[fatcat1955]

A friend of mine grows raspberries commercially. The plants are in 12in pots and have up to 6 runners. I can take as many runners as i like but cannot remove the mother plant from the pot. I managed to extract a runner by furtling my finger down below a runner a lifting it. It came away with 2 pieces of root approx 20mm long. Question . Will this be enough root and if so what is the best way to grow them on.

[Yorkie]

I don't know for sure but would be a little surprised if it was enough. 

That being said, I'd give it a try.  Although raspberries are not happy long-term in pots, I'd pot it up into some John Innes #2 or #3 compost, keep it well watered, and see what happens.  Or you could plant it straight out into the soil - but again make sure it doesn't dry out in the first few months.

[dig4victory]

Last year I was given some raspberry shoots from a friend, about 8 of them, with various amounts of root on them.

Only 3 survived but they are shooting up lots of vigorous shoots this year.  I planted about an extra 5 from him again this year so we'll see. 

When you plant like this, you need to cut the original shoot you plant to around 6" above ground even though this may look like cutting of some growt for this year - it is! but hopefully will ensure the plant spends more time rooting this year for good growth next.

[fatcat1955]

Thak's for the advice.

[8doubles]

A friendly commercial raspberry blower grower  would be the person to ask then you could tell us.

[fatcat1955]

Left the 2 samples i got in a glass of water and the roots developed. Cut the shoots back to about 2 ins and potted them up. They are in the shade in the polytunnel and my fingers are crossed. If they are succesful i could be rich, the grower has about 500 pots of raspberries and each pot has at least 5 suckers.