[chris172]

Acquired the second half of our plot earlier this year but the fruit bed is full of couch grass, deep dock, creeping buttercup etc... They have been left for over 2 years so there's runners everywhere. The only option we have is to dig up and move the fruit bed to clear the deep weeds.

There are quite a few different varieties of Raspberry as we found some tags in amongst the weeds when we pruned them back quite hard trying to 'tidy' it all up, but sadly not attached to any plants.

Guessing the ones in flower are the Summer fruiting ones but any way of working out the variety?  When would the Autumn ones start to flower?

Thanks in advance
Chris

[boddy]

I hope someone can help you with this. I have some self seeded raspberries coming up, problem is I have summer and autumn on the allotment so it will take ages for me to work out which the newbies are!

[Ivor Backache]

My summer raspberries are fruiting. Small green fruits on a very long cane (up to 6') and I have used bamboo canes as support. At the base of these fruiting canes are a clutch of new growth which will be the fruiting canes for next year. (if you have ripped them all out you may have lost next year's summer crop)
My autumn plants are flowering. They are about 3' high and branched with flowers all over. Everything that growing on an autumn plant will die back at the end of the season. Fresh growth for next year's crop will emerge in the spring.
As for identifying species the best I can suggest is to compare a ripe fruit with pictures of the various species for a comparison. There are subtle changes in colour and size that may help you.

[grendel]

I just have raspberries, they fruit when they want and I pick the fruit, variety - ?
to me the important bit is how nice fresh raspberries taste with cream and maybe merangue.
Grendel

[Goosegirl]

I just have raspberries, they fruit when they want and I pick the fruit, variety - ?
to me the important bit is how nice fresh raspberries taste with cream and maybe merangue.
Grendel

Oh yes! Sometimes I just like to pick some, sprinkle a bit of sugar over them, then get my spoon out and a bib!

[chris172]

Nothing very much showing on them yet... the odd 1 or 2 flowers just starting to open.

We cut back at the beginning of the year and tried to get the weeds out but with the roots very close to the surface and spreading outwards it was quite difficult which is why the deep stuff has all grown back.

Like I said we are contemplating digging all the fruit up and rehoming on another part of the plot but have no idea which Raspberry is what so wanted to identify before we do anything.

Agreed, variety is not paramount but would like to keep all the Summer and Autumn ones together in their own groups.

[Yorkie]

It's going to be pretty hard to identify specific varieties, I should think.  There may be informed guesses if there are any yellow ones, but otherwise ...