Allotments 4 All

Hi Guys,

I have a raised bed ready for planting with raspberrys, i was however just thinking about how i limit the spread of them into pathed areas?

If thats not clear please ask as i dont always make myself clear when i have a cold :)

Cambourne7

Sympathy!

Don't know - ours go from the path into the raised beds!!

I think vigilance and the hoe are the only solutions that work for me. If I turn my back - as I have done quite often this year- the row of raspberries has spread at least a metre in every direction. Frequent hoeing along the raspberry rows keeps it in check.

At least once a year push your spade in vertically as far as it will go.

This should catch most of the root runs and sever them before they develop in places they are not wanted.

TG I'd go for quarterly at least or even more often. I don't know if my rasps are particularly prolific!!

You could line you raspberry trench with good thick polythene with small holes in to allow for drainage.  It's a theory though, not something I have tried in practise.

We have to do the spade trick with a Leylandii whose roots have come up in raised beds 20 feet away.

I am frighten now!! :)

I have metre wide tarpaulins on the ground as a path round my raspberries....seems to keep them under control.

how do you manage excess water?

I shall be digging my autumn raspberries out once they are dormant, as what used to be a single row, (I presume) is now about 6 foot wide.  They've also spread onto the plots either side, and the paths. They were there when we took on the plot last autumn. Also the area is rife with the dreaded couch, so it will give me a chance to be rid of that as well.

I shall probably put them back in 2 rows with a suitable gap between them, and then build a cage over them and all the other soft fruit bushes.

Build a cage under them more like!! ;D ;D

Quote from: quizzical1 on November 13, 2007, 23:00:35
I shall be digging my autumn raspberries out once they are dormant, as what used to be a single row, (I presume) is now about 6 foot wide.  They've also spread onto the plots either side, and the paths. They were there when we took on the plot last autumn. Also the area is rife with the dreaded couch, so it will give me a chance to be rid of that as well.

I shall probably put them back in 2 rows with a suitable gap between them, and then build a cage over them and all the other soft fruit bushes.

What type have you got ?  As a child we had lovely raspberries which my mum destroyed as she said it was impossible to keep them under control !!!!

I have 2' wide corrugated plactic sheets (scavenged when a friend of mine replaced the roof on their lean-to) buried around the edges of the raspberry bed to form a solid barrier the roots can't penetrate, not one sucker has breached it in the last 6 years.

I have seen people using old slabs.

Not sure how much use the polythene would be... mine have invaded the polytunnel!!!
::)