Do you like berries? Do you especially love raspberries? If you do, and you’ve only had those lifeless ones in the clear plastic clam shells from the grocery stores, I’m here to tell you you’ve never truly tasted them before!
I know it sounds clichéd, but there’s nothing that compares to a perfectly ripe and truly fresh-picked raspberry right off the bush, still warm from the sun.
If you already have a garden of your own, you may have held off trying to grow your own because you heard they have a reputation for being fussy, difficult to manage, and generally hard to care for.
That might be true in some cases, but I’ll reckon they’ve mostly got that reputation because of bad information and bad procedures.
It’s not that hard when you know what to do, and after you finish reading this step-by-step guide you’ll definitely know what you’re doing when it comes to growing raspberries. Grab your gloves and your spade and let’s get going!
What You’ll Need
Before we get into the nitty-gritty of picking out our variety and then down to the actual work of planting, there are a few things you’ll need.
Raspberry “Canes”: Young raspberry plants are popularly called canes. You can start raspberry plants directly from seed, but this is very challenging.
If you are a seasoned gardener, you might consider starting your own canes in a greenhouse or indoors and then transplanting them, or do what I do and just buy them from a good nursery. Look for canes that are at least a year old.
Soil Tester Kit: You’ll need a soil testing kit for determining the soil pH where you are going to plant your raspberries. This is one of the most common mistakes I see people make over and over again.
Raspberries are particularly sensitive to pH levels in the soil and usually thrive with a pH that’s around or slightly lower, though it should be between 5.5 and 6.5 at all times.
Lime and/or Sulfur: If you have to adjust your soil pH, lime or sulfur is the way to go depending on whether you need to raise or lower it, respectively.
There are other ways to do it, but these two materials will make it quick, easy, and controllable so you won’t miss a season.
Compost: Compost is a critical soil additive if you want a huge harvest of raspberries from healthy plants.
Compost adds lots of different nutrients, including micronutrients, healthy microbes, and more to help your plants thrive. If you don’t have compost or can’t get any, you can add well-rotted manure for the same purpose.
Fertilizer: Raspberries are like most fruits and veggies in that they benefit from a shot of general-purpose fertilizer early on in the season to help them supercharge healthy growth. Depending on your existing soil levels, triple-7 or 10-10-10 is a great choice.
Mulch: Mulch is another ace in the hole that will help you when growing raspberries. It suppresses weeds, maintains soil moisture, and, when needed, provides insulation for roots.
Support Structures: Most raspberry varieties need some type of structure to help them stay upright as they grow. You can use something simple like a pole or stake, a ladder-style trellis, or a V trellis depending on your preferences.
Whatever kind of support you choose, it should be at least 5 ft tall, preferably six, but you’ll bury about 2 ft of it in the ground for stability.
Twine or Wire: Twine or garden wire is needed to help lash your plants to the trellis for added stability. 12-gauge garden wire is common and more than adequate for even the largest varieties.
Spade or Shovel: Your trusty gardening spade or a small shovel will help you make quick work of digging holes and mounding up dirt around your raspberry canes.
Pruners: A common chore you’ll have to attend to with your raspberry plants is pruning. You don’t need any crazy, heavy-duty pruners for taking care of this, but they need to be sharp, kept clean, and oiled.
Watering Can or Garden Hose: Raspberries are just like every other kind of berry in that they need lots of water initially, and then less often after they are established. Use a watering can or garden hose at your preference.
Plant/Row Covers (optional): Your raspberries might end up needing protection from particularly persistent pests.
Individual plant or row covers will give them the protection they need. If you are okay resorting to other methods of pest control, you can go without these.
Before You Start, Choose Your Variety
With all of our gear and supplies in hand, it’s time to pick out the variety of raspberries we want to plant.
They are grouped into two main types: summer-bearing and everbearing, the latter sometimes called fall-bearing.
Summer-bearing varieties like Latham and Killarney produce one huge, bountiful crop sometime in the summer, usually right in the middle.
In contrast, your everbearing varieties will usually yield a smaller crop in the summertime but a larger one in the fall, giving you more opportunities for harvest and the ability to enjoy them throughout the year at the expense of a massive haul.
Popular everbearing varieties are Heritage, Caroline, and Fall Gold.
Naturally, they all have other perks and quirks that you should know about, but there are way too many to get into here so find out which ones are available and suited for your area and then choose based on your preferences.
Also, do keep in mind that some raspberry plants grow thorns, but many domesticated cultivars have been rendered thornless if you care about that!
Choosing the Right Planting Site
The next thing we need to do before we begin is pick out the right planting site in our garden or elsewhere on our property.
Raspberries have specific requirements when it comes to their needs, and if you meet these needs you’ll be halfway to a great harvest of the tastiest berries you’ve ever tried.
Sun
Raspberries need tons of sun if you want them to thrive and produce sweet fruit. Pick the sunniest, south-facing spot in your garden or on your property to plant them.
Wind Protection
High gusty winds can easily damage young, developing plants. This is especially critical if you live in an area that is normally windy. Try to locate your raspberry plants in a spot that will give them windbreaks on the side of the typically prevailing winds.
Soil Composition
Soil composition is a huge consideration for raspberry plants!
Raspberry plants must have well-draining soil since that will help prevent root rot. If raspberries stay in soaking wet soil or, way worse, standing water they are as good as gone.
If your soils are heavy or tend towards compaction, or they contain lots of clay, go ahead and consider raised beds or very large containers for your plants. Otherwise, you’ll have to amend the soil to loosen it up and stay on top of drainage.
Avoid Antagonistic Plantings and Contamination
It goes without saying that you shouldn’t plant your raspberries anywhere that has been heavily contaminated by chemical spills, pesticides, or other stuff that will hurt them.
Likewise, don’t plant them anywhere you’ve been growing tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, or eggplants in the past few years.
These nightshade family veggies actually facilitate certain diseases that will linger in the soil and decimate your raspberry plants.
Now, with your tools and supplies gathered, your variety chosen, and your planting location picked out, it’s time to get our raspberries growing.
Growing Raspberries, Step by Step
Before you begin, read through all of the steps in this section so you’ll have a better idea of what you need to do and when you’ll need to do it.
Step 1: Check and adjust the soil pH. Break out your soil test kit and take a sample of your soil at the chosen site. Follow the instructions that come with your kit.
You can get results through your local extension office or process it yourself depending on the type of test you have. You are shooting for a pH between 5.5 and 6.5.
If your soil is too high or too low, add the lime or the sulfur to the area, work it into the soil, water, and then test again according to the instructions with your test. Once the soil pH is good to go, move on.
Step 2: Add soil amendments. Layer your compost, or the manure if you’re using that, everywhere you’ll be planting your raspberries. Lay down two to three inches of either, and then work it into the top 8 inches of the soil with your spade or shovel.
Step 3: Remove weeds. Once you’ve taken care of working the amendments into the soil, clear all of the weeds.
All sorts of weeds, and especially perennial weeds, are notorious enemies of raspberries because they suck up nutrients that your young plants desperately need.
Weed mercilessly, and weed often, making sure you get the roots and all. Once all the weeds are gone, we are ready to dig.
Step 4: Dig holes. Starting in early spring, it’s time to dig the holes and set the spacing for our raspberry canes.
As a rule of thumb, the holes should be about as deep and as wide as the root balls of the individual canes once you’ve loosened them up. If you’re planting in multiple rows, leave about 6 ft between each, or 8 ft for larger varieties.
Space out your individual holes in each row between 18 and 24 inches, erring on the side of more space since raspberry plants need good air circulation to resist fungal infection.
Step 5: Plant canes and set roots, water thoroughly. Loosen up the root ball, if present, on the individual canes and spread them out inside the hole you dug. Carefully backfill the hole with soil, tamping gently as you go.
Once you have all of the canes set in this way, go through with your watering can or watering hose and water each of them thoroughly to help fully settle the soil, adding more if they sink below the surface too much.
Step 6: Prune back canes to 6”-7”. Once all of the canes are watered in and set, go back the following day and prune each of them back to six or seven inches above ground level. This will encourage a spurt of new growth.
Step 7: Set support structures. Don’t wait until later to install your support structures. It’s a lot easier to do with freshly worked ground while the root systems are small.
Install each support just behind each cane, driving it into the ground about 2 ft. Take care not to strike or damage the roots.
If your variety has a tendency to spread, run your twine or wire between each support to give the suckers something to cling to and spread as they mature.
Don’t forget you can also use twine or wire to help train the plant to cling to your support structure, but don’t tie it down tightly so that the widening stalks will be damaged.
Step 8: Water often until established. With the canes planted and the supports in place, water them often but lightly. The idea is that the soil should always be noticeably moist, and as mentioned, the soil should be well-draining so the roots aren’t too wet.
Make sure you water directly at soil level over the root zone to avoid getting foliage and stems wet; something that will cause problems with mold and fungus!
Step 9: Apply fertilizer early in spring. The week after you get your raspberries in the ground, apply fertilizer to give them all of the nutrients they need to support fast, new growth.
Use triple-7 or 10-10-10 fertilizer applied according to the package instructions. Choose a fertilizer that will water in and break down quickly so its nutrients are more readily available to the roots of your plants.
Double-check the ratio for application: too much can easily cause harm or lead to excessive growth of vegetation which will stunt the production of berries later.
Step 10: Lay mulch. After you fertilize for the first time, lay down mulch generously around the base of each plant or along the entire row if you can afford it. This will promote moisture retention in the soil and help suppress weeds going forward.
Step 11: Prune back shoots, cull weak or dead canes. If any of the suckers and shoots on your plants appear to be weak and puny, get damaged or are withered, prune them off.
Snip them off as close to the junction as you can using very sharp and sanitized pruners to prevent infection. This will again promote healthy growth and, later on, encourage your plants to grow more berries.
If any of your canes didn’t make it or are seriously underperforming, go ahead and pull them out to dispose of them so they don’t needlessly take nutrients from the soil.
Step 12: Water deeply but infrequently until fruiting. Once your plants are well established, growing taller and sending out more suckers, it’s time to start watering more deeply but less often.
Give the root zones a good soaking only once the soil has dried out to the point where you can barely tell it is moist at all.
This watering approach promotes deeper and stronger root growth which will translate directly to healthier raspberry bushes that are better able to use moisture and nutrients from the soil.
Note that you might need to water slightly more often if the weather turns unseasonably hot.
Step 13: Keep an eye out for pests and disease. Raspberries are highly vulnerable to many different pests and quite a few diseases.
Familiarize yourself with and keep an eye out for insect pests like Japanese beetles, spider mites, and cane borers, along with infections and diseases like raspberry bushy dwarf virus, botrytis rot, and verticillium wilt.
Pests should be dealt with immediately by physical removal, safe, organic pesticide sprays, or other measures. Infected plants might be saved by pruning off dead or dying foliage and other parts, or removing the plant entirely and disposing of it before the infection can spread.
Step 14: Harvest when perfectly ripe. Depending on the variety, the age of the cane when you planted it, and the overall health of the individual plants, your raspberries might produce a small harvest in the same season you plant them or later on in the fall or following summer.
Assuming the plants have been growing and appear healthy, you’ll notice the formation of raspberries which will start out pale green and then turn toward their mature color of ruby red, gold, or black depending on the cultivar.
Once they have attained their final mature color, turned glossy, and then settled back into a satin or semi-gloss luster, they are ready to pick. Perfectly ripe raspberries will pop right off in your hand and should not need to be pulled hard or plucked.
Step 15: Make follow-up passes until all berries collected. After appearing, raspberries take about 2 weeks to mature, but they will mature at different rates so when ripe you’ll need to conduct multiple harvests over several days, picking the berries when they are perfectly ripe.
Done! And with your raspberry harvest complete, you are ready to wash and then eat, preserve, or prepare them in some other way!
If everything goes well, you’ll be enjoying the sweetest and most succulent raspberries you’ve ever tasted, and you’ll be looking forward to a harvest next year…
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Tom has lived and worked on farms and homesteads from the Carolinas to Kentucky and beyond. He is passionate about helping people prepare for tough times by embracing lifestyles of self-sufficiency.