Topic: Planting raspberry canes

[Carrie]

I want to plant some raspberry canes on my allotment and was going to plant them through weed suppressing membrane but then a thought struck me , would this stop the new canes coming though as well as the weeds  ??? What do others do.

Also another quickie - I inherited a redcurrant bush and an " I'm not sure what it is and not sure if its even alive" bush on a raised bed on the lottie. Can I plant strawberries around them as an edible weed supppressant  ;D or would the competion be too much

[DocAlgae]

Hi again Carrie - you're certainly busy at the mo!

Anyway, raspberry canes.  Are yours summer or autumn fruiting varieties?  I ask because there's a bit of a difference in the way you treat them.  Mine are all autumn fruiters, so what I did was plant them out (last month), then last week I cut them down to the ground and chucked a load of rotted manure over them as a mulch.  This is what the old boys at my allotments advised, so I reckon it must work.  I don't think the weed supressing membrane is a good idea for the reason you explained.

Dunno much about redcurrants (just planted mine as well), but I think they are hungry feeders so competition from other plants probably a bad idea.  Chuck manure at em as well I reckon.  That's what I'm going to do.

[Carrie]

Thanks for that DocAlgae - Busy dreaming at the moment really as still busy digging up the couch grass  :'(- I am hoping to get up there this weekend and clear the final few metres and then lay out some beds - the plan is to fit in as many beds 3m x1.2m. I read somewhere that 1.2m is the optimum width for a bed as you can reach to weed and harvest without needing to step on the soil  and as I only have half the allotment the beds can only be 3m long. Have not bought the raspberry canes yet because still nowhere to plant the but definitely want to put in a row of autumn raspberries and a row of summer ones.  Any idea how many canes I could fit in a bed that size.  Unfortunately no real source for manure round my way but apparently I can get compost from the council tip so am going up there for as many bags as I can squeeze in the car.

[derbex]

Carrie, I have just put 10 canes in a row roughly that long, which is probably cramming them in a bit but they come in 5s. You need to leave 4 or 5 ft between the rows for picking -but some of that is path.

Jeremy

[DocAlgae]

Yep, have to say I've crammed 10 canes in my beds that are 3m long too!  We've divided our lottie into beds that are 3m long by 2m wide, and this seems to be okay at the mo (we leave grass paths inbetween of about 40cm wide, with a 1 metre wide path down the middle for barrowing stuff).  I think 2m wide is the limit for comfortable weeding, etc.

[Clayhithe]

Yes the membrane will stop the new canes growing through.

In the past I've used newspapers (disguised with grass clippings).  They suppress the weeds quite well and the new canes grow through as the paper rots down.

Can look a bit messy if you're not careful!

Mine are all summer fruiting,  so the new canes grow through later in the summer,  and the old canes are cut down after fruiting.