Allotments 4 All

how many rows of raspberries could be planted in a 6 foot wide fruit cage

Realistically two as you need to get down both sides to pick effectively..   :-X

Hi - sorry for hijacking this post but I also need some info.

I need to move my haphazardly growing rasps on my new lottie so I can prepare the berry section and re-plant. Some (autumn) are absolutely tasteless (hence some good compost and feeding required) are still sort of fruiting and the summer were cut down before I moved on. (Strange to cut the summer type down!!)

Is it ok to dig them now,  keep them sheltered / moist for a week or so in the shed whilst preparing the bed and then re-planting them asap? Would I need to cut the canes on the autumn type. Or I can prepare a row at a time and dig up and re-plant straight away but I would prefer to do the whole bed and re-plant the whole section as on. I need some of your good advice.. 

Hi Gavin... you can cut them down, dig them up and put in buckets with some spent compost... or just dig a shallow trench and heel them in... until you move them to their proper home...  :-\

Thanks for that - I thought as much but wasn't sure about the time of year would be good.. I've really got no option as the lottie is in a v bad state and need to get things a bit organised. Getting the infrastructure (shed, greenhouse, digging out the hedge - yes a hedge of dog wood had been planted) done and sorted first then the digging!! 

I'm in agreement with Saddad about the paths being important but my sums don't work out the same.
I make it width of row=2 ft, width of path =2 ft, so 1 row plus 2 paths adds up to 6 ft.
I don't see how you could fit 2 rows in a 6 foot cage, in my experience after a couple of years the soil within four feet of a raspberry row is just solid raspberry roots, and thats assuming you can keep the invasive runners under control.
My old grandad would never grow raspberries on his allotment because they took up too much space.

Sorry I didn't make myself clear... reading back down the thread I posted. As you say If you put a row down the middle you can walk up both sides.... but if you put them against the edges with a path down the middle you get two, you do have to be able to roll up the net to pick them ... which I didn't make clear..  :-[

so an 8 ft wide would be an more realistic size for two rows thinking of buying two ready made fruit cages and leave a gap and then linking them up to make a fruit cage of either 24ft sq or 25 ft sq or to buy the stuff separate and getting some one to put it up for me would like two row of summer fruiting and two of lat es running down the width

I learnt the hard way that I shouldnt have planted so many, they are moving towards world domination at the moment.
Can I hijack this thread a bit? Why do we wait till Feb to cut down autumn raspberries? I am itching to tidy up my allotment!!

You can cut them down any time from now onwards. If your site is very exposed it may even be beneficial... preventing any "root rock".... I'm just lazy so they get done in February or even march in a cold year!  :-X

Do you net your raspberries Saddad ?
I've put four plants in just recently but other plot holders don't net there autumn
raspberries and the birds/squirrels seem to leave them alone ?
I also have gooseberries in my fruit bed and was planning a cage
made out of some thick yellow plastic pipe........but
is it necessary ?

Thanks Steve

My freezers are groaning with raspberries, and I never net them.

I didn't get round to netting my gooseberries this year, but picked masses off all bushes; however in other years they have vanished overnight, so I do mean to net them.

I agree about cutting down the autumn raspberries any time from now on. It is well worth tidying up the rows over the winter, mulching and so on. Far too much to do in the spring.

Blackcountry Steve-
Whether to net or not seems to vary.
Most people accept loosing a proportion of the crop to birds, but in some areas the birds would strip off nearly everything.
If you try without  first you might save time and money if you are lucky. Nettng has disadvantage too as not as easy to weed/ prune.

i think iam going to take note of every ones comments and delay   of getting a cage up for next year. Planing to plant  each row 6ft minimum between path up the middle strawberries up side of path until the raspberries encroach on them that will give me time to find out of i lose any of the  crops to the birds  i know i havea black bird who is partial to strawberries i did nt notice if it ate any summer raspberries dont think it had any Autumn ones but at the mo only have a bout 5 canes of each heeled in aspare bit of ground awaiting the fruit patch