot off, wait for spring & start again. None of this messsing about, cutting out last years canes & leaving the new ones.

Get some of these & an early variety that I'm sure someone will recommend, (we inherited ours, so I don't know what they are), and you'll have a long rasberry season.

[mamalovesmambo]

If I plant an east-west line then only one side will be South facing,
won't the North facing side suffer?

I also get a westerly wind on my allotment.
I was thinking of planting the raspberries on the edge of the plot
as a wind-break to give a bit of protection to the rest of the plot.
Is this a bad idea?

[Eristic]

I think that your best plan would be to plant the row NW-SE on the NE edge of the plot. This should give the crop good overall sunlight without casting shade on any other crops.

An alternative but a bit on-the-edge would be to plant the row running N-S diagonally accross the western corner and using the residual triangle for strawberries or such like.

As for the wind, most veg take it in their stride and it is difficult to control without creating lots of shade. Its all a compromise.

[muntjac]

ur right about the nth side but mine are and i get great berries on both sides .and the winds here on the beach are real hard in winter and i find my plants real strong and heavy rooted so i think they make more effort to produce ,imho   im at the furthest point east ,, no lowestoft isnt anymore   . and the sea is a hundred yds or so away