Kitchen Garden Forum

would under planting my autumn fruiting raspberry's with strawberry's work out OK, or will i get a small crop of fruit as they are both shallow rooters
all advice welcome

Hi nemo,

I think you may be asking for a bit too much here. In time you will find that the roots of the raspberries all link up and if you wanted to hoe between the rows to keep them tidy & distinct you would have strawberries in the way. Raspberries put out new canes (spawn) prolifically, in my experience, so I think it would be a false economy to try and do the 2 together. It would also be a real pain to try and weed there if grass or bindweed gets in.

Best wishes,
Vivien

Hi Nemo,
I agree wholeheartedly with what Vivien has said and would add that the production of the new canes could well be hindered by the Strawberry plants. This would mean that you would be losing the best potential out of both sets of plant.
JB.

I have a 30 inch gap between my two rows of raspbery canes and have just dug a lot, if not all of the runners out, I am going to plant some early salad crops knowing that they will not be affected by any new runners too much as they will be pulled before anything prolific shoots out from the runners, but I agree that strawverries would be a disaster.

Hi Compo,
Because I have the room my Raspberries are in single 30ft rows in a 4ft defined bed with a 3ft path between and I plant Lettuces around the margins of the beds and as I pick one I plant another. These are sold on the farm gate principle. This also goes for Blackberry and Tayberry beds. It is amazing how many lettuces that I manage to sell.
During the 'Salad Season' I generally sell 50 plus each day of the weekend and also many during the week. I have 12 soft fruit beds as well as a designated lettuce bed.
If you grow the young plants in module trays it is amazing how long they will survive before being planted out and once planted out they very rapidly grow on to maturity.
JB.