We have three varieties of summer fruiting raspberries - Glen Moy - early, Glen Ample - mid season and Glen Magna - late season which along with the purple raspberry Glencoe have been providing us with a succession of fruit this year. Glen Moy let the team down - the early variety was disappointing, the plants don't seem to have grown very well and they seem not to know when to fruit. Maybe being an early variety they are more susceptible to strange weather conditions. The other raspberries seem to have stood up to the weather better than the strawberries but now their fruiting period has come to an end.
These raspberries had produced quite a thicket of canes so earlier this week a priority was to cut out all the canes that had produced this year's berries. These varieties will all produce fruit on the canes that grew this year and have not yet fruited. I cut out some of the canes that had strayed too far away from the main clumps and any thin straggly ones.
The row of red fruiting raspberries now looks like this:
There are still maybe too many canes so I may thin them out a bit more and then the canes will be tied into wires running between the support posts.
Glencoe is a little different in that it is sold as an individual plant which throws out very long canes from the main clump and doesn't sucker - a bit like a blackberry. It also fruits on canes produced this year so, as with the summer fruiting reds, I've cut out all the old canes to end up with this:
The new canes will be bent over and tied into the wires just as I would train a blackberry. Bending the canes rather than cutting them shorter means I get more fruit!
Happily though it isn't all over for us as far as a raspberry harvest is concerned as the summer fruiting varieties have now passed the baton to the autumn fruiters. We have two varieties All Gold - a yellow berry and Joan J and red one. At the moment these are off at a steady pace producing only a few berries each.
Our new (last year) thornless blackberry Loch Ness has also produced some early ripe berries which have sneaked into the photograph.
The yellow raspberries spoil quickly in wet and windy weather so need picking quickly. Their fruits are fairly small in comparison to Joan J which produced great fruit last year so I hope she is on form again.
The yellow raspberries spoil quickly in wet and windy weather so need picking quickly. Their fruits are fairly small in comparison to Joan J which produced great fruit last year so I hope she is on form again.
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I don't grow raspberries, I'm not really that keen on them and there seems to be quite a bit of work involved with them, too much when I'm not that bothered about them. I suppose a Glencoe would suit me better than canes, I may look into that.
ReplyDeleteWent to Swillington this afternoon and it was heaving as they are selling things off at 50% - looked like locusts had landed.
DeleteMy summer fruiting raspberries haven't fruited this year but have sent out dozens of runners instead. I have pulled nearly all of them out in the hope of encouraging the main plants to fruit for autumn. I don't hold out much hope.
ReplyDeleteAre they old plants Elaine? Our autumn JOan J were poor producers until we dug them up and moved them which seemed to make them take off!
DeleteYum, those pics just made my mouth water. Still haven't finalised where I am going to plant my raspberries, but I know I have to have some!
ReplyDeleteYes you really musy Janet
DeleteSue - what do the yellow ones taste like? For some reason in my head I think they would taste like butter...! Presumably their actual taste is similar to the red rasps?
ReplyDeleteThey taste of raspberries Matt but to be honest the flavour isn't as full as the red ones (or maybe its just the varieties of red ones we have that have good flavour). To be honest I wouldn't plant any again if these died off. The berries are smaller and being so easily damaged it's rare to get a perfect berry most have bits that need removing. Yellow raspberries have anovelt value in fruit salad but that's it really.
DeleteMy raspberries have been fruiting prolificly and are growing like mad this year...I haven't had chance to harvest many of the fruits but I am hoping to get the chance to get a good picking this year. What did you think to the 'Loch Ness' blackberry taste??
ReplyDeleteWe haven't had a Loch Ness fruit on its own yet Tanya as there wasn't enough fruit at any one time so it was mixed in with the other blackberries. I'll let you know when I pick another and do a tasting.
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