Tending raspberries and making fruit cages
Posted by Fiona Nevile in Fruit | 25 comments
I’ve always fancied having a walk-in fruit cage. The sort supplied by Harrod Horticulture, with a sturdy ‘easy to assemble frame’ and nets without rucks. I’ve gazed at the pictures on their site imagining that I am the slim woman in jeans, opening the door, large trug in hand. Beyond her the bushes are bursting with fruit.
These cages are expensive. Whilst waiting for a windfall, I bought some cheap nets two years ago and laid them over the canes when our crop was ripe and attracting the local birds. I didn’t realise that unripe berries are also extremely palatable. I threw on a net to protect the one remaining berry on a redcurrant bush.
Last year I discovered that if you throw on nets too early, the bushes grow through the nets and the exposed canes fruit prolifically. It’s also hard to gather of crop of berries under a low net as it seems to snag any extremity. Your spectacles, nose, buttons and shoe laces can all stop acceleration in an instant. Last year I gave up foraging under our nets towards the end of the season. It was too much of a palaver.
A few days ago, when I returned from work to find our would-be Houdini, I had three hours of freedom before dusk. I decided to tackle The Raspberry Cage Problem.
I’ve been putting this off as there are two major defects in our raspberry patch. Pathetic use of netting and I have mixed early, mid season and autumn fruiting raspberries in the one bed. I imagined drifting down the row from June to September, gathering baskets of raspberries.
Last year Raspberries were guzzled from June until October but my venture was doomed as summer fruiting canes are treated differently from autumn fruiting ones. Autumn canes are chopped (3″ from the ground) in February. Summer fruiting canes fruit on last year’s growth and the canes are cut (3″ from the ground) soon after harvesting in July.
Mixing them in the same patch is total lunacy. The canes throw up new canes each year and spread quite quickly. After a few years it would be impossible to differentiate between the two strains.
For the past two years my laziness has allowed all canes to romp away. This was my last chance to rein in the runaway coach. Some canes still had their labels. A few canes had no label. I cut down the autumn fruiting ones and trimmed the summer fruiting varieties as they had shot up and were totally out of hand, although I knew as I snipped we would be loosing a few kilos.
Two years ago I had put in some sturdy poles and wires to support the heavy trusses. Most canes had stretched away from them so I was able to guide them towards this structure. Supported they will fruit far better. Like us all.
This year I need to tag the unmarked canes when they bear fruit and mark them clearly so that in the autumn they can be separated.
With just an hour to go before dusk I ventured into the barn, looking for supports to make my cage. I was planning to check Freecycle for fruit cages, so this was just a cursory measure before battening down the hatches and firing up the computer.
In the gloom, my eye fell on four eight foot stair rods that I had found in an outhouse at my Aunt Pickles’ house, fifteen years ago. I was sure that they would come in handy some day.
We now have a sturdy 12′ x 6′ walk in fruit cage. Harrod Horticulture eat your heart out.
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Hi Anne
What kind of rsapberries are they early, mid season or Autumn? How old are they – raspberries only have a limited lifespan. What’s the weather been like in your part of the world? Severe cold, wet weather could destroy the flowers. Do you have new canes immerging?
Every year we have bumper crops of raspberries but this summer nothing. The plants are healthy but no fruit. Glad I still have some fruit in my freezer. Advice as to what I have done wrong this year. Thanks Anne
Hi Nancy
Prune the fruiting canes after harvesting. Cut these canes back to the ground to allow the new canes more space. These will fruit next summer and should not be pruned but thinned to a space of about 4 inches between each cane.
Cut out any dead canes to ground level whilst you are at it.
when is the proper time to prune summer respberries? Ours seem to be taking over the garden.
Hi Richard D
Apparently raspberries have a maximum good fruiting life span of around five years so you have been lucky!
They must have thrown up new canes. Conserve these and remove the mother plants. Fertilise well with a liquid feed (into the ground) and mulch. If the young canes are sparse you could add some new ones. OR you could dig the whole lot up and start again and this is what I’d do.
I’ve grown summer fruiting rasberries in a bed adjacent to black current and red current bushes for about 10 years and have produced excellent crops. Over the last 2 years the raspberries have been miserable. The leaves and stems are fine and they flower well but the fruit has not formed properly. Instead of a full berry only a couple of drupelets have formed from most flowers. The black currents and red currents have been fine. I’m tempted to dig them all up this year, but can anyone advise?
Hi Seany C
If the four are not showing any sign of life by now thay are probably duds. Scratch the stem – if there is green under the ‘bark’ they are still alive and could spring into action. I had this problem 2 years ago. Bought 20 canes, gave 10 away and found that I had only 4 canes that burst into life. And it remained four canes. I left the rest to perform the next spring. They had clearly hung up their dancing shoes and did ziltch.
Some garden centres sell 4 cane pots. If you chose an autumn fruiting variety you could be gathering raspberries in September. Don’t mix summer and autumn fruiting varieties as they need different treatment in the spring.
Hi, Fiona – well done on the home-made fruit cage- I’m very tempted to make one if we ever move out to the countryside and a decent-sized garden.
For this year, I’m growing raspberry canes from scratch (well, from a bunch of garden centre cut-down canes) and so far, six months afte planting, only 6 of the 10 canes are showing any sign of life (they’re nicely watered, in a sunny spot with lots of compost and organic fertiliser).
Do you think it’s worth perservering with the other four, or just replace them with some active canes later in the year?
Hi Chris
That is a brilliant idea. Thank you so much!
Hi,
I have used 20mm galvanised electrical conduit to make my cage, its very inexpensive and very strong. 90 degree bends are avaliable and it just screws together.
price it up at any electrical wholesaler and you’ll be supprised.
Chris.