Raspberries

So, this is the second year of our raspberries in pots and their first year fruiting. Now I couldn’t remember the variety and whether they were Autumn or Summer fruiting so wasn’t really sure how I was supposed to prune them if at all. As we’d had a house move and they had been somewhat neglected then I was surprised when the dead looking twigs that were left started to sprout leaves and then produced a good number of flowers and fruit. 

What’s been quite nice about the raspberries is that they don’t all ripen at once so we have been able to enjoy (and still have more to enjoy) fruit for a good number of weeks. Not that I’ve been able to eat or preserve many as I would have liked too as C is a big fan of the pick and eat immediately strategy. She does let myself or J have the odd one but finishes all the rest straight away. 

Our netting system has worked brilliantly and so far we haven’t lost any of our crop to birds. We have some arched canes in each pot tied together at the top and then have just draped the netting over them (see below).

Then when we want to pick we simply lift up the netting, pick and replace. Simple yet effective as a system as shown below. 

So to ensure that I could actually have a chance to keep and use some of our crop this year I snuck out and picked some yesterday evening and have hidden them in the fridge.

Whilst I was there I noticed the new growth on our plants. So the current years stems have brown woody bases and then green growth out the top as pictured below.

Then we also now have the new growing stems appearing as shown below. It is these which will end up looking like twigs during winter and it is from these that our next years fruit will grow.