Interactive lesson

Raspberries and blackberries, step by step

Interactive lesson: from two generations of canes, ridges and supports to planting, pruning summer and autumn raspberries, training blackberries and picking.

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The whole lesson as text

1. How they grow

Every raspberry and blackberry cane lives only two years, while the roots live fifteen and more.

Two generations — A young green first-year cane (primocane) only grows. In its second year, short fruiting side shoots with flowers and fruit grow from its buds.
Summer raspberries — They fruit on last year's canes and ripen from late June to August. After picking, those canes are cut to the ground.
Autumn raspberries — They fruit at the top of this year's canes, from August until the frosts. In winter the whole row is cut to the ground.
A row lives long — A well-managed row crops for 10–15 years. Blackberries fruit like summer raspberries, on last year's canes, and ripen in August and September.

Why: In the first year a cane only grows tall; in the second it fruits, then dies. So in summer a row always holds two generations. Understand that, and you know how to prune them.

If you are short of time, plant autumn raspberries: pruning is one sweep with shears or a strimmer in winter.
For your first jam of the summer, add a few metres of summer raspberries.

2. Site and soil

Raspberries are a woodland-edge plant: they like loose, humus-rich soil that stays moist but drains well.

Full sun — In the UK, Ireland and the north, plant in full sun. In hot summers (the southern and central US), raspberries are grateful for shade from midday, while blackberries take full sun.
Drainage test — Dig a 30 cm (12 in) hole and fill it with water. If the water still stands after half a day, the soil is too heavy for planting on the flat.
A ridge on heavy soil — On such soil, plant on a ridge 20–30 cm (8–12 in) high and 60–80 cm wide.
Weeds and compost — Clear couch grass, bindweed and ground elder for a whole season before planting. Work 10–20 L of mature compost or well-rotted manure into each metre of row, mixing it in shallowly.

Why: Raspberries cannot stand standing water. Blackberries are tougher and tolerate heavier soil, drought and heat, but they too fail in wet ground. So check first how your soil drains.

Don't plant after potatoes, tomatoes or peppers, nor where raspberries grew before: root diseases stay in the soil.
For a long row in grass, cover a 1 m strip with cardboard and mulch in spring and plant in autumn.