Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: Lardman on April 03, 2015, 14:16
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Id like to do a bit better with the raspberry bed this year. I've just bee tying things up today after last weeks wind made a bit of a mess. There are 3 varieties (I forget which) but all are summer fruiting, currently there are lots of short canes, twisted canes and many of the rest are over 6'.
Would it be prudent to thin out short or twisted canes, reduce the number of canes per clump and reduce what's there to say 5' in height ?
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Just remove the short, twisted and also any thin canes. i found that some varieties fruited better if the top 6 to 12 inches was removed so try 1/2 of each variety and note the best for you. now's the time to put some slow release fertiliser and then 2-4 inch's of well rotted manure or compost. when i pick the last rasp i immediately cut the fruited canes out and repeat the fertiliser and mulch as this helps next years crop
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cut out the spindly ones. i leave 3 or 4 canes per plant, mine are planted less than 2 ft apart so any more will be very cramped.
mine seem to love rabbit manure mulch, i spread it nice and thick when they've finished in late autumn and let it do it's thing.
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I have literally just come in from cutting down last year's canes (yes I know it should have been done after fruiting), trying to get all the couch grass out, heavily mulching with mushroom compost and feeding with chicken manure pellets. Reading meterman's post I will trim off the top 6" of the tall ones tomorrow.
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I mulched with spent compost / BFB in Feb - has a nice crop of weeds growing it in now ::) I've planted very closely and I do worry about getting lots of rubbish canes rather than a few really good ones.
I've taken out the wimpy / bent canes but Im still on the fence about reducing the height and removing all but 2-3 canes per clump.. :unsure:
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I mulched with spent compost / BFB in Feb - has a nice crop of weeds growing it in now ::) I've planted very closely and I do worry about getting lots of rubbish canes rather than a few really good ones.
I've taken out the wimpy / bent canes but Im still on the fence about reducing the height and removing all but 2-3 canes per clump.. :unsure:
how close have you planted them? mine started about 2 foot apart and any more then 3 or 4 canes just gets out of hand for harvesting.
my understanding is that if you reduce the amount of canes to the healthiest 3 canes the nutrients and light that is available will only be split between a smaller number of canes giving a healthier crop. i could be wrong but it does make sense in theory.